Sprint Finish: Colorado State Championship

By Jen Tilley

Boulder, Colorado

Jen Tilley, Colorado State Championships, Dec. 7th 2008.

The weather was sunny and warm, being a balmy 68 degrees for the last cross race of the season. All season this year the weather has been amazing, definitely not typical cross conditions…

It turned out to be a great race with a good turnout for the women. I ended up 4th with a sprint to the line. With it being one of my better races of the season, it was a great way to end the year. Now its time to relax, spend some time on the snowboard and eat some good food!

Snow Day!

By Amy Dombroski
Burlington, Vermont

Woke up to an overcast day with some frost on the windshield, but no white stuff on the ground. We packed the car up for day 2 of psychocross - this time out to Morrison at Bear Creek Lake Park. Dry roads until about 15 miles outside of Boulder, then I had the first bad weather test for my new little dunebuggy.

I suited up…

…and hopped on the course, and quickly fell off my steed, multiple times. It was like ice skating in Sorrel boots. I gave the course my middle finger and hunkered in the car, not wanting to race.

But who wouldn’t want their bike to look like this?!

It was pretty purdy. And who knows what Portland and Kansas will deliver for conditions?

The secret to having fun was low tire pressure, and staying all loosy-goosy like a noodle. It was definitely a good core workout!

And good to practice my skills - my running skills, bike handling skills, numb-chuck skills, and pitting skills.

Chellie was out cheering her lungs off and snapping these kicking pictures. Thanks!

Top Three for Sara!

By Sara Johnson
Beaverton, Oregon

Grimy Grin

I wasn’t sure how I would do in this race. There was quite a bit of all out sprinting and not too much technical stuff. Plus, it was my first muddy cross race. We had a nice clearing in the rain for our start. Had a pretty good warm up, and we didn’t have to wait at the start line for too long. I had a decent start, not amazing, but definitely not as bad as usual. I’m finally learning some of the tactics. I hung out in about 7th for the first lap, then passed a couple people on one of the open paved sprint sections.

For the next 3 laps I battled back and forth from 4th to 7th. The last lap was the lucky part of the race. There was one run up that was actually rideable if you got a good run at it and no one was in your way. I was hanging out in 3rd or 4th and was accelerating up to the little hill to ride up it, right as I got to the bottom, two other girls were off their bikes getting ready to run up it and just converged on my line. Bummer, I jump off my bike totally expecting the other A women (who were smart and took it wide) to pass me on the outside while I ran up behind the two beginner women. Well, by some dumb luck, the girls moved over enough to let me through the inside line and I ended up on top in front of the other girls in my class.

Can you tell Sara is a downhiller?

I held my spot to the next area where the clusters usually happened. It was rideable, but only if you had a clean line. One of the girls I was battling with, came up on my outside and I had a beginner girl in front of me on the inside. So, jump off my bike to run around, fully expecting to get passed. Once again, the “waters parted” and I ran right through and was still in front of the pack. It was the last lap, with only an open sprint and one more barrier to the finish. I gave it what I had, hoping the other girls were suffering like I was.

Over the HUGE final barrier

I came up to the last barrier (it was HUGE by the way) jumped over it, got back on my bike neck and neck with 4th place. We were both struggling to get back in our peddles with the finish line only 25 feet away. By pure luck I got into my peddles just before she did and secured my 3rd place finish.

Tons of fun! Although I’m still picking dirt out of my eyes. Next weekend, PIR.

Cross Crusade: Sara Takes On the A’s

By Sara Johnson
Beaverton, Oregon

Well, I just raced my first cross crusade race…and I raced it as an A! Talk about crazy! Soo many people not just racing, but spectating too. The line up was crazy! 30 women in the A’s alone. I’m not even sure how many total women were racing. Luckily, the A’s get to go up to the front of the line. Since it was my first race, I hung back and started in the second line. It was a horrible start, every hole I saw would close up right as I started to take it. So, I was about 20 back in the beginning.

