Kansas City, Kan. – The wedding party viewed the rain as a good omen.

Tears of joy is what they say, Megan Hottman said on Saturday, her wedding day. But it's very bad luck for bike racing.

Spinouts on slippery streets took a short break Saturday when Megan and Team Kaos' Robert Helton tied the knot. They were married after competing in their respective races at the 43rd annual Tour of Kansas City.

Family members and racing competitors viewed the 10-minute ceremony at the Colonade/John F. Kennedy Memorial on Cliff Drive near the starting line for the races.

After the ceremony, Lawrence's Brian Jensen rode nearly alone in the rain as he won the race for professionals and elite amateurs. The scheduled 18-lap, 50-mile race was reduced to 11 laps because of lightning.

A bicycle race in Lincoln, Neb., brought Robert and Megan together in 2003. After Megan dropped her racing license on the way to register, Robert called out to her.

The couple spent the past two years mostly together, often at weekend races. Robert and Megan had planned to elope and marry on the Continental Divide in Colorado. Megan's mother, Carol Hottman, pleaded for a chance to see the wedding of her only child.

She initially suggested a ceremony; Megan wonders if her mother made it tongue-in-cheek; at a racing event. Serious or not, Carol and Donavon Hottman were on hand Saturday for their daughter's wedding, as were Robert's father, Bob Helton, and mother, Pat Herrington, and other family members.

Megan said the number of people cheering her on Saturday morning may have made her too excited. She started her amateur women's race a little too hard, a little too fast and placed a disappointing sixth.

"She didn't get hurt, and that's all I cared about," Carol Hottman said of her daughter.

Megan, 26, and Robert, 39, both race as Category 3 amateurs. Category 1 is the highest amateur level. When Robert's Category 3 men's race began about 1 p.m., falling rain added danger.

"I wanted to stay upright and stay safe, and I ended up crashing anyway on the fifth lap," he said.

Robert bounced up and finished in the middle of the pack. Fifteen minutes after his race ended, Robert received perhaps the loudest ovation of the day when he arrived for the wedding ceremony.

Robert wore his racing uniform. Megan wore hers, too, along with a veil that is a family heirloom. Her mother had worn it when she and Donavon Hottman were married in a traditional church ceremony 33 years ago in LaMoure, N.D.

The rain stopped long enough for Christopher Hess, a U.S. Cycling Federation official and a minister, to marry the couple.

The newlyweds plan to return to work this week. Megan is a lawyer; Robert is a registered nurse. Their honeymoon will come next weekend at Downers Grove, Ill. Robert has entered the National Criterium Championships there.