Whirlybird CX

When I arrived at the race, Tammy told that Jenn, the lady who has ben killing my class, moved up to elite for the day. There were still a bunch of strong ladies at the race, but my hopes of 2nd or 3rd just raised up a notch. Robin, another fast lady was there and she usually kills me on the long straights, something that my attention span does not handle as well. I am always looking forward to the turns and sketchy off cambers to get a quick recovery. I suppose you just can not take the mountain biker out of a mountain biker. Either way, I am aware of that weakness, and make that the place where I push the hardest.

I had front row line up, yay! ... and filled in #3 during the opening sprint. Eventually Robin sprinted by all of us and I had to sit in #4 until a slight uphill off camber where I saw Robin start to pull away so I made my move up to second position. I struggled but was able to keep her in sight. She eventually fell in a wet section which gave me a second or two to catch up. I think we got to the top of the run up at the same time, but she mounted immediately and I ran up to speed and got in front. I have been practicing my mounting and running, and I think the practice is paying off!

Now the problem was holding her off and riding clean myself. I had to dig really deep, as I felt like crap. There is something about being in the front that motivates you, and I continued to keep digging my way through the pain cave. Robin was on my wheel the entire race and the 3/4 women were now nipping at my heels as well. I almost went down once, but managed to keep it upright. I did not waste too much of my time trying to ride the steep wet ups, I just ran them as not to make any mistakes. Usually a handful of 3/4's, who start a minute back, come by, but not today. I finished first rider in , which is a first for me in the Mac series.

I was super pleased with my race, but learned that I need to pay better attention to where the awards are to be. I was a bit rushed not being able to find them, that I forgot to take my helmet off for the picture. I thought this would be a good time to thank my sponsor Bell for keeping my head protected and so comfortable that I did not even realize my helmet was on.