The race course was pretty fast and open in the beginning. Then they had us go up some huge mound of clay that had turned to concrete after the rain the night before. That was interesting to say the least! Coming down off the mound there were basically three tracks, and you picked one and were committed until you hit the bottom. Midway down, some girl went a*& over tea kettle right in front of me. Thankfully she was ok, and I missed running over her by a couple inches.

So now I’m in like 19th place??? Well, I just kept a good pace, tucked in behind some girl that looked like she knew what she was doing and just started passing people one by one. I ended up in 5th or 6th with 1.5 laps to go. Then I did what I NEVER do and I crashed! Damn! I actually went down twice in the same 180 degree sucky gravel corner, but the first time I got my foot out and basically just tapped the ground and bounced back into my pedal and started riding again. The next time around, not so lucky. I didn’t get my foot out and I went down….hard. Ouch, I left a bit of thigh, butt and elbow skin on that course. Didn’t rip my pretty shorts tho…yay for that!

Well, the crash also rammed my derailer into my spokes and twisted my shifter/brake levers so that my brakes were stuck on. While I was yanking the derailer out of my spokes, and twisting the levers back to semi straight, 5 girls passed me. Damn again. I tried to catch them the whole rest of the race, but my bike was basically a single speed and I was stuck in the drops the whole time because the bars twisted. I couldn’t pass them, but I also didn’t let anyone else get by me. I ended up 11th out of 30. Which, for my first major cross race, I think is pretty good.

Next weekend there is another one up in Washington. Got my bike all fixed up, got my new sweet 1600gram triple spoked wheel set from FSA and I’m ready to go. Making a whirlwind trip to Spokane friday night after work, visit babies and eek a quick ride in saturday and then drive to the race sight in Western Washington (a mere 6 hr drive) Sunday morning and race again. If nothing else I’ll be nice and rested from 6 hours of forced sitting.

Fame and Fortune: Kari Heads to the Midwest

By Kari Studley
Bothell, Washington

I can’t let my new almost celebrity status go to my head.

In checking my bike for my flight to Ohio, the TSA guy looked at the tag, looked at me, did a double-take and exclaimed, “You’re Kari Studley!  You took tenth at Cross Vegas!!!”  Completely dumbfounded that a stranger (who looked like he’d follow football more than cycling) knew cycling, the obscure sport of cyclocross, there’s a race called Cross Vegas and me!?!   As I was speechless, he continued, “ I knew you had to be a serious cyclocross racer when I inspected your bike last time [when I traveled to Cross Vegas].  So I looked you up and you did pretty good.”  (Turns out his dad used to own a bike shop and he sold Chris Horner “his first road bike”, so he likes to follow Chris and the cycling world.)

So my first trip to the midwest started out well.  It was an “unseasonably warm” (or really hot!!! For us west coasters) weekend with temps in the mid-high 80s.  I’m not complaining, it was just a shock to go somewhere where the lowest temp is your hopeful high temperature (of whappin’ 55 degrees) and it never even got that cold at night…   Saturday’s race sponsor, Java Johnny, graciously allowed me to stay in one of his furnished apartments less than a mile from Saturday’s race venue which I REALLY appreciated!

Friday’s race: Darkhorse Stampede in Birmingham, KY.  Aka: my cross nightmare come true.  Seemed like the course was 70% of my weakest types of corners – tight and off camber. <=/   Lesson learned from this race: know the start.  Duh.  But I forgot about that part until I was at the start line and realized I had no idea how/where the transition from pavement to unfriendly cornering would take place.   So I tried to hang on and think happy thoughts when going somewhat blind into that and missed my chance to be in the lead break.  When my race brain finally kicked in, someone crashed on one of the (many) off camber corners and I barely missed running her over.  When I settled into a grove again, I took myself out on one of the choice ditches at the bottom of a downhill.  Then that same girl (who passed me in my self destruction) crashed again.  I was done with her at that point and set my sights on putting as much distance between us.  Which brought 10^th place into sight….   I like 10^th place… so I managed to secure my lucky number to bring my UCI point total up to… (drum roll please)  2!  It’s a start.

