and man have they! Tons of fun things have been happening since the last post.
The 3 day UCI weekend in Cinci area, a couple chill days at work, a short vacation to Brown County, and a sweet event put on in Bloomington by Messer and Knapp. The wheels on the bikes and the cars have been working overtime, but I was also blessed to just sit back and relax in the hot tub at the cabin this past week in BC before I get ready to head off to the USGP in L'ville. Since a lot has happened, I will try to just hit a few of the fun details:
UCI Cinci was good to me. It was good last year in the 3/4 ranks as I won all 3 days
in a row. I didn't win this year as I have moved up 2 cats since, but a win is measured from person to person, and in my book I was a winner (and that is important). I finally overcame the thought that I would not break the top 15 in the pro ranks. I smashed that on a mud filled Friday by placing 9th! It was a huge accomplishment in my mind and I am very excited about it. It really just came down to managing the mistakes and falling the least. I have to say, it was the most freaked out and out of control I have been on a bike since I took off training wheels. The mud was like ice for sure! It was so fun! At the end of the 3 day weekend I counted 43 bruises on my body and Friday had a lot to do with that. I put it all out there and it payed off.
The Saturday race was held at my favorite venue of the 3. It had a good mix of all things cross. It also was a great place to make camp with the RV for us as we had hot showers and electric! Sweet! This made me super happy to be able to pimp some electricity off of the good city of Middletown. Anyway, I was a little behind from the start on this day as I had a poor take off then got behind some gals playing in the sand pit. I had a ton of ground to make up and worked hard the whole time to do it. I was sitting in 10th and was about to go into 9th on the next to last lap when I decided to take a piece of the venue home with me by sticking a wood stake in my bike bars. After unloading that, I cruised to 10th in the end, but still very happy with the results. Big time thanks to Doug who put on this race! Great job at this site and thanks for jumping the RV!
After Saturdays race we drove the RV to Harbin Park and set up camp pretty late. Emily and I discovered that we had actually parked our Rv by some organized Ferrel cat colony, so who knows how many times the bikes were sprayed in the middle of the night. Harbin is not my kind of venue for cross. It is a roadie coarse and it has some elevation increases that make me cringe to think of on an end of a 3 day effort. No matter, it is still cross and I was thankful for the day. However, upon awakening, it was clear that the RV crew was a bit on the tired side. We all sat around munching our cereal like zombies and needed a little kick in the pants to get motivate to go kill it for 40 minutes. I decided to stick Roam in the dvd player to get the vibes going. Roam is my favorite bike movie and seems to always get me in the mood to ride, so it worked for me once again. After that, we recon ed the venue and then hit the trainers. To say I struggled with my warm-up was an understatement. I was worn out from simply doing it and worried that I was gonna get killed during the race. I didn't forget the fact that several of the pro women are killers on the road racing scene, and that this venue would favor them. But after the start gun, I found myself in a good position and I was actually getting reports that I was sitting in 8Th. I hung that for a few laps, until my gas tank started to drain to near empty. I thought I was going as fast as I could pedal, but gals just kept slowly picking me off until I crossed the line in 12Th. I was disappointed but then again, I did the best I could and still remembered I met my goal of top 15. It was still a fun day and a great weekend. We packed up the RV and made our way home. I don't think I stopped eating constantly for like 3 days. An effort like that is huge and come to find out, after examining my bike, I totally seized up the BB on day 1, making it almost 10 times as hard for the cranks to turn. No wonder I felt like my legs were burning!
Cinci was good to me and my team, we posted some great results and it also upped my mindset and expectations of myself. I no longer am trying to "just make it" in the pro ranks, I am actually gunning for uci point positions. I really can't believe it! Thanks to all the cool people who made this event happen.
After the trip home and Monday work and massage, I was pretty drained and was looking forward to some time off from the days stacked with work, being on call, and training on top of that. Every year my Mom and I get a sweet cabin in Brown County to take in God's handy work of fall splendor. We had a great time and enjoyed the stillness of the area as I found I had no Internet, phone, or tv access at times. Just reading, bird watching, conversation, and hot tub relaxing was what we had to do. It was perfect and I was once again reminded how thankful I am to have such a great Mom and friend be a part of my life. Our parents won't be here forever, so I am enjoying mine while I can.
In the middle of vacation I also had a cx race in nearby Bloomington. I thought I was feeling horrible, but after the start of the race, it really wasn't too hard for me to hang with front runner Nikki, and I slowly went back and forth with her until she faded on the 3rd lap. I really just took it easy after that and didn't expend too much energy while rolling in for the W. Andy and Ryan had a great venue and I really enjoyed the way the coarse flowed. I actually thought it was pretty easy to tell the truth, despite others thinking it was a little more technical than usual. I guess my mtb racing for cross training pays off. I was so happy to come away with the win at this ovcx stop. We had some good competition, it was my "home" venue, and my Mom was there to cheer me on. That was nice. Aside from a lack of podium for the elite women, the guys did a good job putting on their first event.
To make it even more cake I was able to get a sweet headliner in velonews thanks to a great write up by Amanda McKay. Check it out:
also a sweet clip of the Friday uci race in the mud fest, check me out about minute four, finally making some smart line choices. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7786OOS_yOs.
So its off to Louisville for the USGP Derby City Cup. I would love to continue the good results. I can only do my best and whatever happens from there I will soon see and so will everyone else!
1 comment:
Love it. Great recap. You are doing great this year. Keep up the hard work...It is paying off!
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