Before I get going on my race report, I want to congratulate my teammate Julie Hunter, who started her cross season a weekend before I did at Nittany Lion Cross in Pennsylvania. Its a UCI race and she fought hard and finished in a well deserved 6th place on Saturday! Read her race report here. Also, after kicking butt there, she kicked my butt last Saturday for a win at the Jamestown race and Sunday went to Maryland to win at South Germantown CX! Congrats Julie!
Ok....back to it.
Jamestown CX. Race #1 in the VACX series and my cx season. Finish: 2nd to my teammate Julie Hunter.
FYI: For those who are reading my team's blog (which everyone should be!), 95% of this will be the same. Yes, I'm lazy.
The week leading up to the first race of the season is always the most nerve racking, and regardless of how many years I've been racing, I can never shake those first race jitters. I pretty much stop racing in July/August in preparation for cross, so I never know what to expect with my fitness compared to everyone else. But anyway, I'm very thankful that I don't have to worry about them until road season starts up!
The course was great. Everything you expect in a cross course: grass, gravel, road, a few technical spots, and a few power spots. Only thing we were missing was mud and snow. But the weather was perfect in the upper seventies with a few clouds in the sky.
There were five women at the start for the Women's 1/2/3 field and we were off sprinting for position as soon as the whistle blew. I got the hole shot into the first 180 with my teammate Julie Hunter on my wheel. One of the technical features was a telephone pole - or something that size - laying across the course, which some gals rode and some ran (for those who have heard, this was the same feature that I miss-timed my attempt to bunny hop at speed during warm-up and had a pretty epic crash). Julie and I came out side by side on the road section on the backside of the course, down the gravel fire road that led into the hill run-up. The hill itself could have been ride-able for most, except it had a fairly large log at the base that was only ride-able for a couple. Coming out of the hill and onto the front side of the course, Julie pulled ahead where she would stay the remainder of the race. I had a little gap securing my 2nd place finish, and Sally (TriPower) and Jen (Rogue Velo) had a hard fought battle to the end with Sally pulling through to round out the podium. Yes its a one lap report because I was pretty much by myself after the first lap!
The first race of the cross season couldn't have turned out any better. My team took the top two podium spots, the weather was perfect, and there was pumpkin pie!!!
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| Congrats to Julie Hunter (Tradewinds, 1st) and Sally McMahon (TriPower, 3rd) for a great race! |
Thanks to Celerity and JRVS, and a big thanks to Anthony Bream (Celerity) for the hard effort that was put in to make the first VACX race a success! And for those who are curious, my new Trek Crockett is pretty awesome!
My season continues this coming weekend with a pair of UCI races at Charm City Cross in Baltimore, MD.