Saturday: Java Johnny’s in Middleton, OH.  Anything could be more favorable for me than Friday’s course, and since this was so close to my lodging, I got to practice quite a bit on it.   Knew the start, and was pretty excited when I realized “I’m trying to catch Georgia Gould’s wheel!”  Never thought I’d ever think that (at least this season).   At least I felt like I was actually racing, and I got to follow Georgia’s wheel  when she was chasing back from a mechanical.  I even thought of passing her on the slight hill just because I knew I could, but decided to be nice as she already had enough stress in her race and didn’t need to worry about getting around me again.  But I enjoyed managing to stay on her wheel for a while.  After Georgia went her way I was able to work back to my lucky number: 10^th.  And although 9^th was dangling like bait for me, I never caught her.

Sunday: BioWheels in Cincy (Cincinnati) OH.   Aka:  being Barb Howe for a day.  Celebrity again!  I was told that a photo of me made cycling news from Saturday’s race!  The only catch, I was labeled as Barb Howe.  Guess it’s a start.  I’ll just make sure to wear a name tag next time.   The course was really cool and suited me well.   I thought I felt better, but 3 days of racing, travel, the HEAT, and a funky stomach caught up to me so I didn’t have the reserves that I had hoped to make the lead group.  Just when I was closing in on (take a guess on what place) 10^th, my celebrity photo twin, Barb Howe, my back tire went flat!  So I lost a lot of time trying to ride / run a half lap before I got Barb’s “B” bike in the pit.  At least my knees didn’t hit my elbows too much as I ride a frame one size bigger… and now I really knew what it was like to ride like Barb!  Amazingly, 11^th was still mine with 12^th no where in sight!

And I realized I’ve already surpassed what I set out to do this season: place top 15 at UCI races.  Now I want to crack top 10…. I’ve heard 7 is also lucky….

Cross Vegas: Top Ten for Kari!

By Kari Studley
Bothell, Washington

As I summed it up to co-workers who asked where I’d been the past week: “ I was sick, slept all Friday and Saturday, Got enough energy to race Starcrossed Saturday night, sick Sunday & Monday. Felt better Tuesday, went for a ride and felt okay, so I went to Vegas….to race!” I think I will forever remember their blank expressions –I’m sure Vegas is the LAST place they’d ever think I’d go, even when in perfect health. But I think I am addicted to Cross Vegas - I just love the excitement and energy of this race. Where else does Elvis sing the national anthem and help hand out awards? Love it! And this year there were BUSLOADS of people being brought from the strip to spectate – at least 4x as many people cheering and watching compared to last year.

But CrossVegas is totally worth it! And since I didn’t have anything to lose (last year I crashed 1^st lap, taco-ed my front wheel and got pulled second lap…and I only had the big ring as we hadn’t found a derailleur hanger that worked on the frame) I could only improve on last year if I finished the race. And with a start number of 35 (out of 39), hopefully the only way to go was up. They had also changed the course from last year which really favored me a lot better – it was now an even bigger time trial on grass >> just my thing!

Without any particular expectations, other than finishing and not getting lapped by Katie Compton, I took my place at the start line, got to meet fellow Bella Marian, and guess I was standing near Laura Van Gilder (HUGE professional road cyclist) among other big names in women’s cycling. I’m honestly still learning who’s who… but I at least now know who Laura is.

Photo copyright Lyne Lamoureux. Used with permission.

The start was hot! Literally as it was 81 degrees. Just when I had settled into what I thought was a good position, a surge of riders from behind swarmed past me, so back to work in moving back up through the pack– let the attrition begin! I saw Shannon & Tilley in the group ahead of me so I jumped across and joined them on the run up. Half a lap later and still feeling good, I pushed on to join Kathy Sherwin. A lap later, another bella came into sight – her racing greatness: Barb Howe! In total shock and still feeling good, I kept moving through to the front of the pack into 12^th with 10^th & 11^th in sight up ahead. A lap later, “black” and “green” (I nickname by kit colors when racing when I’m on the hunt) were mine (I was now 10^th!!!!!) and it was now 3 more painful laps of time trial solitude. It was awesome to hear people cheer for me and see Alex beside himself with excitement. On the last lap, Alex exclaimed: “You’re in front of Laura Van Gilder! One of the best road cyclists ever! Keep it up!” For all I was concerned, there was no way anyone – regardless of who - was going to take 10^th from me if I could help it.

