Tour de Rimouski

I learned a lot of things racing in my first international event and about racing stage races. Before I go into my experience and how the race played out I want to thank all the people that helped make this happen for me. A huge thanks to everyone who donated in any way, my coach Adam Mills with Source Endurance for getting me ready, those who bought my bracelets, the people who wished me luck, my team (both Mt. Borah Jr. Development & Ethos Racing) and of course my incredible sponsors State Wheels, Bike Source, Challenge Tires and Specialized.

Larry Martin (the Midwest regional USA Cycling rep) asked me to race on Mt. Borah dev team. I loved all my team mates, they were super encouraging and great to hang out with. Overall it was a great team to be on and I'm really glad I was invited to race with them. My coach, Adam Mills, had me well prepared for Mountain Bike Nationals and then Tour de Rimouski even after all the flying and driving to get there.


Team van was cramped but really fun


Right after my race at Nationals I boarded a plane in Boise, Idaho and flew out to Minneapolis, Minnesota to meet with Larry Martin. I stayed in Little Canada, Minnesota for a night then we started the long drive to Canada the next morning. Along the way we picked up and dropped off people and it was pretty fun. I think there were a couple of times when everyone wanted to kill each other but that's what happens when you spend 32 hours camped up in the car with the same people.  For the first day there were 7 of us mashed into a suburban. One of the back seats and half of another was full of luggage and we had to put more luggage in our laps. Even though we had no room the first day wasn't that bad and we played a couple of car games to keep us entertained. The rest of the trip went this way and we eventually got to Rimouski to sign in, get our rooms, lock up our bikes, and then go for a short ride on the course. We rode the route we would be doing the time trial along and checked out the hill we have to start on for the pre-stage race (Cathedral hill). I noticed on my ride with the team that my front derailleur wasn't working properly and I couldn't shift up from my small ring to my big ring very well. I asked the team mechanic, Oscar (he's awesome by the way), to take a look at it. He checked it out, made some minor adjustments, and then told me to try it out. It wasn't perfect but I thought that it would work well enough.




My teammates

 The first race was an 80k road race for the 17-18 year old women only called the Grand Prix cycliste de Rimouski. It is the only UCI 1.1 level race for junior women in America so for us the biggest of the big. All of us were nervous and honestly I had no clue what I was supposed to do team tactics wise given I have zero team road racing experience. All I knew was that Emily Elbers was our sprinter, Emily Bramel was our time trialist, I was our climber and breakaway artist, and Corrie Osborn was our other breakaway rider. This was my first legit road race and I was just as nervous as I was excited. We went through roll out and I lined up next to Corrie, Emily E. lined up behind me and Emily B. lined up behind her. We weren't as close together as we wanted to be but we could get together soon enough, it was an 80k race, we had plenty of time.

Right off the start we went up Cathedral hill, super steep even though it wasn't very long. I think we didn't drop anyone on the first climb but no one tried to break away on the climb really, we all went up it at moderate pace but it still hurt. At that point Corrie, Emily E. and I were all sitting on the front with Emily B. sitting in conserving energy for later on in the race. For most of the first 20-25k the three of us spread out a little with someone on the front at all times until we hit the first really big hill. Later on in the tour that hill ended up being a king of the mountain point sprint. We started up the hill with all 4 of us together but we were falling off the pack. Three girls went off the front in a break, a small chase group formed but our group ended up staying back with the main peloton. At the top off the hill (okay, it wasn't really the top, it just slightly flattened out) I tried to shift back up into my big ring but it wouldn't go.

chase group, I am on the left side tucked in

I attempted to shift at least 5 times in a row and thankfully it finally shifted. From that point on I decided not to risk it and stay in my big ring for the rest of the race! I had no clue how much that was going to hurt but I didn't regret it once (well, maybe I regretted it during the race, but afterwards, nahhh). 
I sat in a little while since I burned some matches catching back on after the shifting issue. I slowly worked my way to the front of our group where Emily E. was riding. When I moved to the front I pulled for a little while and was sitting in good position when one of the girls jumped hard. I attacked to pull her in and Emily held the group back so the other girl and I rolled away from the peloton hunting down the chase group. For what seemed like a long time we rode in no-mans land trading pulls chasing hard and finally around 30k in we caught the main chase group, I think there were 10 of us. There was still a group of 3 off the front but they were untouchable, finishing 4 or so minutes in front of us. I rode with the chase group the rest of the race which was really cool. I couldn't understand any of the girls in the pack though because they all spoke French and I was the only American rider.

