Well thanks to the hubby for alerting me to this request. Ok so here's the scoop from the weekend;
Well I know for nearly everyone, it is that time of the
year to settle back into nice, long, 'easiest' rides on the bike to get
your base in. Thankfully I am not one of those people just yet, as my
season is a little backward I would have to say in that I am just
getting into the final 4 months of my season and ready to take the
summer off.
So this weekend I raced two CX races. On Saturday I visited the Knoxie-
Cross series and was pleasantly surprised. A good turn out for the
women for this time of the year, so 7 in all though it was open CAT's.
Kim, was my main rival but after a couple of laps I was comfortably in
the lead. A great little course overall, with steep banking turns,
pavement, a very contrived run around the playground set on gravel, and
of course our fav....grass! The temps were great and blue sky! Dwight
was my partner in crime for this day, and his race in the 45+ went OK
seeing as he had a mechanical and two flats! Even with all that he came
in second in his age group. Nice thing also about Knoxie-Cross was that
I was able to get home before dark!
So onto Sunday, it was my first race in the NCCX winter cup series, and
for double points. A great turn out for the pro123 group, again about 7
ladies, some of whom I did not know so I was interested to see how the
race would pan out. The course today was half downhill, followed by the
other half being uphill. The barriers were too high as even the men
where nailing them....which is never a pretty sight. Neither was the
sight of a CAT 3 man, going over his handle bars and not really moving
that much following until the ref started the next group......he moved
fast then.
The start for me went well, and I took the lead from that point on. I
knew that I had to go hard on the downhill in order to make up for my
easing up on the uphill.....it was a long uphill. The grass was that
lumpy, bumpy kind so after about 4 laps the kidneys were feeling it. I
think we did about 7 laps in all and by lap 4, I had a commanding lead
and felt totally in control, which is an excellent feeling to have. By
the time we had finished the race the weather took a turn for the worst
with chilling temps and I am sure snow was on the way.
Thankfully Dwight, Diana and I were off in the beamer before that could
happen and yet again I was home before dark. Next weekend are the two
final NCCX races, followed by the second Knoxie-Cross race that will
take me up thru the end of January. Then I still have a few more CX
races in Feb to tackle. Overall a great weekend for racing and getting
some long hours on the bike for us all I am sure
Stay tuned.