Tsali

Kym and Anina all smiles after a 1,2 finish.

This past weekend was the "Knobschorcher" at Tsali recreation area, just outside Bryson city, NC. Knobschorcher is one of the longest running races in the Southeast and always turns out a huge crowd. It is part of the SERC series, the US Cup, and the Souther Classic series. The weather was beautiful and the trails were in the best shape we have ever seen there. It was going to be HUGE. We had a cabin rented for the team and most of the girls were going to be there. Fun times; I could hardly wait.

There are two races in the Southeast that are "the monkey on my back". Races that for whatever reason I struggle with. One of them is Bump N Grind in Birmingham and the other is Tsali. For whatever reason I have had a string of bad luck, bad legs and bad attitude for Knobschorcher. I won it a few years ago but other than that one glimmer of hope, I always seem to have a lackluster performance. Last year my legs were strong but my head was not in the right place. This year I really wanted to maintain my winning streak and have a solid ride. I knew we were going to see a huge field of ladies show up, people we don't normally get to race against, so there was a lot of the unknown added to the mix. I was even a little nervous which is funny; I don't get nervous before races very often. I've been doing this long enough to know that there is always another race. Once race day rolls around, you can only do what you can do. But I digress... back to my race report.

Amanda on the Expert Women's podium.

Currently one cannot get to North Carolina from Tennessee. There are rock slides on THREE different highways, making the journey long and slow. We are hoping that things get opened up again soon. Because of this, Mark and I decided to leave on Friday and do a road ride on the way there. We had to take the scenic route anyways, we might as well enjoy it. We stopped in one of my favorite areas to road ride, Tellico Plains, and did a 2 hour ride along the Tellico River. What a gorgeous ride. We finally got to the cabin at about 7pm, ate dinner and went to sleep dreaming of a weekend of beautiful riding.

Saturday we set up our kick butt team area with the help of Anina and John (thanks a ton guys!!!). We have two big team tents this year, all kinds of sponsor banners, a bike stand, work area and even an air compressor. We definitely have support!!! It is also AWESOME that the Trek Store of Chattanooga is a sponsor for the SERC series so we get a rock star team set up area at every race. It helps us promote the team and our sponsors. After a short wait, Star arrived and we were ready to go ride. I was also so excited to see an old teammate and friend Diana that I haven't gotten to see in years. She's always a strong racer and super fun to ride with. We completed our little pre-ride crew with our friend and sponsor Scott Wagner who was down from Indiana for some racing and riding. Scott, it is always so fun to see you!!!

Anina showing off her Swiftwick Tshirt and Kym showing off her Trek Store Chattaonooga Tshirt on the podium. We LOVE our sponsors and thank them for their support!!!

The race course was long; one long loop and one partial loop for a total race of 29 miles. Yikes. I don't normally pre-ride for almost 2 hours but we wanted to do one loop. My legs were going to feel that on Sunday. Hopefully everyone else was in the same boat.

Dinner was INCREDIBLE. A huge thanks to Anina's husband John for cooking some extremely yummy grub. We ate like kings (queens) and had a ton of fun hanging out. Sometimes I think my favorite part of race weekend is the time I get to spend with my teammates; the racing is like the icing on the cake!!!

Sunday morning it was time to race. Yikes. I was a bit nervous. Where were the nerves coming from?? It's ME, I don't get worked up about races. This one apparently I do. My warm-up was okay, I was glad to have Anina to ride with, my legs felt like poo and her positive thoughts helped. Thanks girl, I needed a dose of reality. We lined up a LOT of women; 24 I think. Wow, that's a good size field for a regional race. Anina and I took a spot in the center of the front row. We had decided that we did not want to hit the single track behind anyone so we were determined to be 1, 2 into the trail. After that we'd work together and whoever had the legs had the legs... They said "go" and it was a mad sprint up the hill to the singletrack. I was on the front and I knew Anina was on my wheel. We got onto the trail with a small gap and I settled into my pace. After the first few rollers it was her and I with no one in sight. SWEET. Our plan was working. Now to hold it for the next two hours.... I eventually lost Anina on one of the steep climbs (sorry girl, I thought you were still with me) and I was solo off the front. I WAS SOLO OFF THE FRONT OF KNOBSCHORCHER!!!! The race that I usually struggle at. And to top it off my legs were feeling okay but not "race fast". I just held it steady and did my thing, passing a huge portion of the men's field in the process. I do love that, I have to say. In looking at my time I would have been on the podium of all of the Expert men's categories. Yes, that feels really good. I won and Anina took a commanding second place. We had no one else close to us. Once again, we dominated the race. Amanda took a solid 5th place overall, 3rd Expert. She's riding so well this year, she'll be up with Anina and I before we know it. Emily, Catherine and Star all had very solid rides for mid-field finishes and gave us a great team showing.

I know I keep saying it and I am sure everyone is getting tired of hearing it but WOW, I have an awesome team. Not only are they all extremely talented, they are such fun, positive women to spend my weekends with. I am so proud of my entire team. YOU LADIES ROCK!!!!!

Thanks for reading...