Hamburg Crit and the Mudcat

Last weekend, my family and I headed down to Hamburg, New York just outside of Buffalo for the Hamburg Criterium. My son entered the kids bike race. This was his first race, and he was excited to be a part of it. Although he was hoping to be in more of the races... got to love a 3 years old's logic. He was happy to ride his bike around after his race on the sidewalks. My husband raced in the Masters 35+ and won the race. This was his warm-up race before the cat 1,2,3 race. Which turned out not too bad, except when someone almost crashed him out at the end of the race. He kept his bike up, yet a bit of damage was done to his rear wheel. I went in the women's race, which was a bit disappointing. There wasn't a big field, so they changed the start of the race, and combined us with the cat. 4/5 men. Yet, we had a separate start but were allowed to race together once the race started....what?? Anyway we started our race, and the race was going well until we were going to be lapped by the men. Then the women's field all tried to jump into the men's pack. Some women were in the pack, and some didn't make it. I was on the back on the pack for a while. Then after a few corners, I decided to drop out of the race. There were a few reasons for dropping out- the combined fields, being mentally tired, etc, etc. Anyway I hate dropping out of races, but sometimes it just happens. I was going to post some photos of my team kit, but I don't have it yet. So there is a photo of the mudcat instead.

The Mudcat.... what is that. Well some of my friends wanted to ride out to Dunnville, to see the course for their triathlon in a few weeks, and get a long ride in. So I decided to get a long ride in with them. We were hoping to make it, and take our picture with the Dunnville Mudcat. So we were unsure if the weather would hold-up as it rained all morning. We left around 2pm, the rain had stopped yet the wind was really strong. With a strong head, cross wind the whole way there. We were going a bit slower, than planned. We managed to get chased by 3 dogs on the way there. Those dogs apparently aren't used to cyclists, or have no fear-- as they ran onto the highway a few times in front of a car.

We didn't make it to the mudcat or the Tim Horton's in Dunnville-- as we had to turn around before we made it the whole way. With the head wind, and the black clouds near us-- we thought we better head for home. We lucked out with the weather, and didn't get rained on... only a few drops, and found a Tim Horton's in Welland. Great ride- epic conditions -- 120km or so.