We rode in a rotating pace line for the last 50k and on one of the last big hills I was getting close to being dropped but I dug in and pushed that big ring over and held on to the end. The last part of the race was all downhill including the finishing sprint. I couldn't spin my legs as fast as some of the girls but I did beat 3 of the them in the final sprint putting me in 9th place over all! Emily E. got 12th, and Corrie Osborn and Emily B. got in the top 20. It was a great day for our team.



Pinned up and ready to race!

 The first stage of Tour de Rimouski started up an extremely steep hill that was pretty long. We had to go up it with no warmup since they made us sit there for 20 minutes before we started to get an optimal position. Thankfully we got a warmup on the hill since someone crashed and we got to regroup at the top. I moved my way up to the front and sat in one one of the CHCH girl's wheels. Today the course was no where near as bad with the hills, they were mainly rollers. On one of the rollers I was getting toward the top and my wheel stopped dead. I fell over onto a Canadian racer and I'm pretty sure she cussed me out in French. I got off my bike only to see my rear derailleur wrapped around the cog. My team's car in the caravan pulled up only to look over my bike and have me wait for the sweeper van to pick me up... While I was waiting I got to see my whole team and their places in the race. We had a couple of riders up front then the rest were pretty spaced out. We were sitting pretty good. 

The sweeper van was pretty boring, I couldn't see the race at all until the girl we were following pulled out of the race because her knee hurt. We ended following one of our girls but she flatted withing the last 10k and she had to DNF the race. We managed to get her into the team time trial but she wasn't aloud to race the rest of the tour and I was out of the rest of the tour for good, crushing blow but that is they way stage races work, you have to finish the stage to go to the next. We got a couple of girls in the top 10 for stage 1 and it was onto the team time trial later that day.


Guys team time trial


Since I was out of racing in the tour I helped out everywhere I could starting with the team time trial. It got colder as the start of the TTT got closer then the sky let loose right before the guys race started. It didn't start raining hard until the girls were about to race and the temperature was dropping pretty quickly. I was in the car following our three teams so I followed the guys team first, then the older girls team since the two girls teams were so close together time wise. We had to have Oscar follow in one of the parent's cars. The guys race was pretty exciting to watch and so was our girls team. They did the pace line exactly like we had practiced it in the morning and they got into formation really quickly. All three teams did really good and were ready to shred stage 3, another road race, 74k this time.

After the TTT both girls teams went out for some ice cream to prepare for the 3rd stage. This was probably the most fun we had the entire week (off the bike that is). The guy who scooped our ice cream could speak English (we were in a French speaking town so this was a nice change) and we got a picture with him. We are pretty sure he came out to the criterium to cheer us on since we told him our team name and asked him if he'd come cheer for us.


Both girls teams with Sam the ice cream man.


For the 3rd stage I got to ride in the caravan to learn about some of the inner workings of the race. I got to see some support for flats, dropped riders use the caravan to try and pull back up to the pack, and tactics some of the teams use. Even though I couldn't race I was still having fun and I had a great opportunity to learn a lot about stage racing. It was interesting watching all the dropped riders try to pull back up using the caravan, only a couple could make it back up so I learned pretty fast that if you want to be in contention you have to stay with the pack, once you're dropped it's extremely hard to bridge back up. I didn't get to learn anything about feeding though, hand ups weren't allowed during the races at all. Also you had to finish on the same bike you started on so there were no neutral bikes, only wheels. We stayed behind the third rider in the 17-18 group of our team so I didn't see too many team tactics since the group she was in was a mix of different teams trying to bridge to the main group. It took them a while but with my teammate's directions they got into a rotating pace line and finished the race that way.