When I crossed the finish line I had to resist sitting up and doing the pro arms-up victory pose as I rode through – I might as well won as far as I’m concerned. That was the best race of my life! With 10^th I also qualified for UCI points which means I will no longer start 4^th from last (which is based on registration order), so I’m very excited about that.

Alex just laughed when I asked in earnest if Laura was in the black or green kit. I now know she’s in a black kit. Hope to see her more in passing…

Vegas! Marian’s Suffering-est Race Ever

By Marian Jamison
Reno, Nevada

Alternate post titles:

How I lost my helmet in the Las Vegas Airport.
The longest day ever.
The suffering-est race ever.

Erm, yeah, Cross Vegas!

So, my whole Las Vegas trip (lasting all of 24 hours) was a bit of an adventure. Cody dropped me off at the Reno airport on Wednesday, the day of the race, at 7 AM. When I got to Vegas my bike was there at the luggage claim (no seriously alarming holes in my bike box!) and I stepped out of the terminal to figure out how the hell I was going to get to the convention center. Ah yes, airport shuttle. $12.00 round trip, and I just had to call them to schedule my return trip the next day. Not too hard. The guy driving the shuttle grumbled about loading my enourmous box into the van, repeatedly telling me that they wouldn’t allow it in the convention center. Um, it’s a bike expo, and this is my bike . . . huh? But then he was hella nice and drove me all the way to the doors of the convention center, even though they usually just drop people off at the Venetian and make them walk. And Milo and Otis was playing on the TV in the shuttle van and some foreign dude behind me was cracking up. All in all a good start to the day.

So, I walked into the convention center and immediately saw the coat/bag check office. I asked them if I could check my bike (box and all!) and, after some deliberation, they allowed it! Sweet, one less thing to worry about. I picked up my badge that my boss had arranged for me (it said I was a distributor from Belgium . . . haha) and wandered around the expo for awhile. Talk about sensory overload. I found my coworkers at the Ridley booth and verified that I could stay with them that night (3 dudes sleeping in a room together, one on a cot, and they offered me the couch. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me!). Sampled some of Clif’s new offerings, tried to get some free stuff, and then took a nap in the lobby on the floor.

Ultimately I decided to take a cab to the race venue. It was a little pricey, but at least I could bring my bike and then build it at the venue. I was just putting my wheels on in the parking lot when I saw Alex from Velo Bella getting set up at the Kona tent. Yay! People I know! I walked over and said hi, met some new people, and set up camp. Lots of Bellas (really freaking fast ones!) racing. Anyway, the team support from Alex and Melanie was awesome!

Anyway, to get to the point (finally) the race started at 7:30. I felt decent - kinda tired from my early morning and my wanderings at Interbike, but ready for a thorough ass-whooping. They called everyone up, and it was pretty freaking cool hearing my name, “Marian Jamison, racing for Velo Bella, from Reno, Nevada!” - or something like that. My friend Harry was there at the start line (I think he’d had a couple beers at this point) and he yelled, pretty much right into Laura Van Gilder’s ear, I think, “This is Marian Jamison, people! Marian Jamison!” It made me smile.

Ready, set, hurt! The start of the race was sooo fast! LVG was right in front of me and she popped out of her pedals and almost went down. Holy crap, I almost ran over Laura Van Gilder. Anyway, we got going on the little parade lap and it was pain pain pain, hard hard hard from the very beginning. I was pretty far near the back, worked my way up past a couple of people, and then jockeyed back and forth with a couple of girls for most of the race. The course was mostly flat, with a couple little gnar up sections. Those little up sections made me feel like my brains were going to pop out of my eye-sockets. Seriously, pain. But there were lots of people around the course who knew me (I had no idea who they were at the time) and were cheering for me, and every time I went by Alex he told me to suffer more (that was essentially the gist) so I was pretty encouraged to flog myself for the whole race. Or, almost the whole race.

