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| Sea Otter Bridge |
Since the pro women were racing the first stage of their race, Brandon and I decided to watch our god friend Nicky and her Primal/Map My Ride teammates race the crit. It was nice to chat with Nicky at the Primal tent afterwards since we hadn't seen each other for awhile. The day passed us by quickly, I felt like I had done nothing but run around all day so we decided to head back to the house and relax.
Its so nice to have a kitchen while on the road. We were able to stay in, cook, and have dinner with my teammate Thomas Turner, and Jamis gurus Sal and Tim; all of whom Brandon and I had just met that day.
Friday morning was short track day! Racing short track the day before XC was a new experience for me. In the two previous Pro XCT races, XC was first. In hindsight, I liked this much better. It allows me to get the jitters out during ST for the next day's XC. Because Otter is such a big deal for sponsors and media, EVERYONE is there. The start list was packed with superstars--nothing new from Fontana and Bonelli! To make the race even more challenging, the course was really short and a little bit interesting due to some sections having only one good line for the 30-some odd riders to negotiate. I new the first corner was going to be trouble. I was a sharp left hand, uphill, off-camber turn immediately after a wide fast section. The upper part of the turn was in deep, mushy, muddy grass. The lower side of the turn was dry but more technical. I knew the group was going to explode there because the first 10 or so girls were going to ride it clean but a crash here was inevitable! My call up was surprisingly good, I'm not sure how it happened, but hey I'll take it! I was mid pack at the start and chose to take the lower dry section of the corner. It was no surprise when the race came to a screeching halt at the first corner and I was off my bike running the first hill. I couldn't help but chuckle out loud! I rode as hard as I could, but after a very short 9 minutes, the race officials began pulling riders. Seriously!?! Thirty-some riders started this race and after nine minutes only 12 girls were allowed to finish the race. The short course and the crash at the first corner allowed the leaders to circle around too quickly so lapped-traffic was an issue quicker than usual. In short, that was the most expensive ten minutes I've ever spent on a bike and the shortest race I've ever done!
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| Call-ups at the start of STXC |
Saturday was XC and I was excited to be on my new 26" hard tail. It was my first race (well unless you count the 10 minutes the day before) on that bike and my first race on a hard tail too. I figured since the course had so much pavement and fire road I wouldn't be missing my dually. Unlike the day before, my call-up was nearly last. Damn those UCI points! Oh well, since we started with a long road section, there was plenty of room to move up and the group stayed together until we hit the first off-road section. I figure Kathy Sherwin's wheel was better than most so I did my best to follow it until the first gated S-turn. Man am I glad I followed Kathy! Once the group got off the road and on the grassy section, there were two trenches that ran across the entire track. They were only about a foot wide, but they were major wheel-eaters if you missed timed the bunny-hop. As I was tethering myself to Kathy's experienced wheel I heard the sound of carbon mashing to my left. As I looked over I saw bodies and bikes airborne! Whew, its about time it wasn't me involved in the crash! I found myself in a good group the as we rounded the second of seven laps. I was feeling good and was very happy with my placement. But, all things must come to and end! Even though Nicky had reminded me the day before to use my road tactics, I let myself get gapped off the group just enough that by the time we hit the road section I was too far off to catch the fast moving group. Those of you who know anything about road riding know that one person left out in the wind will NEVER catch a group! They just continued to gain speed as I worked twice as hard to keep them in sight. BIG MISTAKE! Basically, I screwed myself by committing the cardinal sin of road racing--falling of the back! For two laps a tried to play catch-up while I rode the road section alone in no man's land. The one break I did catch came by pure luck! Georgia Gould had flatted a couple of laps into the race. On the road section of lap 5 she caught me and another rider. I jumped on her wheel and enjoyed a free pull to the group ahead of me as we hit the dirt. Then I watched as she effortlessly rode me off! Well, it was nice while it lasted! Unfortunately by the time I got to the group, it had broken up quite a bit since lap 3. I was able to hang with them and even pass a couple of riders. By the last lap I was blown! I gave it my all chasing Sarah Kaufmann but in the end had no gas left in the tank. Another lesson learned. I can honestly say that this is the first race of the year that I had a chance to make or break my own race. This course favored riders like me because it kept groups together longer due to the long road sections.
Despite the fact my error was a race breaker, I learned...once again! And I made it through the weekend without a crash or mechanical. All-in-all I had fun, I'm no longer a Sea Otter rookie, my family was there to see me race, and I have another big race under my belt. If I can just continue to improve and not make the same mistakes twice, hopefully my name will move up the list on those paper results!
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| Pre-XC at the Jamis tent |
We finished up the long day with a party hosted by Jamis's owner, Karen. It was held at a beachfront house on Ocean Ave in Carmel! AMAZING! I got to hang with such an amazing group of people and talk and laugh until early hours of the morning! The food was fantastic and I had no problem enjoying some wine! I couldn't help but smile as I took a moment to absorb the situation and remember how lucky I am to be part of Team Jamis!
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| Team Jamis ride in Santa Cruz |
The weekend was capped off by a team ride in Santa Cruz and some team photos. What an amazing experience riding through the redwoods--even though I was on a hard tail! I couldn't imagine being able to ride those trails everyday. Hopefully I can get my hands on some of the photos, however unless you can ride the trails yourself, photos just can't do it justice. It was really fun to see all the guys outside of the competition scene and just hang out and free ride. I can't believe the guys didn't fall over laughing when the Santa Cruz "troll bridge" swallowed my front wheel and caused a ridiculous endo! I would say that they were just being polite gentlemen and not kicking a damsel in distress while she was down...but let's be honest, I've spent enough time with these guys to know they just waited until they got in the van to bust out laughing! I'm so glad I've have such good teammates!! : ) What happens in Santa Cruz stays in Santa Cruz, right guys?!!
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| Santa Cruz riding! Just above the infamous "Troll Bridge" |
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