It was pretty cool getting to ride in the caravan. I got to learn so much about the inner workings of the tour and how much the support for the teams has to work. It's tiring work and I can understand why our support crew was definitely whipped by the end of the week.

Stages 4 and 5 were the individual time trial and the criterium. We had a couple of issues with the time trial officials, they didn't like some of the aero bars that a couple of the juniors were using. Mainly they didn't let you race on your aero bars if they were connected. Other than that everyone was cleared to race and everyone put in a strong race. We ended up with one of the 17-18 girls on the podium, Emily E. finished in 3rd place scoring some good points for herself and the team.

The criterium started later that day with the temperatures looking good and some really loud dubstep to get everyone pumped up. The girls went off first and we constantly had at least on person at the front, making attacks or countering them. Zoe Reeves, one of the 15-16 juniors, was looking strong, matching almost all the attacks and getting some sprint points. Emily E. was also up there and took a couple first place sprints. The race looked good until the final corner before bell lap. Erin Donohue came around the corner a little bit in front of the pack, over cooked the corner, hit her pedal, then went down. As the pack came around the corner there was carnage. The first 3rd of the pack crashed taking down one of our cadet 15-16 riders down, Danielle Mullis. Thankfully everyone walked away with olnly minor injures on our team and Danielle got up to finish strong. Erin wasn't in the best of conditions, at first they thought she broke her collar bone so they made her stay down but it turns out she only hurt her ankle/foot. She went on the finish the last stage, now that is commitment.

The guys started shortly after they cleaned up the course from the girl's crash. Their race was pretty exciting. Our guys weren't in the best of positions at the start but they worked their way up to the front with 3 of our guys finishing top 30. There was a lot of movement in this race and it was insanely fast since the course was pretty flat, it was a miracle no one crashed, especially with all the bumping and rubbing going on. 

"Cathedral Hill"


The final stage was insane. A 10k circuit race going straight up cathedral hill right from the gun. It looks steep, and it is. We setup a feed station on the hill side and had to watch every lap as our riders powered up it and were deep in the pain cave. I got pretty into the race this day since I was really wanting to race this one. It looked really painful and fun at the same time and I am a pretty strong climber.

The guys started a couple of minutes in front of the girls and had better starting positions today. Every lap it looked like they were moving up making for an exciting race. The girls started and we had 3 in the top 20 the first time up the hill. It was going to be super hard since there was a king of the mountain sprint for every lap up the hill and they had to do 5 laps. Every one was in pain and it showed on their faces. I think we finished with at least two girls in the top 20 and maybe two of our guys in the top 20 too. It was the final stage of the tour and we made sure to leave everything on the course.

After the race was over we went back to the dorms, got everything packed up, then took off for America. Another 32 hours in the car, but it was a little less packed because everyone was going their separate ways.

Overall it was an amazing experience. Everyone had fun, even the two of us who couldn't race. We met new people, raced hard, found new limits, and what a beautiful course. I'm really hoping that I get a chance to go back next year and race, this time the whole race. I also want to race more road next year, this was really fun and I actually found myself enjoying the road race instead of dreading it. I am super disappointed that I had to DNF on the first race but it was a really good learning experience for me and I found out that I'm a much better road racer than I ever thought I was. 

Yep, I just might turning into a roadie, well just for the long break between Cyclocross seasons that is!!!


Some of the guys and girls






Missouri State MTB

Pretty much all of my races this year haven't been very good. I race as hard as I can but i'm not going as fast as I feel I should be able to.  My training has been fine but my races are horrible. Missouri State Championships was no exception.

We got up early so my dad could drive us down to Truman lake in time for my little sister's race and he could pre-ride a lap. I was a little tired but I after a warm up I felt ready to roll. My Specialized Fate 29er was ready to rock the trails and hopefully shred the competition.

I lined up with 3 other women and we chatted it up before the start. It was cool to race against some other women that don't live that far away. I'm so used to having to race the men since no one else shows up. We took off and I got the hole shot. It was a pretty bad pile up to get through, we had to go over a bridge that was just wide enough for 1 person to go over at a time. I managed to push through some of the men and put a couple of them between me and the other women.

