What an interesting day full of surprises. The biggest
surprise was the rain. Yes, I knew there was a chance of showers but they were
forecasted for later in the afternoon so I figured I was golden in keeping
skinny hardpack tires on my bike. Wrong! Sure enough, right before the start of
the women’s race the skies opened up and in a matter of minutes the nice dry
course turned into a slip-and-slide rollercoaster. The rain did not let up for
the entire race making for quite the interesting endeavor.
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Rocking the slick as ice mud.
Photo by Gary Hudson |
Due to the change of conditions (and perhaps a little mental
fatigue) I wasn’t fully committed at the start and it wasn’t long before the
lead pack drifted away from me. Sometime during the second lap a light went on
in my head that said “hello, this is a race and you are a racer, snap to it” so
at that point I started to apply myself more and found some competition to
battle with for the rest of the race. It was nice to get my motivation back as
we pushed each other until the end.
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More rain induced treachery
Photo by Gary Hudson |
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| Back and forth we went taking turns leading and following. |
Cyclocross is a great learning environment. It seems every
race so far has had different learning experiences. Today reminded me of how
important it is to stay focused and committed for the entire race. Unlike
mountain biking, there isn’t any time to take a break or make up some time on
the downhill. I still finished 6
th out of 20 but I know there are things
I could have done different for better results.
I really look forward to applying all the lessons I am learning to
future races.
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| Gotta love the Squid Mobile! |
Other awesome notes about the day. 24hr-Solo World Champion
Sonya Looney showed up to race. I missed out on saying “hi” to her but it was
still amazing to see her there. Another one of my favorite things about going
to the
Sacramento CX races is that I get to see all the colorful
Squid Bikes.
It is so fun to watch them zoom around the course in all their iterations. .
And lastly, the
GHETO CX crew always makes for a more enjoyable event. What
would CX be without great tunes and an awesome commentator?