Photo copyright, Lyne Lamoureux. Used with permission.

My accomplishment for the evening was being the last girl to not get lapped and pulled. I was riding sooo hard going into my last lap so that Katie and Katerina wouldn’t catch me, and I think I went through the finish when they were maybe 100 feet back and closing in fast! So, there was no one behind me on my last lap, and the girl in front of me was pretty far away, so I backed off a little, since I was pretty sure I was dying at that point. But I did my last lap, and sat down on the grass to wait for death. Alex came by, congradulated me, and told me to cool down.

I took a spin and ran into a couple of the people who’d been cheering for me. Bella Marian (California Issue) was there. I hadn’t seen her since Kern, so that was pretty much rad, ’cause she’s pretty much rad. Also Maureen Kunz, Pro-MTBer extraordinair and collegiate rival (if you can be in a rivalry with someone who is hella faster than you) and maybe one of my favorite people to get beat by, was there offering congrats and catch up with. Plus Harry and his friend, were was pretty much awesome with the cheering. Ha! Even my old boss who I routinely avoid, and some fun ex-coworkers were there cheering for me like crazy. I felt like such a star coming in 5th from last that I can’t even imagine how those people who actually do well must feel. Golly.

So, thus ended the extremely fun and painful part of my adventure. I watched the men’s race, which was rad and hella exciting. There was some dude named Lance Armstrong racing? Anyway, people seemed pretty excited about him. It was so awesome to watch some of the fastest guys in the world (Frischknecht and Sauser were there) and they were all so fast. After the race there was a bit of a mass exodus from the venue to where they were shuttling people back to the strip. I was planning on taking the shuttle, but the line was like, a mile long, so I decided to ride. I strapped all my bags of crap on my back and got ready to depart. Some dudes from Boston offered to let me ride with them because they had lights, and we had a jolly nice ride back into Vegas. It was a pretty surreal experience, tho. I mean, I’m a Reno-ite, so I’m used to bright lights and tall casinos, but Vegas is on a whole other level. It was pretty weird riding towards all that through darkened neighborhoods at 11 o’clock at night.

My destination was the Rio - I was heading to the Sinclair party where my coworkers could supply me with a room key to get washed up and then go get drunk with Phil Liggett at the party (haha, only kidding). Long story short (too late), I was way too tired to enjoy the party much, but I hung out for a while because California Marian was there, as were my Bostonian riding buddies. So that was cool. Anyway, the pole dancers were a little much at the end of a very, very long day. So I headed to my couch at 2 AM, only to be woken up by a phone call from some number I didn’t know. See, in all the hustle and bustle to get back to the Rio, I’d forgotten to dispose of my cardboard bike box, and it had my name and phone number on it. Some dude was wicked pissed that I’d left it in the parking lot (totally on accident! I don’t litter!) and called me to tell me so. Sorry dude! It was an accident! Oops! Well, I felt like a jack ass. Oh well, moving on.

I got up at 5:45 the next morning to take the shuttle back to the airport. Ouch, 3:45 hrs of sleep. I left my bike with my coworkers (they would be driving back to Reno after Interbike). In my sleep deprived state I managed to leave my helmet somewhere in the Las Vegas airport. I realized I didn’t have it with me about 20 minutes before my plane left. D’oh! I checked, very quickly, with the lost and found folks at the Security check - the only placed I feel I could have left it - but it wasn’t there and if I waited any longer I was going to miss my plane. So that was a bummer of a way to end my trip.

Well, I’m still getting caught up on sleep from that trip, but I think it was worth it. I think next year I’ll go to Gloucester instead, tho . . . I know lots of people there, too, so I should have a good cheering section.