I held the front for about 2 miles but I started to feel sick. My stomach hurt and I was on the verge of puking. Two of the ladies got around me. I stayed with them as long as possible but they dropped me and I was stuck riding on the wheel of a slower cat 1 guy.

I rode like this the whole first lap, all the while being passed by most of the cat 2 field. At the end of my first lap I went around the guy I was riding with and took off, I had gotten a second wind but it didn't last long.
A couple of miles into the lap the last place lady caught up to me. A cat 2 guy had just passed me and when I jumped on his wheel to ride with him he told me a lady wasn't far behind, maybe a couple of seconds. She tried to make a move around both of us but bailed at the last second. Next opening I saw I took off. I had been riding too slow and I wasn't gonna let her beat me, if she wanted to win she would have to chase me for it. She went after me for a while but gave up. I slowed down again but kept a decent pace so she wouldn't catch me again.

I came in a couple of minutes behind first and second, nowhere near as good as I wanted to do. The lady who got last place was really nice though and she recommended a college to me that she goes to. I ended up third over all and second in the state, the women who got first is from a different state.

Hopefully I get out of this funk sometime soon so I can go hard at Nationals and not let my team down in Canada. Next update should be for Ute Valley Pro XCT and the last couple of days leading up to Nationals. Maybe a tour of KC update too. 

Snake Alley Weekend

This year I decided I wanted to actually try out road racing. I got a road bike (Specialized Tarmac SL3) and added a couple of road races to my calender where there wasn't a mountain bike race. One of the races I put on my race schedule was the Snake Alley weekend, three days of Criteriums on memorial day weekend.

The first race is in Burlington, Iowa on Snake Alley and around historic downtown. I did this race last year as a cat 4 and fell in love with the race. It's like a mountain bike type course on a road. Super fun. Last year I came out and got first place on the last lap for the Snake Alley Criterium, second in the Melon City Criterium, and fourth or fifth in the Quad Cities Criterium so this year I was looking to come out as a cat 3 and get a top ten in at least one of the 3 races.

We got to Burlington, Iowa on Friday night, dropped some stuff off at my grandma's house, then went out to Snake Alley to pre-ride a little bit and get some lines down for Saturday's race. My dad and I rode up Snake Alley a couple of times and on our last ride up we heard a loud pop. When we got back to the car we looked at my dad's carbon rear wheel and saw a pretty nice crack in it. Probably should have pumped the tubulars up before riding.... Unfortunately for him, the only rear wheels we had have power taps on them so he had to race with a heavy wheel.

Saturday: Snake Alley

Since I raced pretty early in the morning I did a small breakfast of a banana and some Naked smoothie, which I drank throughout the day leading up to my race. I rode around with a lady I know from Kansas City to warm up for about 1/2 an hour before my race then lined up. I didn't pre register for the race so I was called up third row but managed to sneak my way up to the second.

Bottom of Snake Alley

The start was pretty fast and I missed my pedal so I had to work my way back up towards the front. I managed to make my way half way up the pack before the first corner and get around a couple more women  on the climb. I was making good time and passing more people on the first couple of laps but I started to go backwards on the climb. Normally I can out ride people on hills but today I was getting passed or not moving up and I fell back to 21st by the last lap. I put in some hard efforts, bombed the down hill, and managed to catch one more lady who I passed on the 2nd to last corner putting me into 20th place. I felt like I had raced really badly and wished that I could have done better but I had to move on since Sunday's race was another course I should be able to do well on.

We went back to my grandma's house, packed our cycling gear, then drove to a hotel in Muscatine, Iowa to get ready for Sunday's race, the Melon City Crit.

Results

Sunday: Melon City


The pay out for Sunday's race was much larger so my dad made sure to pre-register me so I could get a better starting position. I got called up second row and clipped in perfectly, moving into position behind a couple of women I knew hoping that since I didn't have any team mates that they would help me out.

The race went smoothly and I stayed with the pack for almost the entire race. I had no problems keeping up with the attacks and I was even riding at the front of the pack. Every time we got to the bottom of the hill and over the speed bump there was an attack but it was always short lived and as long as I kept a consistent power I didn't have to sprint up to them super hard.

