First Win of Season

Start of race, photo by Pony shop

Our plans for this weekend changed quickly Friday when both WI cross races were canceled. Since Kevin was up in WI and I was in Chicago, heading down to Louisville wasn't an option, plus to race the Elite UCI race one needs to preregister. So we went to the CCC's Bartlett race. This course is not one of my favorites but it is nice and long so that is always a plus.

We got to the course around 9:30, just in time to see Tom racing the 40+. He looked smooth and strong on his Eriksen singlespeed and had a great finish. I paid my $35 dollar registration fee(charged $5 more since I didn't prereg) and then went for my warm up. It was a nice feeling lining up with the other women in front of the Cat 3 men.(Finally a little respect for the ladies!) After call ups, none for me since I have been racing in WI, I rolled to the line. The official said go and we were off.

Lately my starts have been really good and today was no exception. I got the hole shot taking the first corner with a few seconds of a gap and by the barriers I was able to make it stick and grow. Let me comment on the barriers, the first set were 3 barriers set on a downhill. They were extremely fast and you really needed to scrub speed before hitting them. The second was also slightly downhill on a hard right hand turn, weirdly positioned. I was actually cringing when a photographer was taking pictures, as my barrier work today was embarrassing! Going into lap 2 I kept my gap around 20+ seconds and kept hammering. Lap 3 I started to get worried because I could see the Cat 3 leaders making their way through and I was worried one of the ladies would grab and use wheels to close the gap. I just kept hammering on and actually grabbed a wheel or two myself. I then heard Kevin and Tom scream that I had opened the gap even more and to just stay steady and strong. I rode out the last 2 laps grabbing my first win of the season!

Here's my little rant: After getting changed I went to pick up my payout. Now, I don't do this for the money but I have been spoiled from racing in WI where Renee of Madcross has fought for many years to get equal payouts for women. Unfortunately her fight has only effected the WI series, as my payout was $30, not even covering the cost of registration. Kevin though got 3rd and came out even. ~holly

Bartlett

The Wisconsin races were flooded out apparently and the Park District didn't want people riding at the venues so we took off to Bartlett. 2 mile loop mostly grass with the usual wind. Terrain was slick in the morning and then turned to super soft tacky by the afternoon races where you wanted file treads. They did a nice job using all the terrain at the park for a long loop, the small heckler hill climb and 3 barriers strategically placed downhill and 1 placed up hill to slow things down. Not too many places to rest.

Holly killed it in the women's race. Great start at the whistle. It was exciting to watch, super smooth and strong and the time kept building. First win.

My race did not go as well as I had hoped. I felt very rested but flat throughout the entire race and could not jump and accelerate. My legs were not hurting but could not go harder. I ended up settling in and there was a 5 man pace group gaining. I rode with Eric Sontag most of the race and we traded pulls. He did the 30+ race that morning and yet was riding very well this afternoon, pulling hard. Look at his results and you can see he's having an awesome year. As we traded pulls, we could not shake the chase group. Last lap, I try to go harder on all the hills and out of the turns and opened things up about 5 seconds. Took 3rd overall, a distant 3rd to Scott and some guy from Michigan who won the 30+ in the morning. It was great to ride with Eric so I could sit.

A hard effort Thursday or race day Saturday might have helped open my legs a bit. Still good time and great to catch up with alot of people I had not seen in a while. Next week, we'll hit Washington Park and then St. Charles and I am planning on sporting a grown in porn mustache for costume.

Jingle Cross Inspiration

Cool video from Jingle Cross 2008. You will recognize lots of the racers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmpRM69TjNo

Louisville

Looks like alot of poeple are going and kind of wish I was too. Traveling for work, by the time the weekend comes,I get tired of it. Good luck to all that are going. All the riders between Chicago and Wisconsin that are traveling are putting in some fantastic results and I am looking forward to reading about it next week.

K

CAM-ROCK

photos by sheri

Literally a repeat of Saturday's racing. I got the hole shot and led for a lap. Sam and Megan got around me. I lost Megan's wheel. Sam then rode away from Megan and that was the order for the race. Cam-Rock was awesome this year! Great weather and good times had by all. Another $80 bucks in my pocket. Kevin killed it in the Men's 1 2 race. His first WCA elite men's win. Oh and we got some more cool pint glasses to add to our collection!~holly

Camrock

photos by sheri

Holly took 3rd, I took 1st. Felt really good before the race. Sat in 1st lap then attacked and stayed out front until the end. My style of cyclocross course.

Next week, Whitewater and Janesville.

Badger 1/2M

photo by Sheri

Course was alot of climbing, with leg snapping soft grass. Really long laps, almost 10 minutes.