See more photos from Cross Vegas, by Lyne Lamoureux.

Bella At Play: Connie in Whistler and Moab

By Connie Misket
Park City, Utah

Well, I had planned to do one more race this summer, but a solid wreck at Sol Vista in the Super D put me on crutches for a bit and took me off the bike for a month. Luckily, I was healed up just in time for the 7 days of riding we had planned in Whistler! Woohoo! (My new Velo Bella DH jerseys showed up just in time for the trip too, so I was stylin!)

Anyway - we made our first pilgrimage to Whistler last year and just spent 4 days riding. It was just amazing riding in the bike park and we vowed to go back every year. This year we drove (18 hours or so) so we could bring multiple bikes, and we had 7 full days of riding scheduled. Sadly, we didn’t take much in the way of pictures (pathetic, I know…).

Now that we’re back - it’s Moab season! Yay! This past weekend was still a bit hot so we did some trails that started way up in the Mountains and then you ride down into town

I LOVE riding through aspens: (this one is of my friend Traci)

And me again, back down into what you’d recognize as Moab:

Anyway - that’s what I’ve been up to lately. As much as I LOVE racing, there’s also nothing like heading out with your friends to explore new trails and have fun riding your butts off!! I’ve also been learning to speed skate, which is my new addition to XC and alpine skiing as my winter cross training activities. And Kimber and I are going to make an attempt at some cyclocross too. Wish us luck!

The Vermonter Or, Psyched in the XC

By Shannon Edson
Berkeley, California

Well, Mount Snow, VT is a very long way from California. 

On Wednesday morning, I embarked on what seemed like an epic adventure: I have a horrible sense of direction and I am a very nervous flyer.  Luckily, the first flight into Denver and the second into LaGuardia were relatively painless.  After six hours in the air, I was glad to be on solid ground and pointed in the direction of Allie’s house in Patterson, NY.  (Allie was nice enough to put me up for the night).

Amazingly, I made it to her house without too getting lost; although, I do have one complaint about maps.google.com.  It would behoove the driver to know that he or she is going to cross a bridge.  This is kind of important information.  Maps.google.com, just add a line that says, “Hey, you are going to drive over a bridge.”  As an English teacher, I have an interpretive mind, but for things like directions, I am pretty literal. 

But, I digress.  After a night at Allie’s, the downhillers and I packed up to drive to Vermont.  Inexplicably, Connie and I lost Allie and Kimber in the space of about thirty seconds and managed to drive an extra hour to the same location.  We were in good spirits though and decided that it was a good thing we were with each other and not with our husbands.  Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, we had missed Super D practice and Allie and Kimber were out walking the course, so we decided to get a bite to eat.  And so began the love affair with the Vermonter – the official sandwich of the US National Championships.  The sandwich is comprised of two slices of French toast, ham, cheddar cheese, apple, and maple dipping syrup.  Now, I ask you: How could this be bad? 

Anyway, after the sandwich, I was ready for a nap, but I needed to pre-ride.  The course was easily my favorite cross-country course of the season.  The climb was steep; the descent was rooty and rocky.  It hadn’t rained for a few days, so it was in great shape and my Maxxis Crossmarks felt great.  I rode the tricky sections a couple of times to figure out my lines.  Overall, I felt pretty confident on the course, but my body was pretty tired from the long travel days, so I decided against doing a second lap. 

The next day, I met up with Jen, and we rode the climb to the first singletrack.  My legs felt snappy, and my bike, thanks to Morgan Styer, our mechanic, looked and felt brand new.  Later, we went to watch Alicia Styer, an up and coming Velo Bella and Morgan’s daughter, race.  I’m so impressed with her.  As an eleven year old, she has a long and successful career of racing before her. 

Oh, somewhere between my spin with Jen and Alicia’s race, I had another Vermonter. 

