Cap City #2

Well it was another sweet event put on by my own team, per usual my buddy Andy Johnson made it happen. Chris, the guy who sponsors my sorry behind was also there, of course he arrived in style in a giant green monster truck. It looks like a blast to drive.

It was also my hubby, James' first race ever! He crushed it coming in 9/out of 20 something. He was out there riding his little behind off every lap. He looked solid on the hurdles and he was riding nice & aggressive. He is hooked on racing now - awesome!

I had a good race trading places with a few other women & making it to the last sprint finish where I made the horrible mistake of trying to shift my Sram equipped cyclocross bike like my shimano equipped road bike. DUH! Ah well, I'll get it next time. I did score a few points for my cx upgrade. I'm a point short of halfway. The next few races it looks like I'll be focusing mearly on not getting lapped as some super fast women will be coming into town.

On a side note; USA cycling announced some new cats for MTB racing. I'll be a C1. No more semi-pro limbo land category for the men.

Ever wondered?

I have been looking online for the past few months for some other female cyclists powerfiles. Needless to say, I could not find much. So, I got a spam mail from Saris which I sometimes read, sometimes just delete. Well, in there is an article and some powerfiles posted by a female road pro:

http://www.saris.com/athletes/PermaLink,guid,2a6ff413-a939-4a3e-bf64-0d1422602f4f.aspx

Sorry, blogger is screwed up today or I'd make it a real link.

My Cyclocross Weekend

OH man am I whipped today! I did the double; with two days of kick ass cyclocross racing in Ohio. My husband James joined me for the fun in Columbus, starting with the Cap City Cyclocross Series, and then Loveland for the Ohio Valley Cyclocross Series.

The Cap City race was nearly 2 hours away but well worth the drive. The course was tough, real tough. The temps hit well around 80, the ground was still tacky, and of course there was like 100% humidity. I'm not a big sweaty person but just warming up I was sweating buckets. We lined up with 7 women, which is a good turnout for us ladies. My teammate Amanda crushed the start, just totally hammering into the singletrack section. She was off the front fast with 2 other ladies not far behind. I rode as hard as I could but my legs felt flat and I think I was underfueled. I bonked pretty hard about halfway and was pretty miserable for the rest of the race. Leah and I traded places a bunch of times but I could never manage to crank it up a notch. I finished 4/7 and my teammate Amanda rode strong into 1st. Yeah A!

The next day I was hurtin when I woke up. I couldn't eat, I was really dehydrated and just lacked energy. My husband was going to try to make the C4 race so we ran around in the morning but ended up getting there pretty late. Some snags at the registration made him even later. So, he decided not to race. He will however, make his debut at the Alum Creek race. That left me with plenty of time to warm up. So I cruised around on the loveland bike trail at like 10 mph just warming up ever so slow. I still felt crappy though and I almost sat the race out. I figured I'd try to get in a few laps and if I didn't feel good I'd just DNF...well, all the sudden I felt really good. I hit some of the hurdles and made some gaps and then made some more gaps on the big monster hill. I found myself in 2nd for a lap or two. Wow, it was really surreal. Amanda and I rode together a lot with the Biowheels Amanda not far back and Leah not far back either. Bio Amanda made a move in the last lap and my energy went from high to bonk and I was lucky to finish 3rd. Amanda, my teammate came in 4th. Sweet. Actually, I thought we had snagged 2nd & 3rd but someone had gone off the front early on. I thought we had passed her. Oh well, I was happy with 3rd.

The mens 1/2 race was totally insane - a windstorm whipped through and the poor guys were spending 99% of the time just trying to stay upright. We are without power in our house still since some trees ripped out the power lines. Insane.

What is there to like about Cyclocross?

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who is a race promoter and endurance racer. He was scratching his head trying to figure out why someone would choose a cyclocross race over a mountain bike race. Good question. I was scratching my head over that one too. Then I came up with the reasons l do like cyclocross:

1) The races are short therefore you can usually make it home in time to actually get household chores done, or spend time with the family.

2) Our local series requires a lot less driving time. At the most I'll spend 2 hours in the car to get to a race. Not bad; if I want some good MTB competition I have to drive 6-7 hours down south. Otherwise I'm racing the same women I have raced 1,000x's before.

3) Spectator friendly...unlike a MTB race friends or family can see you pass by every ten minutes or so.

4) Skillz - for those of us who after like 4-5 years of cyclocross have mastered the barriers and run-ups it actually starts to get fun when you can make gaps.

5) The Cap City Cyclocross series is super awesome to us women. Discounted entries, awesome paybacks, makes it a series I'll be following for sure. My friend Andy also designed a kick-ass series leader jersey. My sponsor is also the series sponsor and will be raffling away a Trek X01 cyclocross bike at the end of the series. NICE!

Well, that is my little rant. Bring on the cowbell!

PS - I did get my Xo2 and she is sweet. Only 18 lbs. stock. Awesome. Rival = awesome. Race XLite wheels = sweetness.