Race Pace CX

Today was my second cyclo-cross race. Had to leave DC at 7am to head up to Sykesville, MD for my 9am race.

Marisa was the only other Bella there, but Jean and Lindsey from Coppi were also racing, and a few other gals I know from the road scene were there too. It was actually a pretty good-sized field--16 starters, 13 finishers. The course was VERY hilly, and had alot of off-camber turns, and some serious technical turns. One girl even did a double front flip off her bike into a chain link fence! So, I pre-rode the course twice, everything was good, there was one hill I was going to run up, and one tree barrier that I would have to dismount to hop over, but otherwise it was all rideable. So I thought....

Half way around the first lap, I got to the really technical double 180 degree turns, managed to maneuver the first one well, but did a very slow, uphill fall on the second turn. I got all muddy, which only exicted me, because now I was finally doing cross! I dismounted going over the tree, but all the other girls were bunny-hopping over it. So, I made some changes for the rest of the laps (how many I did in all I don't remember). When I got to the double technical turn, I rode the first, dismounted and ran the second--that was much faster, and I ended up passing a few girls at that point. Then, when I got to the tree, I saw a photographer there, so I made the bold decision to try to bunny-hop. It worked! And I want that picture!! I really gained alot of confidence on this course, dismounts were flashy and fast, and really got aggressive on the downhills and turns. Only bad thing was that I had absolutely no front brakes! Not entirely sure how, but my headset came loose, and I discovered during the first lap that every time I used the front brakes the front wheel chattered and wobbled and felt like it was going to fall off! So, I had to use the back brakes only, but that just forced me to be more aggressive, and it was an awesome feeling!

Ended up finishing 8th, happy with that--moving up two spots from DCCX. I've got 3, maybe 4 more races this year. I LOVE CROSS!!!! MORE COWBELL!

Detailed results can be found: Race Pace Cyclocross