Later that night, we had dinner at the condo and talked about the course and our goals.  Since I had traveled so far, I really wanted to have a good race.  I tried to tell myself that I should focus on having fun and not the result.  However, this is easy to say, but hard to believe.  I knew that I had done all the right things to have a good result, but I didn’t know how I would respond to the travel, the humidity, the national field, etc.  I spent a fitful night of sleep only to be awakened by the sound of thunder and rain outside.  This did not help to calm my nerves, but only increased my anxiety.  The course was going to be totally different now that it was wet. 

After a few hours of staring at the ceiling, Jen and I headed down to the venue.  Morgan quickly changed out my front Crossmark for a Maxxis Advantage, and I started my warm-up.  This turned out to be the perfect choice for the conditions.  I had decided not to wear my heart rate monitor.  Although I’ve worn it all season, I sometimes talk myself out of going harder if I see a number that seems too high. 

At 10:45, I was on the line.  I knew I had my work cut out of me.   Looking at field, I was glad that I didn’t have my HR monitor on because I knew my heart was racing just standing there.  The official went through the instructions, and we were off.  Up the first climb, I passed a couple of women and then encountered some traffic on the first singletrack section.  Women were off their bikes, and thus, so was I.  Finally, it loosened up on the long fire road and I started passing.  When we ducked back into the woods, I made a few mistakes, and a couple racers squeezed around me.  On the descent though, I started picking them off. 

Through the feed zone, I told myself that I just needed to make fewer mistakes each lap, and I would gain time.  The second lap was better than the first, but I still needed to concentrate on being smooth.  Into the final lap, I felt good and I was able to push it up the steep climbs.  My Kona Kula Lisa really is a mountain goat.  I cleaned the sections I had missed in the woods on the uphill and rode the descent more smoothly.  It only took me three laps to figure out that loop.  Before the course opened up out of the woods, I came within five seconds of Theresa Richardson.  On the flats into the finish, I gave everything I had to catch her, but I didn’t have the juice.  She ended up nine seconds in front. 

Overall, I’m totally psyched.  I ended up 25^th of 36.  This is my best finish in a pro field.  As Johanna and I later discussed, it felt like we had people to race.  It was the first race of the season where I didn’t feel like I was hanging onto the bottom rung. 

Unfortunately, the next day did not go as well.  Instead of hanging onto the bottom rung, I slipped off.  I got pulled after six minutes in short track.  I guess this means that I left it all out on the XC course.  I didn’t feel too bad about it since I consoled myself with another Vermonter before I left. 

The Velo Bellas had a fantastic showing at Nationals, and I am proud to be part of such a talented, positive, and supportive team.   A big thank you goes to Alex and Morgan for fearless leadership and impeccable mechanic skills. 

Roots and Rocks

By Connie Misket
Salt Lake City, Utah

Allie pretty much told the tale of missing Super D practice on Thursday - oops. I’d like to say we should have gotten up earlier but good grief. I got 2.5 hours of sleep after getting in to Allie’s house and then getting up at 5am to build my bike…

Anyway - Shannon was a fun driving buddy and we cheered each other up on the longer than expected, somewhat circuitous drive to Mt. Snow. I figured I would just walk the course Thursday and then practice the next two days. I had planned to just race Super D - that’s the only bike I brought. I was looking at an extra $250 each way to bring the DH bike - which just wasn’t happening. So I figured I’ve been doing better in Super D, so I’d just go with that. And Kimber is injured and supposed to be “taking it easy” so she was just going to do the SD too on Allie’s Nomad. Went to register and looked at the practice schedule…. no Super D practice until the race on Sunday. WHAT??? We asked, we complained, we kept complaining until we got to the race director… no luck. Too bad, no practice for you. AND - you can’t buy a lift ticket and ride elsewhere - the mountain is closed except for formal race practice. Well that’s sweet…