Finally got the brakes fixed on the other bike to pit.

Had great start. Marko Lalonde sat in for 1 lap then took off and stayed out front the whole race leaving the rest to us. Scott McLaughlin ended up crashing the first lap. I traded pulls with Tim Pacholski and Brian Conant the first couple of laps. Tim had a problem with his chain and I hit him on one of the climbs, Brian got away but caught him. Scott McLaughlin battled back and caught us both and passed us both on one of the climbs. Brian accelerated and stayed with him part of the way, and I fell off the back. Finished 4th. Not my style of cross course, but it was fun and well put together. Like the payouts up here too.

Camrock tomorrow.

Badger Prairie W 1,2

photo by Sheri

Had another awesome start and led for the first long lap. Sam came around me on a climb to put in a pull and the next thing I knew she was gone with no way to reel her back. On the 3rd lap Megan put in a great effort on a climb and I just couldn't respond. I tried to close the gap and went down on a gravel corner and from there it was just riding for third. I was a good race and I made 80 bucks! Cam Rock tomorrow-my favorite course!

FINISHED!

Here are some photos of the new Courage CX bike!

Grafton Pumpking CX

The Grafton course was fun. Not much to say except I was on time for my race. I got 3rd and had some stomach issues that kept me at home for Sunday's race in Chicago. Really bummed that I missed it since I heard it was an awesome course.

Tuesday my Courage should be ready! Got a sneak peek of it today and it is beautiful. I can't wait to take it for ride.! Will post pictures tomorrow. ~holly

Dan Ryan woods

Beverly Bike and Chicago cross cup put on an awesome venue. Outside of Camrock this has to be the best local course I've ridden in either the Wisconsin and Chicago Series. A long loop with fast sections, hill section with trail, offcamber down hills with great corners and they brought in some good food and gave us free meal tickets. The weather was 45 degrees and sunny....cyclocross is good.

Great start. Singletracky hill climb, Luca Lenzi puts his foot down and I get off my bike to run the rest....bye Scott and Brian. They opened a huge gap. Too bad I couldn't enjoy this course.....after 2.5, laps, my chain snapped. After the Jackson debacle, I may have taken too many links out. However, the chain was snapped mid cog. Truth be known....I have never broken a Sram chain but could not find them and used a Connex. Could have over stressed it yesterday on the hill....who knows. I've beaten the shit out of Sram chains going up the gnarliest root and rocky filled climbs mountain biking and never broke one.

I had no pit bike because of the Paul brakes were still not working on the Eriksen. I order new springs and sleeves and the stoners out in Chico California send me sleeves but no springs. Well...I come back last night and the springs come in the mail. I should have brought the other bike home! I could have made it to the pit and atleast salvage 4th.

I bummed because I liked the course and felt good enough to catch Luca for 3rd. Also, if I am not racing, I am drinking beer and getting slower while everyone else is getting faster. Reminds of the scene from Apocolypse Now when Martin Sheen is waiting for his mission while Charlie is in the bush....getting stronger.

Next weekend....2 Wisconsin races. I like Carpentersville and would like to come back and do the Chicago one but I love Camrock. Hopefully, I will have a new chain, Holly will have her bike and she'll be feeling better next weekend.

Grafton

I got 2nd, Holly 3rd. I think Mike Hemme took 6th. Alot of people in Ohio but there were some fast racers out today.

Fast course, 1 barrier section, easier cornering with some elevation changes and sand pit and a hill climb. Hitting the hill 11 times was tough but atleast there was a fast descent. Had sluggish legs first 3 laps like Madison but I had a good start falling in behind Brian Conant. He pulled really well first 3 laps and I had trouble staying with him but he let up a bit and I sat on. Legs responded lap 4. Noticed Brian's pace slowed a bit and but we had about 20 second gap and felt the chase group was closing so started taking pull through. I pretty much pulled the last 5 laps, which was a mistake on my part, and Brian nailed it on the hill and opened a gap. Wasn't like last week where my legs felt like unlimited amount of power but I hope I've opened them up for the Dan Ryan Woods race Sunday. It's hard to keep up with training, riding when I have to travel to that sewer called New York city every week.

Registered for Nationals over weekend. To put it bluntly, the website experience for registration sucked. Could not get into website at 12 EDT after already having it ready to refresh on my PC. Given the popularity of our sport, you would think the race promoter might want to invest in a dedicated service not shared in some 15 year old's basement. Luckily, USA Cycling has found a way to create some merit consideration with Nationals racing so they moved the Cat1 racers in front of the line, so I am sitting in 25th which should be 2nd line based on 13 riders each row.