With 4 laps left on the count down the announcers called out the second prime of the race and the pack sped up again. Everything was going good until the last leg of the down hill when a team launched a couple of their girls in a break away. The pack reeled them back in but another team launched some women at the bottom of the climb after the speed bump. The pace didn't slow down and I was slowly slipping back. I ended up getting dropped from the pack and I had to solo it with 3 laps to go. I finished in 20th place again but was a little happier with my performance than I was with Friday's.


Results

Monday: Quad Cities


 I was starting to get nervous about Monday's race since the course was a flat power course with a lot of sprints out of the corners but I was ready for whatever happened and since this was the last race of the weekend I was going to make sure I left everything on the course.

When  we got to the race there wasn't much time to prepare, I had to get my number, change, get my bike ready, mix my drink, and warm-up, and I only had less than an hour to do it. As we were getting there it started to rain. It was going to be slick for my race but after my crash in the rain last year I learned how to ride my bike better and I wan't too worried. I knew the rain was going to slow them down so I had a better chance at that top 10.

I was called up to the second line but forced my way into the first. At the start I missed my pedal again (I really need to practice this more...) but didn't lose very many spots. I felt really strong today and the women were definitely going slower so they wouldn't crash and the sprints out of the corners weren't too bad. The problem was that I was getting juggled, hard. To prevent crashing the women were hitting their brakes to slow down and in the back we had to slow down more and sprint harder to keep up. The rubber band was in full effect. I was able to ride through this for most of the race but I ended up getting dropped and sticking with a chase pack.

I rode with the chase pack for the rest of the race watching how they were riding to see if I would be able to make a break away or if I was going to have to out sprint them. With one lap to go we came around corner 6 of 8, two women in front of me and two more behind. I scrubbed some speed early to back off of the women in front of me then took a sharper line around the corner and started my sprint. I managed to bread their group apart and none of them could bridge up to me. I increased my speed little by little, not using any breaks on corner 7 despite warnings to slow down and after I came around corner 8 I was in an all out sprint so I wouldn't get caught.

I finished the race in 16th, one place out of the money but I learned some more things about criterium racing. Even though I got dropped from the pack, this was my best race of the weekend and I felt strong. Hopefully this weekend helped prepare me for when I go to Canada and race against the other juniors my age at Tour de la relève internationale de Rimouski.


Results

Only a couple more weeks until Mountain Bike Nationals. Watch for updates for Missouri State MTB and Ute Valley Pro XCT!

Back and faster than ever.

Its been a while since I have ridden my mtb, mainly I have been training on the road trying to increase my power/strength. Everything has been pretty slow lately.

A couple of weeks ago I hurt my knee again. Same knee that I hurt last year and around the same time, different reason though. I was talking with my coach and we think that it might have been from overworking it (I was on spring break the entire week before I hurt it) or form just not stretching enough. At first I was pretty upset because it started to hurt right before my last lap of a road race and I was scared that I would be set back pretty far. I worked on fixing it a lot though and it only ended up taking a week to heal itself.

The week off really helped me I think. After that I have been riding really strong and I have gotten a lot faster. Build and recover baby, build and recover.

So yesterday I went out and did some mountain biking at Swope to get the feeling back for my mtb. I did a couple laps, not too fast, and mainly stayed off of the technical stuff to prevent damage to my race wheels (Don't have a back up set). It feels so weird switching between my mountain bike and road bike. At first I was thinking that my seat was too low but after a while I got used to it. I'm a little surprised I was able to stay away from the mountain bike for that long though, I just can't help smiling when I ride it!

We get up this morning and we are kinda freaking out because a rain cell is about to hit Lawrence, Ks where we will be racing but we go out anyway. We get there and beginner class is just getting done but they are a little  muddy. They were saying that the back section of the course was pretty slick. It was still like an hour and a half till race time though so we were hoping the trails would dry a little. The weather was perfect though, 60 with some cloud cover.

I get my gear on, water bottles ready, nutrition ready, and then run through my bike to make sure everything is working properly. I needed my siblings help but they had ran off somewhere so I had to ask the mom of one of my team mates to help out with my dad and my water bottles. Then I go off to do a warm up.

