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“What have you done? Borrowed your boyfriend's jersey?”

I look up from my pre-race stretching routine to find that these questions have come from the behemoth next to me as he looks at his bike chain. I start to say something, then think better of the idea just as he notices I'm looking his way and says, “Stay out of the way, girly,” then he climbs on his bike and rides off.

How is it I show up, wearing my National Championship jersey, and still I am dismissed and ignored by the other racers? Am I really so unimposing a figure that I can go unnoticed? I know I shouldn't let it get to me like this, but it does. I know I'm small for my age, and I've come to accept that I really do look more like a girl than a boy, but you would think at some point my reputation would precede me and I would be treated as more than “that silly kid”.

At least my friend Josh said hi when he saw me. We're going to ride as a team today with Kirsten and Maddy, so hopefully we can put ourselves in position for one of us to make a run at the win in the end. Mad's really getting better all the time, but this is her first 25-mile race today. Hopefully she'll be able to stay with us until the end. That would really help the team when the time comes for the final sprint.

The starter just called everyone to line up. I hate these jumbled mass starts. I don't think I've ever been in one where there weren't at least five riders go down in the first couple hundred meters because of others weaving into them accidentally. At least we're all getting to line up in front, so hopefully we'll be able to avoid most of the mess.

“You ready?” asked Josh.

“Always,” I smiled, then turned to Maddy, “What about you?”

She was silent for a moment. She looked very nervous, but finally responded, “I'll be alright. At least I've been training with you, so I should be able to stay with the front runners for a while.” She was trying to sound confident, but she obviously is feeling the nerves full force.

I smiled at her and said, “You'll do great. Just stay with us, and we'll all do well today.” Then I looked at Kirsten and nodded.

“If we get separated, I'll stay with Maddy and we'll get back to you guys,” she said, seeming to read my mind.

And then the race starts. Josh and I start pumping full out to try to pull out in front. The girls aren't far behind, knowing what we were planning all along, but we seem to have taken a lot of the field by surprise with our quick start. As we settle into a slipstream with Josh taking the first lead, I glance back under my arm and see that, just as I had expected, there's a big pile up just past the starting line, with what looks like eight riders struggling to get back up on their rides. We have a couple of bike lengths lead on the next group of riders, and they seem content to maintain that position for a while.

This course has a lot of steep hills; more than most riders our age are used to navigating on a road course. Lucky for us Josh finished second…to me…at the Hillclimb Nationals, so as long as Mad and Kirsten can stay close, we could very easily open up quite a lead on some of those big climbs coming up. As we near the first of them, the group that's been running just behind us starts to try to pull up even. Just as their lead rider catches up, we pour on the power and start our climb, leaving them in our dust. By the time we reach the crest of this first big climb, our lead on that bunch is even more than it was before they made their big push. I hope we can keep this up.

One thing's for certain. What goes up, must come down, and once we crest the first climb, we get to enjoy a gentle but long downhill ride, during which we manage to pick up a lot of speed, reaching nearly 50 miles an hour by the time we reach the five mile mark in the race. Our plan is for Josh and I to lead the group uphill, while Kirsten and Maddy will take the lead on the downhill until we get to the last couple of miles. It seems to be working well for us, as our lead has stretched out to nearly two hundred meters before we reach the next big climb.

The way this course has been laid out, there's one of these big climbs about every five miles, and with each one, we've managed to open up our lead a little bit more, until by the time we crest the final climb, our next closest competition is just beginning their climb. Now all we have to do is continue working as a team for the last couple of miles, and the win is ours!

Of course as the saying goes, the best laid plans of mice and men…first Kirsten has a flat and drops out with about a mile to go. Then Maddy runs out of gas and drops back to the pack. With only about five hundred meters to go, there's a big push from behind that starts gaining ground on Josh and I. As they start to pull within a couple of bike lengths of us, Josh's chain breaks! He weaves, barely missing hitting me in the process, and takes out the entire group behind us. That's when I realize, I'm going to win this one! I pour on one last sprint as I speed the last hundred meters to the finish, and raise my hands in victory as I cross the line.

Slowly realize that the annoying sound that's waking me is my alarm. Time to get up and ready myself for school. That was a great dream.

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