Urban adventures

I'm not much of a city gal, but I did enjoy my scenic urban adventures this past weekend.

Saturday was Bike Jam in Baltimore, only an hour drive north, but seems so far away on a map. The race was at Patterson Park, same place as cyclocross nationals in 2001, although the neighborhood area is much nicer now a days. There was no mud or rain to contend with as at cx nats that year. Instead it was a gorgeous day. There were a bunch of kids out doing the kids ride, and a bunch of riders doing the recreational event rides that were all part of the festival.

Did a double - and I think the next double I do will either be an espresso or a mixed drink. Ouch. Part of the hurt was not coming prepared with enough food/drink since I forgot about the down time in between the races, and it was getting hot.

In the W 3/4 race the team tried to set a nice hard pace from the start. Not many others would pull through and the pace would slow and crashes happen.

In the women's 1-3 race I was finally lining up for my first big road race. I felt like the awkward adolescent, not really sure how to fit in. I quickly drifted back and the thoughts running through my head were not that empowering, "...Oops, excuse me. Sure come on around, I'm just doing this for fun. Oh I'm sorry, am I in your way. Here let me move over and give you room to come around,..." I watched the laps count down, wondering how long I'd last, or when there would be a crash. Well crash there was. I was thankful to have survived and managed to avoid running over a head by forcing my bike into Sonja's leg, ensuring that I also missed her bike which could have turned into an expensive mess. The 12 girl pileup finally started coming undone and when I saw my Velo Bella cyclocross teammate limping away I started to lose it. I told myself to focus and there were constantly people asking if we were all okay. We got rolling again after a brief neutralized restart. And once again I just watched the laps count down. 10, 9, 8,...."I don't know if I can do this" and my tongue started dragging on my stem, and I took up the role as the caboose....4, 3, ... I think I can, I think I can... 2, crash, 1. Done.

I had to nix the plan to check out the Baltimore Map Festival eventhough it was only 3miles away at the Walter Art Museum. I was too worried that I'd get lost, not find parking, and would be too hungry to enjoy the exhibit. Only have until June 8th to get back up there to check it out.

Enjoyed talking with the New England gals that came down and talking about our preliminary travel plans for the upcoming cyclocross season.

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Sunday's race in DC proved a challenge to figure out the best route to get to the race. The fast route (40min) was blocked by Rolling Thunder. Instead, I chose a circuitous route that would take me through Tenleytown, past the Cathedral, through Dupont Circle, through all sorts of lovely neighborhoods, and not so nice neighborhoods, industrial sections, and historical sections, until finally I hit the stadium, and go round and round until I find the actual entrance to the parking lot. It actually took me 30min longer to get to this "local" race than it did to get to the Baltimore race.

I got there just a little later than planned. I wish I could have seen the finish of the women's 40+ race. It sounded exciting.

In the women 1,2 race, HPC was great at controlling the race and leading out Lorena for primes and a grand win. Very cool. Very sad that Heidi G broke her wrist.

In the women's 3 race, Christina pulled everyone around. I could sympathize with her frustration. Sara tried to get away with with a few others a few times during the race, but no one wanted to work for a break it seemed or Christina wasn't in it and she'd bring it back. In the end it came down to a sprint and Sara set a great pace on the final lap. Robin needed one more wheel to have a fair run at the line, but unfortunately the leadout was sitting behind, not in front.

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A few teammates ventured up to NJ for Sommerville. Sounded like a lot of crashes yet again. Teammates finished safe and sound.

Local article on Tour of Sommerville.


Next weekend - Murad road race and Hoo-Ha mtn bike race. I'm not even sure if my mtn bike works.

In transition

The So MD crit was another fun race. I almost chickened out because of the weather and the technical nature of the course which I thought wouldn't be a safe combo. Yeah I was scared. However after seeing the pics from Wilmington the day before, seeing the MABRA girls out there on the line and mixing it up with some really really fast women - that's scarey. So I got over my panic attack and headed out.