Frame

Lapham

I like the Wisconsin courses much better, they just have the terrain for it and have more liberties in terms of use of the venue. But man, they really love high barriers here, each set was sitting 4 inches above the ground.

We had a 2 mile loop, mostly double track dirt with off camber corners. The cornering sections were mowed long grass which made the ground super soft and kept losing traction with my front tire. There was a hill climb (rideable) that seems to be a part of every course.

At the USGP I felt like I could not get on top of my bike, whereas this week, when we got the lap marker for 5 more, felt like I could do 10. After James Lalonde lead out a nice start, I attacked on the 2nd lap to break things up a little bit and knew James would stay with it. I had trouble staying with James on the hillclimb and he was cornering better through the mowed corners. Did not have to redline my efforts through the double track and did not think attacking would shake him since he was riding really strong everywhere on the course. He got me at the end and then put in a nice effort to keep the gap open. We had atleast 2 minutes on the field.

Field seemed pretty thin due to the WORS race. With the usual suspects present, maybe would have had 5th or 6th. Just glad to have really good legs today.

Not sure what Holly was thinking. Spend all weekend drinking, start 45 seconds back at your own race, then ride into 3rd. Must be nice.

Edge Wheels & Hollys bike!!

All coming together now.

Edge Wheels are in. The crappy cell phone pick in haste on Sunday morning leaves alot to be desired but they rode awesome. Lighter than the ROLS (1200 grams) and noticed improved acceleration and felt a bit smoother. I liked the higher profile 45 versus the 38. Still running the Challenge Grifo, 28 front and 30 rear seem to be best.




Holly's bike looks awesome. Aaron was going to use it at Interbike with another new design concept of his, the Paul specific machined post mounts. They're a little lighter and should provide some stiffer brake modulation. The paint...the pink will definitly stand out yet still wears the Courage race stripes. We hope to get it this weekend.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/couragebicycles/3975344831/

Time Warped
I guess being at my 20th High School reunion all weekend helped in my loss for time. I missed my start at Lapham. For some reason I thought I hade 15 minutes and it was really only 8. I went to do a lap before my race and as I came in, Kevin was yelling that we missed our start. The 50+ men just went off and I at first was going to just call it the day, until someone was helping me out of my jacket and Kevin was yelling go.
So after some really hard laps, I was able to catch and pass some people and came in 3rd. It was a great fun power course and I am sorry I put myself at such a disadvantage from the start since I was already dealing with no sleep and too much boozing the past 2 nights.
Kevin's race was awesome! He and James Lalonde killed it. They were stuck like glue the whole race! James ended getting Kevin on the climb at the end.
Great Day, rookie move!
*Holly

Planet Bike Day 1 and 2- Elite Women's Race

photo by Amy

Elite Women's Field Start line above.

So Sat and Sun I was all signed up for the Elite women's race. I registered early and watched the confirmed rider's list get bigger and bigger with names I couldn't believe were going to come. Wow, I mean, I will be in a race(not racing against) Katie Compton, Allison Sydor, Alison Dunlap, Kelli Emmett, Sue Butler, Katrina Nash, Amy Dymbroski, and Devon. Crap, how cool yet scary. My goal was to not get lapped and race against the women that I knew were in my league.

Photo by Renee

Above Renee captures how freaked out I was at the start of Saturday's race, waiting for the gun to go! I had a good start until I rammed into Kristin's cassette. The person in front of Kristin didn't have a good start and caused a bit of a back up for like a split second. Off we went. Boy was it fast but I felt like I was right in there. Made a few mistakes, not being aggressive in blocking turns and not trusting my tires in certain areas where I needed to let it rip. I came in 19th but was pleased with my racing.

Day 2 came and again I was nervous and worried how my legs would react. Usually I do better on the second day of racing but this is the first double of the season so I wasn't too confident. The course changed a bit and had this fun 180 degree downhill to steep climb. The picture below shows a nice perspective of it.(Yeah, not digging the butt shot).

photo by Renee



photo by Mike

I got a great start and stayed more aggressive. I kept on letting this girl in on the corners and then figured that was her tactic to scare me. When we came to the blacktop climb by the playground I decided to show her I could play those games too and gave her a bump as I went by. I was then able to gap her and another group on the steep climb. I rolled in 17th and again didn't get lapped by the leaders. It was a good race and my body responded well. Renee and John put on an amazing USGP race! They had 2 great courses and everything seemed to run effortlessly. We had a blast cheering for everyone and it was awesome to hear everyone cheering for us.

photos by Mike
I was reminded how much cross racing hurts right from the start!