Weekend Report: Cincy3 CX Festival

A weekend like this deserves more than a simple race report.  Cory and I loaded the car and headed out after work on Friday night.  Our first stop, of course, was Starbucks.  After properly fueling for the drive we were eastward bound.  I don’t think there was a silent moment for the entire drive, and that included our 45 minute traffic delay in Indiana.  (Dr. Matt warned us to take 64, but we trusted Garmin.  Mistake!)  Between our dissection of the problems of the world and our lives, and the outright snarkiness that flowed like water at Niagra Falls, the trip went quickly.  We arrived in Cincy about 12:30AM EST.  No time for frivolity—we went right to bed.  That is after I tried every alarm sound on my iPhone.

Saturday morning came early—6:30AM was when the iPhone rang.  We packed up and set out for Middletown.  Karl had provided us with the addy of the park and the nearest Starbucks so we were set.  The only problem was it was cold!  35 degrees cold.  Yes, I had checked Accuweather for the high—it was supposed to be 62.  I forgot that we were racing at 9:15.  We got to the park and found Karl and registered.  Of course I had to make things difficult because I wanted to know if we got upgrade points even though we were racing Masters. Us old ladies want to be Cat 2 as well you know!  The UCI officials were friendly about it, but it limited my time to pre-ride the course.  I only got through half of it before getting kicked off. 

We changed clothes in the car and I was so happy I’d thrown in my embro at the last minute.  We headed out to warm up, riding through the grass alongside the course on the section I hadn’t gotten to ride.  I was geeked about this race.  It was definitely a power course, with very few technical sections.  I couldn’t wait. 

We got called to the line and staged. Because we did day of registration we were in the back row in a field of 32. It didn't hit me until after we started that I'd never raced a field this large. We got our instructions and the whistle and were off. It was a scene out of a bad movie, there were girls weaving everywhere, going slowly and I just wanted them out of my way! I was cautious through the first section of the course that I hadn't ridden. I wasn't getting a read of my heart rate because my strap needs new batteries, but I can tell you I was not putting forth effort because I couldn't get through. Finally as we headed back towards the tennis courts I was able to jump out in front of some girls. I didn't know who was in my category, and decided that didn't matter--I was passing who I could when I could. I was more confident coming through my second lap and was able to pass more girls. As I passed through I saw we had two to go. I continued to concentrate on catching girls in front of me one by one and on pedaling through the muddy section as it got sloppier. In the last lap I caught and passed a girl on the rough pavement section. She came around me after the mud and was able to ride the hill I took as a run up. She got a little gap on me as we went through the barriers. I pushed after her and turned on the sprint as we headed towards the pavement. I was at her front fork when we crossed the line. I finished 7/19 for women's open 35+ and 13/32 for the entire field. Strengths for the day were riding the mud and being smooth over the barriers. Learning for the day was I need to be more aggressive in passing. I tended to sit back and watch too long before going around.

Karl was wonderful and was waiting at the finish with my jacket.  I got it on and we found Cory.  We washed our bikes in the showers in the restrooms and then headed back to the truck to change and planned on going to get food.  Yeah, that never happened.  I wanted to walk up and check results because I was hoping for top 10.  Cory busted out the acrylic wine glasses and the cube.  After all, we needed post race rehydration.  We headed back up to the results board and ran into Flavia—she used to live in Carbondale and race for Heckawee.  We chatted with her before getting accosted by Dr. Matt.  He’s from Cincy and came back home to race Friday and Saturday’s race.  So much for food, we had to watch Matt race.

Wishing Dr. Matt luck on his race.

After Matt’s race it was another trip back to the truck and then Cory wanted to find Kirk, her coach.  We found him and then spent the next couple of hours talking to him and watching races until Karl was up.  The elite women raced after Karl and we had to watch them.  And who wanted to leave when the elite men were racing.  It was 5:30 before we left.  Throughout the day we talked to a lot of cool peeps.  They were all a bit intrigue by our glassware and silliness.  I lost count of how people asked to take our pics. 

We headed back to the hotel so we could get a shower and find food.  Cory checked with Kirk about safe choices and he said he’d set something up.  PF Changs at 8:20 was the decision.  We walked in to shocked looks—I don’t think they expected us to clean up so well!  After a few minutes, Kirk stepped away.  We turned to see where he went.  He was talking to Jeremy Powers who was joining us for dinner!  What more could two girls want—dinner with seven men, two of them pro cx racers.  We laughed a ton throughout the whole evening, especially at Tom and his chocolate cake!  By the time dinner was over, we were exhausted.  Believe it or not, we were back at the hotel and in bed by 11.  Definitely not what you would have expected from us.

