A friend who I credit for singlehandedly getting me into racing bikes took this picture this weekend. It's a sweet picture, except it makes my butt look rather large and lumpy. Our local Reno cyclocross series had it's first race on Saturday! I loves me some good racing without the driving. And it was snowing all day Friday so there was the promise of some mud! Sadly, that possibility didn't come to fruition. I guess 1/4 inch of precipitation after 4 months of zilch rainfall isn't enough to make for sloppy conditions. Bummer. But it was freaking freezing, so at least we had that going for us!
It was a fun course (Shawn, who puts on the series, always finds fun courses for us) with some weird little turns in the deep sand, two sets of barriers (one on a nasty little run up), and a longer paved climb. We don't have many ladies who race 'cross around here, so, as is typical, I was the only A. They race us with the men's B category, and they ran the women's Bs at the same time. Off the line I was actually in the lead, and am pretty sure I coulda gotten the hole shot (I'm getting good at that, finally!) but I chickend out 'cause it was into one of those loose downhill sandy turns and I didn't want to crash and get run over by 15 big dudes. Ouch. So, what can I say, I'm a wus. Like, it woulda been different if it was just women, but dudes get all agro. I guess the lesson is to work on riding my 'cross bike through loose tight turns so I'm not such a wus. Anywho! Everything was going pretty well (I was ahead of all the B's women and quite a few guys) until probably my on my third lap through the barriers. I set my bike down too hard and dropped my chain, but didn't notice. As I was jumping on I nailed my leg on my pedal and just barely stayed upright. Then I went to start pedaling and that's when I realized I had no chain. D'oh! So I had to get back off and get my chain back on. Such a rookie move! Anyway, there's this one dude here in Reno who's a very good and experience 'cross racer, but not as strong as me, and he caught up to me while I was dickin' around with my chain. Long story short, he beat me. I was stronger on the climbs and though the flat stuff, but he kept punking me in the sandy turns. Weak. But all in all I had a good race, I just need to spend some more hours on my 'cross bike working on my skillz. I won tho! Ha! Easy to do when there's no competition, but it's good practice.
Anywho, I was looking at pictures from the CCCX race at Laguna Seca on Sunday and I soooo wish I had gone! But, really, it's like a 6 hour drive from Reno, which woulda sucked. But the course looked wicked fun!!!
Speaking of courses that looked fun, I think next year I'm defintely going to try to race in Gloucester! I mean, I'll get whupped, but that's okay. For anyone who doesn't know, Gloucester is where I've spent the last two summers - my boyfriend is from there. So when I see pictures of people racing around Stage Fort Park I think - oh! That's where I sat to watch the fireworks this summer! And I want to go race there because it feels like my home away from Reno. And it was sooo cool to see teammate Amy Dombroski dominate both races! So, next year. I just need to start saving my pennies for my plane ticket now . . .
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