Oct. 21, 2018

Race #3 of NCCX – as you can see second again.

Race report: This week was in Davidson, another new course for me (I skipped last year) and another interesting start. I got the call up and moved way left of the previous winner to avoid being chopped again. I didn’t get a great start and missed my pedal, so my sprint was me catching up, as we closed in on the first right turn, a guy to the left of me kept squeezing over, I gave a little elbow to make sure he knew I was there, then he leaned into me, so I had to lean back…. That pissed him off and he started yelling at me. WTF! This guy is no where near the podium, why so aggressive? Anyway, I got around him and settled into second place…. halfway through the lap I see a rider miss a turn and it’s the leader… I bury myself to build a gap (why I don’t know, since he is WAY faster than me) and come to the end of lap 1 in the lead… but he passes me and third place is on my heels… my mind starts negative thoughts “maybe I can finish third this week” – wait forget that and I hammer the next flat and build a gap over third… the rest of lap 2 and 3 I continue to build my gap over third while passing riders in the field in front of me. In fact, I would have finished 4th or 5th in the field that started 1 minute in front of ours.

Again a great day racing bikes!

Finished the day at D9 Brewing – sampling flights of sour beers!

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Oct. 14, 2018

Race #2 NCCX and the same results, same three on the podium and in the same order.

The race was at Lions Park in Raleigh and I have always liked the course, even I have have never had a good result there. This year they took away recovery dirt road on the back, made the bog hill a run up with barriers and made the lap a hair longer. I got the call up today, so I started on the front row: The start, yesterday’s winner got a good start and then did a “dick” move and cut right in front on me, but karma got him and he dropped a chain or cross chained or something…. all I know was suddenly he was moving and was right in front of me, and I had to cut hard not to pile into him.

The mechanical also meant I had the hole shot and after the first left turn I was in front before we hopped the curb into the woods. All I could think of was go, go, go… I have never been in the front of a CX field and wasn’t sure how hard to go vs “popping” – whatever I was doing was working I was building a gap and finished the first lap with over 100 yards lead. After halfway through lap 2 I saw yesterday’s winner and he was gaining, and by the next switch back he had closed the gap why faster than I expected…. I learned, he is MUCH faster than I am so I concentrated on my line and he caught and passed me before the run up, I stayed with him for a bit, but just not as fast as he is. Lap 3 was fast, third place didn’t close in on me, and I wasn’t gaining at all on first. I am still happy with my second second of the year!

‘cross = early starts!

The run up, last year it was ride-able, this year Tim added barriers.

Fun stuff

Sept. 2, 2018

Day 2. I was a little hung over and my legs felt heavy on the warm up laps, but the whistle blows and I am off. I had a call up today and started in 20th spot, and had a clean race. No crashed, rode the sand pit each lap and finished 11th overall (over 50 racers again) and 2nd in 50+  I am so ready for NCCX to start!

Sept. 1, 2018

Cross is here, at least in Virginia. GoCross, a UCI weekend on a permanent course in Roanoke. The lap had a stair run up, long sand pit and flyover. My race started well, call ups were based on registration order, so I was deep in the field in about 48 place. I worked my way up to top 15 before the sand pit and was riding through it when the rider beside me fell into me, knocking me over the tape and out of the sand…. I spent the rest of the race picking off riders and being passed by 3 people on the last lap to finish 20th of 50+ starters. This was an open Cat 4 race, so I was racing 19 -99 year olds, but finished 4th among the 50+ year old riders. I was happy for my first race of the year!

Roanoke is called the Star City of the South because of this huge star over looking the city.

Feb. 3, 2018

Waffles and watching the women’s World Championship Cyclocross race from Valkenburg in a language I have no hope of understanding…. American Katie Compton was leading in lap 3 but finished 2nd. Still great for USA riders to be in the front of the field. 2 more were in the top 10 – 6th Kaitlin Keough and 8th Elle Andersen

Dec. 17, 2017

North Carolina Cyclocross race #13 in Southern Pines. I always have a good day on the sandy course behind Sandhills Community College and today was no different. I got a call up, so I got to start on the front row and battled in the top 10 early. Each lap there was 5 spots I had to get off the bike, a couple of them just pure evil. I held on for 10th!

After my race, I joined Clay, Kay and Jeff for a nearly 3 hour road ride…. when we got back, I played with panning before helping break down the course!

Thanks to Clay for this picture of me racing and cheering me on!

Dec. 15, 2017

A quick cleaning of the ‘cross bike

Dec. 10, 2017

Sunday’s race, same 8:30 start. All those muddy tracks from yesterday are now frozen. It was down to 19 degrees overnight (Glad I have good sleeping bags!) and I couldn’t even ride the course on my warmup. I even considered not racing….. for a second.

Again I had an easy start (read I was not aggressive) and it took awhile to get around less technical riders, but making a new track just off the edge of the frozen ones worked, the up/down/up/down whoops were still not ride-able. But I finished a touch better today, up to 12th.

Click to Watch a GoPro Video of my Lap

Dec. 9, 2017

Up early for the 8:30am start. I slept great in the Flippac, despite the cold and snow all night.

Frame grab from the GoPro on my body from one of my many falls.

Carry the bike.

My race was just OK< it was fun, but since I have not been racing, I didn’t have an aggressive start and ended up behind folks who couldn’t ride stuff I could.

I finally settled into my on the bike, off the bike, carry the bike, push the bike, repeat. There was so much snow and we were the first to race, I was pulled after only 1 lap or almost 30 minutes. Finished 17th.

As the day went on, a race groove was formed and then became a mud track.

The moment you regret making your racing kit white!

Save the bike!

I am not sure what was worse? Deep snow or mud….

If you fall, at least make a snow angle a heckler yelled and she did it!

Dec. 8, 2017

Nobody ever said I was smart. The weekend cyclocross racing was in Hendersonville, about 3.5 hours from home, and my race was at 8:30, so I left after work into the worst of the snow storm, and the state decided not to salt for….

But the finish line that night was why I wanted to come, but this was more snow than I was planning for. Over 12 inches!