Fairhill and Rockburn

Fairhill MAC race on Saturday turned out to be quite a surprise ending.

Fairhill was a great course, hard and fast and tough to get a tactical advantage. I ended up sitting third wheel on Kristin (Human Zoom) and Arley (Hub) the whole race content to finally "be in the race" and at the front, after a frustrating first half of the cx season full of mechanicals, bad starts, and falls. Kristin pretty much led the whole race and attacked Arley any time she came around. I decided it wasn't my race to win or lose I was kind of along for the ride this one time. I heard the announcer mention during the race that the winner gets the same payout as the men. I'll admit I thought "that's cool, too bad it won't be me".

As we rode the laps I was trying to think if there was even anyplace I could attack and get away but the course was too fast to allow anyone to get far alone. It looked like it was going to be a three up sprint however with all the turns and the barriers within 1/4 mi to the finish, it was too hard to move around, so whoever was in the barns first was likely going to win, and at this rate it looked to be Kristin but possible Arley could outsprint her. The only card I had was the element of surprise.

On the last lap, the three of us had enough of a gap to stay top 3 to the end despite Jenn Maxwell having an awesome ride and closing in on us. As we were about to come up to the barns I thought if I attack and go as hard as I can for as far as I can, maybe I could be first, or second. If they catch me, I'm still third. Oh what the hell, let's try it. I attacked around a tree that had three lines in and one line out of the corner. Sitting third wheel I watched Kristin swing tight get thrown wide into the tape and loose dirt and spin her tires. Arley rode her usual line in the middle, I went way-wide and came in tight with my front wheel hitting the exit line first giving me a slight advantage. I then just had to haul-butt and go as hard as I could the next 400 yds. I rode as aggressively as my tires could manage. As I came around the loose gravel 180 to go into the barriers and prayed I'd not crash or get stalled out. I rode the corner clean and on through the barriers. One last loose 180 turn to the final road stretch and then I was home free, sprinting against the possibility of being caught.

I was excited for my first MAC win and proved to myself that sometimes it,s worth the risk to gamble, win or lose, than not gamble at all. And the pumpkin ale was a wonderful way to top it off.

Link to VeloNews article.

Congrats to Christina B for an impressive win and for doubling up.


Rockburn

Was impressed once again at the turn out for the cat 3/4 women's race, 31 I think. The elite women only had 12 or 15, still nearly twice as many as last year and years prior for some elite women's races. And thank you to whoever pointed out that we are all a field of middle-aged women. Arley isn't. (But the rest of us are I guess if you count 30s as middle aged). I was delighted to see Christine W and Kay Tui on cx bikes, and racing. I hope they continue to enjoy and find the learning and challenge of cx to be so rewarding they keep racing year after year. Congrats to Jean for her great race to 2nd in that field.

Without a trainer to warmup on, my warmup was 4 or 5 recon laps of the course at varying speeds. Before the B men, and before the elite men, and after, I rode 1-2 laps each time and would reride sections to determine alternate lines or best way through. On this course, at first I felt very confused as to where I was on the course, what came next, and how far to the finish or pit (mind you it's only a 2.5K long course probably). With all the obstacles, corners, varying terrain, and various challenges (such as remembering to stay way left around this corner because there's a huge hole) it's key to always know where you are and what is next. During the prerides I put together my final mental cues/landmarks for the race and what to do for each section (although I don't always do the action part as preplanned)(e.g. woods--go hard, sand--run; hill--attack; barriers/corners--first; finish--two lines).

At the start, I was going to take it easy since the first corner was sketcy and a lot of loose gravel. I totally surprised myself with having an incredible start. For the race Arley, Betsy, and I rode really hard and took turns through various sections, although Betsy did lead more. We came upon lapped traffic of juniors and B women which the officials had started to long after the elite women--so for the first time I can remember, we caught a whole bunch of riders, not just a few. A lot of it was just the speed that us three were riding the course.

It was a blast riding hard together and flowing through the course like we did. Some of the corners really get greasy at speed when you have only prerode them at half speed. I was bummed to see Arley wash out her front wheel in a sandy corner with just a lap to go. The three up battle on the last lap and a three fold sprint would have been really fun. On the last lap I was about to execute my attack however we were caught up with lapped riders and it would have been too dangerous to follow through with the plan. So I went to plan B which was to attack on the lowline in the off-camber just before the finishing stretch. I stuck hard with plan B despite the two other opportunities I knew I should have gone for: near the pits or over the barriers, but didn't. In the end, Plan B didn't work as Betsy rode a slightly lower line than her usual which essentially cut off my attack line. I had to settle for trying to come around her, which I just couldn't quite muster. It was a fun battle, nonetheless.