SERC Chattanooga

Vantaggio Ladies take 1,2,3....

The last weekend of June was the SERC race we have all been waiting for…. Chattanooga. Raccoon Mountain is our home trail and we have all spent time building the trails, maintaining the trails and riding them. We had most of the team out there and were hoping for some good results at home.

I spent the week before the race working as a coach for the USA Cycling Development Camp that Mark runs. It was an incredible week. We had an AWESOME group of kids and I got a ton of riding in. Way more riding than I needed to get in right before such a big race… I WAS EXHAUSTED!!!

The women’s fields in all categories were HUGE. The biggest one’s we’ve seen at a SERC race this year and they were strong. Everyone had come out for the race. I love a good race so even as tired as I was it was exciting.

The beginners went off first and Catherine did her thing and won convincingly. She is really ready to race sport but now that the series is almost over she is going to finish it out as a beginner and win it. GO GIRL!!! We have completely turned her into a mountain biker.

The pro/expert and sport fields went in the late wave and it was HOT. Luckily we only did 2 laps (still a 2 hour race), the men did 3. Bummer for them… It was a pavement start and it was FAST. Too fast. My legs were NOT happy. I quickly found myself in 7th place. Hmmm… “Get it in gear Kym, you are about to get your butt kicked on your home trail…” Jamie was off the front like a rocket and everyone else was chasing. I finally found my legs about 20 minutes into the race and started to actually race. I picked off riders slowly and Paula kept me motivated. I could see her just up the trail. If I could just stay with her we could work together…. I finally caught Paula and took the lead for a bit. We were riding along nicely one minute and the next she was gone. Where did Paula go??!! I found out after the race she was looking at my pretty pink Era (Thanks again Specialized….love the bike!!!) and did a huge endo. I continued at my pace and eventually ended up catching everyone except Jamie. It ended up being a good day for the team. Jamie won, I took second and Paula, even with the endo, took third in a sprint. Emily took 10th in a combined pro/expert field that lined up 6 pros.

In the Sport race Lisa and Gina had a hard fought battle. There were a lot of really strong girls. This time of year is tough….everyone is fit and fast and many are ready to upgrade to expert but are waiting until after Nationals are over. Lisa took 2nd. She had a GREAT ride. Gina rode a strong solid race (even though she was distressed that there were so many rocks on the trail. Yes, it is mountain biking Gina, there are going to be rocks on the trail.) She took 6th. Not bad for a roadie.

It was a great weekend for the team. We had a blast and we kicked butt. We did our best to show off our local trails and show that they are OURS.

Thanks for reading….