I line up around 5 minutes till start but everyone is all over the place and the categories aren't really split up so i'm a little confused as to where I am supposed to be. The race promoter tells us what the waves are going to be so I have to start asking where the 50+ cat 1 men are since I start with them. I line up but am disappointed because for once I was going to have another female cat 1 racer but she didn't show. When I see that I start marking which 50+ guys I think I will be able to keep up with and at the start jump on their wheel.

There wasn't really a sprint start so we didn't get spread and I ended up with a guy in between me and my marked rider but we were pretty close so I wasn't worried. I felt extremely good and by the time the first lap was over was ready to really light it up. My first lap ended up being 36 minutes which is crazy fast compared to my 40-45 minute laps on the same 9 mile loop last year.

On my second lap I was right on the wheel of the rider I wanted to be with and was still feeling really strong. I told him that I was going to see how long I couple stay with him and he said alright then sped up a little to try and catch another rider in his age group. We had a train going of around 7 riders through the whole back section and we were flowing super well. It was a pretty cool experience. The group got broken up a little when we came up on a lapped rider. I stayed on my guys wheel through the whole lap but we ended up falling a little ways back from some of the other 50+ riders since they were able to get around the rider in an open area. Also when we tried to pass the rider he would speed up then slow down.

The guy I was riding with told me that he needed to stop for a water bottle when we got close to the start finish for our last lap so I rode with him then took off around the idiot rider and another 50+ rider that had pulled away earlier on in the second lap. He jumped on my wheel and stayed with me until the guy I had marked caught back up. They both went around me half way through the lap but I managed to keep them in my sight. My marked rider pulled away and left the other guy behind which demoralized him enough so he slowed down. I took this as a chance to pull him back in and took off to attempt to gain back 10-15 second in the last 2 miles. I caught him around 200ft from the finish line.

I finished first in my category, 9th overall in cat 1 men and 5th or 6th in cat 2 men.


I have to say I'm really liking my new 29er. Okay, so maybe like doesn't cover it. I LOVE my new 29er. I got the new Fate Expert Carbon 29er from my new sponsor this year (Specialized). I feel so much faster on it than I did on the 26er.

Next race is Bone Bender in a 6 hour coed duo with my dad. Also I'm debating going to Tour of Hermann the weekend after that since It is going to be the last one and to get ready for my Canada trip.

I hope to be shredding it up even more further into the season as I get closer to my Canada race (Tour de la relève internationale de Rimouski) and MTB Nationals.

2012 Races

2/25/2012	Sat		Spring Fling	Crit	Lawrence, KS
2/26/2012	Sun		Froze Toez	RR	Columbia, MO
3/3/2012	Sat		Mellow Johnny's Classic	PROCXT	Dripping Springs, TX
3/10/2012	Sat		Spring Fling	Crit	Lawrence, KS
3/11/2012	Sun		Perry Road Race	Road	Perry Lake
3/24/2012	Sat		Gods Country	MTB	Lawrence, KS
3/25/2012	Sun		Gods Country Duathlon	Duo	Lawrence, KS
4/1/2012	Sun		Perry Roubaix	Road	Perry, KS
4/7/2012	Sat		Crock Rock	MTB	Perry Lake
4/15/2012	Sun		Bone Bender 3/6	MTB End	Lawrence, KS
4/22/2012	Sun		OMBA Caramba	MTB	Springfield, MO
5/6/2012	Sun		Wilson Lake Fat Tire Fest	MTB	Wilson Lake, KS
5/20/2012	Sun		Dirty Little Sercret	MTB	Manhattan, KS
5/26/2012	Sat		Snake Alley Crit	Crit	Burlington, IA
5/27/2012	Sun		Melon City Crit	Crit	Muscatine, IA
6/10/2012	Sun		Down and Dirty	MTB	Truman Lake, MO
6/16/2012	Sat		Ute Valley Pro XCT	PROCXT	Colorado Springs, CO
7/7/2012	Sat		MTB Nationals	MTB	Sun Valley, ID
7/29/2012	Sun		Show me State Games	MTB	Columbia, MO
8/18/2012	Sat		Subaru Cup - Mdwst Reg Champs	PROCXT	Mt Morris, WI
8/25/2012	Sat		Cruise the Blues	MTB End	Tipton, KS
9/15/2012	Sat		Herman CX	CX	Herman, MO
9/16/2012	Sun		Herman CX	CX	Herman, MO
9/22/2012	Sat		USGP Planet Bike	CX	Madison, WI
9/23/2012	Sun		USGP Planet Bike	CX	Madison, WI
9/26/2012	Wed		Gateway Cup CX	CX	St Louis, MO
10/13/2012	Sat		USGP New Belgium Cup	CX	Fort Collins, CO
10/14/2012	Sun		USGP New Belgium Cup	CX	Fort Collins, CO
11/10/2012	Sat		USGP Derby Cup	CX	Louisville, KY
11/11/2012	Sun		USGP Derby Cup	CX	Louisville, KY
11/16/2012	Fri		Jingle Cross Rock	CX	Iowa City, IA
11/17/2012	Sat		Jingle Cross Rock	CX	Iowa City, IA
11/18/2012	Sun		Jingle Cross Rock	CX	Iowa City, IA
1/12/2013	Sat		CX Nationals	CX	Madison, WI