As it turned out, the So MD crit was a lot of fun. They were right that the course would be a test of your bike handling skills with 11 corners and some offcamber and some at funky angles - but it also was a test on your concentration skills as well. You had to be on, constantly, through every corner and out of every corner to get back on the pedals and looking ahead to the next turn. If you day dreamed for a second, you'd get gapped. And in the constant attacks, thank you Sonja, you couldn't be distracted by the weather, your rear wheel sliding across the wet pavement, the feeling in your legs (if there was any feeling left). It was pretty cool.


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Instead of adding a new mtn bike to the bike collection this year as planned, I ended up buying something I never thought I'd need - a TT bike. (the guy selling the bike referred to it as a tri bike). I'll probably use it like what, three times? In response, a teammate said something along the lines - "yeah so, does it matter?" Nah. Bikes are cool. I'm still looking for a commuter bike which - based on the number of days I've ridden to work, I'd probably use even less than a TT bike.

Fun race

I thought this "technical" course at Ft. Ritchie would be scarey to race, especially if it was raining. However the course was pretty safe - no road debris or potholes. There weren't really any major curbs or obstacles on the side to have to watch out for. There weren't any course narrowings that were dangerous. The course was wide open and we had plenty of room to move around. Some of the corners were even a little offcamber and quick which required you to think a little, pick your line, and ride it while diving around the corner in your drops, but there was plenty of room to stick whatever line you ended up on anyway.

It was a fun race - started a bit hard and fast, not surprising, but it settled after a few laps. Once the break with my teammate was set and clear, it was fun for us to move around the field and do whatever including tag on and try to disrupt flyers that threathened to bridge up.

Congrats to C3 for a great 1-2 finish.

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Strategies have changed now that C3-Sollay has a full team. That makes four "full" (6+ riders) women's MABRA teams with HPC, C3-Sollay, Team CycleLife, and Kenda. It would be really fun if MABRA had a TTT event.


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Sighting: Mandykins and her Cutie Boy at the race.

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Teammates Leslie and Sara and some HPC gals headed to Bear Mtn for Sunday's RR (brings back memories of collegiate racing).

Eavesdropping on space

After throwing all the crap back in the car after the races today I picked up my notebook with directions and tried to figure out my way back home. The biggest challenge for me is always the very first turn, after I get out of the parking lot. Unfortunately with a poor sense of direction and not knowing my left from my right, I tend to just go which ever way the majority of the traffic is heading or the person in front of me. This time I was following an equally directionally challenged driver.

Tired and delirious and really hungry after enduring the hours of baking sun and the crater filled moonscape they call the Poolesville RR the last thing I wanted was another adventure. We headed out on the roads and we came upon a bicycle parade with alien creatures of their own - and I don't mean the racer types. At first I felt sorry for these suckers whose brains were baking in their helmets and they appeared to be going so slow - but they were all smiling. And they came in all shapes and sizes and had all sorts of colors of jerseys and various types of two wheeled devices. I was kind of bothered because these damn "bicyclers" (which I used to snobbily scoff at because they aren't like us racer types they are more like just peddalers) were in the road, stopping traffic, and on top of that they were all smiling (and they all probably just road a lot further than I did too if they are doing some sort of epic charity ride). I couldn't help but smile too and realize that bicycling takes all kinds, why should I discount their appreciation and enjoyment from riding a bike - albeit slowly.

We drove further down the road and I was starting to wonder where the shopping center and restaurants were that I saw on the way to the race just before Poolesville. After about 15 minutes of not seeing another car, we pulled into a gravel parking lot and I thought - "Oh picnic, that will be fun - oh wait I don't have any food". Judd insisted we took a wrong turn while I was adamant we were just fine and that I had passed this gravel parking lot near a bridge (or one similar) on the way to the race.

If it wasn't for our wrong turn, we never would have realized that back in 1956 some guy had built an antenna array so powerful he could hear Jupiter! Bizzaro. I couldn't help but put on my foil cap to make sure that aliens couldn't eavesdrop on me.

We headed back the direction we just came from and drove for what felt like hours. We eventually saw another car with a bike on it, heading in the same direction we were headed this time. Thankfully it was my teammate Sara who was heading home and leading us back towards civilization.