Sunday morning arrived and I didn’t want to get out of bed.  Cory and I talked each other into the race with the caveat that we’d head to IKEA after we were done.  We found our Starbucks and went to Harbin Park.  I was bound and determined to pre-ride the course because we had heard it was going to be hella hard.  It took forever to register though, even though there was no line!  I jumped on, still wearing my jeans and got through about 75%. It was a long course, my little warm up ride took 9+min and I didn't finish the entire lap.

After I got kicked off the course, I headed back to the truck to get changed.  We warmed up in an adjacent field.  Thankfully it was warmer, although the wind had picked up.  Once again call ups left me sitting in the back--row four.

I was much more aggressive off the line on Sunday moving up through as many girls as I could until we hit the first little muddy section. Some girl immediately went into a stake and caused a small pile up. I stayed up and got around her but that created the first gap in the group. I had watched the first lap of the race before our and saw the carnage on that off camber section so I had made the decision to run the trickiest part. We hit that and I was off the bike. I had trouble with footing but stayed upright and got back on and headed to the start finish. I decided to run the sand as well and actually passed girls riding it. We went through and I was on a girl’s wheel as we hit the playground. She hit the railroad tie and went down. I hadn't seen this section of the course so I wasn't expecting it--I quickly dismounted though and jumped her like a barrier and took off. I ran the second section of sand and was doing well until I hit the tree root section. It surprised me and I tried to ride it and couldn't. My dismount was awkward and I lost a lot of ground. Cory passed me through that section and told me to stick with next.  I also then bobbled as I tried to ride the slick little uphill and had to dismount mid-way. I talked myself through it . . . race your race, race your race. I got on and rode through the mud. I hit the pavement added two gears and went after Cory and the other girl in front of me. I was able to pass them in the section leading into the next off camber tree.  I didn’t want to look back because I was sure Cory was on my wheel. As I went around the tree, I unclipped and dabbed my left foot to keep my balance. I got to the barriers and went across, although not as smoothly as Saturday. I thought of something Tilford told me as I went to remount . . . don't be in a hurry, wait until you feel comfortable, so I ran the bike the rest of the way up the hill and around the corner. I jumped back on and opened it up on the downhill. I hit the mud at the bottom and sailed up the hill on the other side. I caught up to some other girls going through the single track and stayed on them until we hit the grass on the other side. I passed them in the grass and headed into the off camber section. I again dismounted, shouldered the bike and ran it. My remount was smooth and I headed to the finish. I saw one to go as I went under.

The second lap was much smoother for me than the first. I decided to dismount and run anything that may be tricky for me and that seemed to work for me. When I hit the back section there were two girls in front of me. I flew past them on the way to the barriers and kept pushing to put a gap. One of them stayed with me. She was on my wheel as we hit the off camber section for the last time. She passed me in the section that I could ride and it made me nervous. I decided to dismount there and really lost my footing trying to run. I saw her fall in the trickier section and knew I had a chance. She got back on the bike quickly and took off. I remounted and pushed. She looked back at me. I cracked up one of the spectators because I said to myself, “that's right, look back because I'm coming for you. I upped my cadence and added gear several times. The finish was looming but I wasn't going to stop. I passed her with 75m to go and didn't slow at all. I ended up 8th in my field and 15^th overall. I’m so happy with that because it was such a tough, technical course. I was happy with my handling through the mud. I would have like to have been able to ride the course in a non-race situation to see if I could have ridden the railroad ties and the off camber dirt sections. I also still need to work on riding in sand. I will say that I stayed calm and knew what my strengths were (i.e. running) and played to them rather than giving in to areas where I need work.

The conditions of the course definitely called for Wellies post race.

Yes, it was a muddy one!

We checked results and loaded up the bikes.  We headed back to the hotel via carwash (clean bikes are happy bikes).  Quick showers and then it was off to lunch.  We spent the next two hours roaming through IKEA in domestic paradise.  Karl just redid his kitchen so he needed the finishing touches.  I found a cute beagle puppy for my Bella.  We made one final Starbucks stop and were back on the road. 

The trip started more quietly.  On the trip east I tried to take pictures of the “Welcome to” signs but flubbed it horribly.  I was 4/5 on the way home in snapping getting my shots.  Indiana traffic was bad, but not as bad as Friday night.  Our trip through western Illinois definitely went quickly as we got involved in a Twitter conversation regarding dropped shorts, muddy butts, and lightening the load. We pulled into Ballwin at 7:30, officially ending the UCI girls’ weekend that was full of laughs, fun, and peacefulness.