It's shredding time

After my poor performance at Nationals I have had pretty much no inspiration to ride. At all.... Basically I have been riding and training but not exactly putting any effort into it or really looking forward to the rides.

We have had an unusually warm winter and the trails are actually dry so we went out for a mountain bike ride one some local trails. I was thinking great, I have to go out and ride for 1-2 hours and I can barely complete a 1 hour endurance ride on the road without getting bored or wanting to stop. I've just been really out of it lately. 

The local trail we rode on this weekend was Swope mountain bike trail. If you live in the KC area you should check them out, they're super sic and actually really technical with some crazy climbs. There are also some easier areas around the top that are beginner friendly too.  

Anyway, I took the pedals off my cross bike and switched them to my mountain bike, lubed the chain, went through all the gears to make sure they worked, checked the brakes, then aired up the tires. To tell the truth I was a little freaked out about riding the trails because I haven't ridden my mountain bikes since nationals and I was afraid of how bad my handling and skills would be.

We got out there and I jumped on my bike and started up the trails. I went a way that would keep me on trails but the easiest of them so I wouldn't risk getting hurt really bad but as I got closer to the top of the first loop there was a little bit of mud and I was pretty worried about tearing up the trails (Probably just an excuse to not ride again....). I turned around and ran into my dad who yelled at me to keep going because it was just a short section then the rest was clear but I really didn't want to ride with him so I rode a connector trail across a road to the other half of the current trails.

The other half of the trails are super easy but I was still having some trouble since it was my first time back on the trails. At the top of those trails some of it is really muddy and the other part is dry and shredding fast. I turned right at the top to avoid going on tech and managed to rail a corner I thought was dry but was actually some super slick mud. Next thing I knew I was on the ground covered in mud. Felt like 'cross season again!

After that I went to go back down the easy section but my dad was coming up so I had to follow him the tech way. On a couple of the sections I completely flipped out, like "OMG I haven't ridden tech in sooooo long, I'm going to crash!" so I got off and walked like a noob but I actually started to have fun even though I was freaking out and not riding half the stuff.

We rode for around 1.5 hours then I had to go home to get ready for a dance. After the dance I got up at 4 to watch the pro women at worlds which was pretty sic. At around 2 we went out for another mountain bike ride at Swope again. I was still a little iffy on actually riding trails again but I knew I had to start training soon for my first Mountain Bike race of the season- Mellow Johnny's Classic.

We went out and some of the sections were a little sketchy but I started to get the hang of it. I was actually riding things that at the end of last year I couldn't even ride. I think part of that is how much stronger I have gotten during cross season. I can actually throw my bike around and put it where I need to put it.

Now that I am feeling better on the bike my heart is more into training and I am ready to shred some faces off once more. I'm also excited to say I am going to try some road races this year and see how I do.

It's racing time once more! Mellow Johnny's is in about 4 weeks now! It's go time!!!!

