Well it took almost a month but my new bike is officially not "new" anymore. It has been broken in and it stepped up to the challenge. Yes, as you may have gathered by now, it was muddy this weekend. Actually, muddy doesn't even begin to describe the conditions that we were racing in, but more on that later...
The second round of the SERC series was this past weekend in Columbia, TN. It was also the first weekend that the whole team was going to be together this year racing. We were so excited. To make it even better, Shannon lives less than an hour from the race course so we were going to have a team slumber party at her house the night before the race. Mark worked really hard all week getting all the last minute details for the team tent/feed zone area set. We've got banners, car magnets, two tents, tables, tools and even an air compressor. We were SET UP. Eventually we'll even get our team clothing in and we'll match all the other promotional stuff...
Saturday the weather was beautiful. We couldn't have asked for a better day for a pre-ride. Sunny, dry and warm. Catherine, Kelsey, Anina, Amanda and I did a pre-ride together after we "helped" Mark set up the team area (He doesn't let us touch too much of it...). We had so much fun and we all really excited about the race the next day. We then loaded up and headed back to Shannon's for dinner and good times. What a great night!!! I love my teammates. We all laughed, drank a little wine (not too much, we did have to race the next day...) and just enjoyed hanging out. A HUGE thanks to Steve Grace for providing dinner for the team. Grace Law is an amazing sponsor. I hope that none of you ever need an attorney for an injury, but if you do, he's the guy. Also thanks to Mark for cleaning all the bikes. That is a huge job, even after a nice dry ride like Saturday's.
We knew going into the weekend that the weather was not going to hold for the whole weekend. We knew the rain was coming, we just didn't know how much was coming. Late Saturday night it hit. Think monsoon. It poured. By Suday morning it was clearing up but the damage to the trail had been done. It was going to be wet.
Kelsey raced first and we were all excited to watch her. She's our developmental ride and although she's a great road racer, she's only ever raced the mountain bike a few times and had never ridden in the mud. She started strong and came through after her first lap all smiles. Because of the mud, the course was slower than anticipated and we didn't get to see her finish before our start. After I was done racing I found out that she had taken third. This was made even more impressive by the fact that she crashed on her second lap and finished with (what was later determined to be) a broken hand. HOLY CRAP Kelsey!!! You get the tough girl award for the day. Probably for the season. We are so proud of you. And we are even more glad that you are okay.
After watching the first races of the day I was REALLY glad I had put the mud tires on the bike for the weekend. Everyone was covered. We lined up a big field of women and there was a sea of blue jerseys. I have to admit, it was fun being "that team". We had 8 ladies on the starting line. FUN.
They said "go" and it was immediately a sloppy mess. We started across a water logged, muddy, nasty field and I didn't want any part of the spray that was coming off of everyone's wheels. I did the thing that I always laugh at mountain bikers for: I got on the front and pulled like a mad fool to the singletrack. In the conditions it was somewhat of a necessity. By the time we got to the trail it was Anina and I. We had gapped the rest of the field. AWESOME. I had sort of blown up a bit but the slow muddy trail gave me some time to recover. Anina rode incredible. There were numerous times in that first 30 minutes that I thought she was going to ride right on past me and keep going. I am so proud that she's my teammate!!! Somewhere in the mud she slid out and I lost her. It was now me off the front of what was going to be a LONG muddy race. I tried to stay steady and keep the bike upright. There were plenty of sections that I could have ridden faster but I decided that taking chances was not the smart move today. Slow and steady was the key. Just. Keep. Bike. Working. Easier said than done. Near the end of my second lap my bike was so caked in mud that the chain suck started. I could no longer pedal in anything but my big chainring. I lost a huge chunk of time figuring out what gears still worked. I grabbed a bottle of water to clean the drivetrain off with in the feed zone. That helped for a while but ultimately I was stuck in some really hard gears for the end of the race. The whole last lap was damage control. Just keep the bike rolling forward. I came into the finishing area and it was a tight turn into an uphill finish line. My bike chain sucked and I WALKED across the finish line to victory. Whew. Almost 3 hours of mud. My bike will never be the same. Anina rode in a couple of minutes later. She took a commanding second place. That girl is getting faster by the day. She is so talented, I know one of these days really soon it is going to be me chasing her. And she'll deserve every minute of that win. Amanda rode in to a 4th place finish and Shannon was 5th. So, in horrid conditions we took 4 of the top 5 places. What a great day.
Also a huge congrats to Emily who took 8th at 17 years old and Catherine, Star and Amy who survived their first Pro/Expert category race. Ladies, you picked an EPIC one to start with. They get easier after this.
I am so proud of my team and the way we all raced this weekend. I am extremely lucky to have such fun and talented ladies to train and race with. This year is going to ROCK!!!!!
Thanks for reading...
Ps. I have a few pictures that I will post soon; once the camera is located.
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