Cyclocross Nationals

Before I go into my race recap I want to thank everyone that has helped get me this far.  First off I want to thank my coach, Adam Mills with Source Endurance. I don't know where I would be without him. Last year I decided I wanted to start training and I had no clue what to do or the motivation to do it. Training with him has pushed me to be a stronger rider and pushed me to limits I would never have gone to.

Next I want to thank Van Dessel cycles for giving me a bike to ride when almost no one else would, and let me tell you it is one of the sickest bikes I have ever ridden on. My Full Tilt Boogie is so fast and smooth through even the roughest of terrains. I have fallen in love with this bike and I hope to be riding on it for a long time, maybe the road season this year (no water bottle mounts will be tough).

My Van Dessel

You can't ride a bike without wheels. Thank you State Wheels for sending me a set of 38 Carbon Tubulars. They accelerate so freaking fast and the design on them is pretty smexy. Everyone who has ridden them for a race to test them out has been amazed at how well they hold up. Unlike other wheels they are not flimsy for the weight and they are super strong. Thank you Joseph Lafico for setting me up with a pair of these sic wheels. 

Where would I be in all of those muddy races like State, Jingle Cross Rock, and Nationals with out a pair of  knobby tires? Thanks to Challenge Tires for sponsoring my ride and giving me the traction for every type of course. The Limus has kept me upright in conditions of all types from grass crit to peanut butter mud. 

Smexy wheels with some knobby tires

Finally I want to thank everyone who has yelled at me to go faster even when I have felt at my worst. Without your heckling I don't know if I could have pushed my self so hard. Also everyone's support from taking me to races to support before and at the start of races has been amazing. 

THANK YOU! Now on to the race- 

Normally at the start of a big race I am really nervous, shaking, have to move around, and about to pee my pants. For some reason I didn't feel anything. I was super focused and ready to rock. I knew who I had to stay with and how to ride the course.

When they called me up I lined up on the left because of how much mud was on the road (people had been dragging mud from the grass section right before). When everyone was on the line they told us we had two minutes to start. That wasn't quit right because of some little kiddos left on the course from the previous race. They blew the whistle and the start was crazy fast. Faster than any other start I have done. I came across the hole shot in 7th or 8th and started passing girls in the grass. I was all out gunning for the front.

Right before the pits there was a hairpin turn that was ridable if you could put the power down and pull your bike into the right rut. I might have been able to make it but I ran right into the girl in front of me. I jumped off my bike and ran around a pile up after the top of the hairpin and ended up in 2nd. This was short lived because some of the other girls were able to power through the peanut butter mud better than I was after the turn. 

I lost even more spots on a false flat leading up to a 100ft kicker. We got to the bottom of the hill and I gunned it trying to stay on my bike as long as possible and get some of those spots back. First was long gone at this point because she was the only one who wasn't in the pile up. I made it half way and the girl in front of me jumped off right into my path. I moved over and immediately spun out. I ran up the rest off the hill and tried to bridge the gap back up but the front group was gone. 

As the race proceeded I lost more spots until I was in 10th place. Even the 15-16 girls were passing me and they started a minute back. I kept duking it out with the girl who was in 9th place even though I thought she was in the 15-16 race. After the sand pit I dug in deep on the last lap and ran past her and remounted right in front of her. I dug even deeper and pulled away to take the 9th place spot at the end. 

The whole race I felt like absolute crap, I had no power. I could breathe fine and I was peaked for this race but I just couldn't go, guess that cold I was fighting all week just kept me off me A game. I didn't have a mechanical since I pitted every lap to make sure my bike was clean and ready to climb the kicker right after the pit. 

My State Wheels were amazing with the Challenge Tire Limus. They were super grippy in the mud and I didn't go down once. Plus I could accelerate out of the corners like a bat out of hell. 

Over all I am super pissed about my performance but it is just a race. It is behind me now and I am going to take everything that went wrong to help me do better next year. This season may be over but it is the start of a new year. New people, new friends, new sponsors, and new races (plus all those old ones that were so much fun). 

Its time for mountain bike season after I park the bike for a while. Its a bitter sweet end to an amazing year. 

Happy New Year!!!!!