So we registered for the DH. We figured at least that way we can ride something, and we’d check it out and if we couldn’t race it, so be it, but at least we’d be out riding, having fun, and getting a feel for the terrain and staying fresh on our bikes. Practice Friday went really well. I was cleaning the DH course no problem on my 6″ trail bike. Not very fast at the top - there are all these weird holes, but I felt good on the rest. The top just flew down the ski run and if you had any speed you’d get air - right into an off camber hole with rocks here and there.. I’m not sure what to compare it to, other than it looked innocent enough to ride slowly, but at speed looked terrifying. And then Friday night it rained… And then I started wrecking my guts out. The ski run stuff was slippery as hell on the wet grass, and then you got into the woods and got to ride all over the wet roots. Most of it was fine but there were 2 sections that had really off camber roots that just wanted to throw you off the side of the trail. And Saturday night it rained more…

Anyway - back to the Super D - that course was looking FUN!!! 3 climbs, which I wasn’t psyched about, but they looked okay except for the last climb which had a steep part at the very end. Bleh, but I’ve held my own on SD courses with 3 climbs before (in Angel Fire). And the rest was rocky, rooty fun and fire road descents with water bar jumps. Anyway - traditional SD - they don’t tell you what the deal is with the start until 10 min before the race. And this one sucked. Like 100 yards of running with your bike straight up the ski run. The other major event ones I’ve done were literally like 20 steps of running, then jump on your bike. This was LONG and steep, through tall weeds and loose rocks. I got smoked at the start. I don’t think I’ve run a step other than for Super D’s in like 5 years with all my knee surgeries. So starting from about last, I start picking people off through the woods. So far, so good. 2nd climb I got passed by 1 person but passed another. Then I got stuck behind 4 girls all trying to pass each other in the woods. No go, and I had to ride that whole section at a crawl, stuck behind the traffic jam - ugh. Passed someone else when it opened up, but got passed once again by 2 people on the 3rd nasty climb. I passed one more person in the woods, and another on the top speed/off camber descent down the ski run to the fire road, which was fun. I got to do that last pass in the air as we hit a water bar and blew by an XC girl just flying, and then nailed the flat gravel road corners as well as I’ve ever imagined I could… and pedaled like hell, but just missed catching Jen Tilley - who totally destroyed me on the climbs . (We totally need to do a Bella clinic where we can trade some climbing skills for some descending skills, huh? :D)

So anyway - I ended up 11th of 16. With the long running start it wasn’t a DH friendly course by any means, but I had a lot of fun on the course and had a blast racing it (well… not so much as I was running up the hill wanting to puke, but the rest of it was sweet!)

So then it was time to move on to the DH. The thunderstorms were lurking in the distance, but it held off for the race, which was great. I was really nervous about the top of the course, as on Saturday when it was wet I was wrecking left and right and ended up just walking a whole slippery off camber section up top that I just couldn’t stay upright on when it was wet. Luckily qualifying was at 11am and that’s when our practice had ended the day before so I had my fingers crossed that it dried out a bit. And it did - at least somewhat. I went slow, but made it down the top totally clean…. and then I slid out on the corner before you get into the woods. Got up and wrecked again. And got into the woods, which had been totally fun the previous two days, but I think I was trying to go too fast and just kept on wrecking. I think there were a total of 6 wrecks in my qualifying run. Good God. Luckily my bike suffered no damage (bent derailleur hanger that our mechanic fixed - OMG do I love having a team mechanic!!!) and I just wound up with a good bruise on my calf and a jammed index finger. No big deal. I qualified 13th (of 15).

Went back up for the race run and tried to tell myself to go slower and ride clean. Which totally worked…. for 3/4 of the course. And then I hit those dang off camber roots and flipped over my bike. That one hurt. Jammed my saddle into my inner thigh. Got up as fast as I could and kept going. Slid off a second time and I could hear the whistle of a rider coming behind me as I got on my bike so I pulled off to one side of the course to let her go. But just as I was expecting her to pass, she wrecked along side me, so I took off and rode as fast as I could to get out of the trees to give her space in the open in case she needed to pass again. The bottom of the course was clean - I was flying through the rocky section (wow do I love rocks compared to wet roots) and stayed loose and smooth through the mud bog (not a straight line in sight - all the ruts dead ended into roots and rocks criscrossing this field of mud). Actually - I was really pleased with that section - it’s so counter-intuitive to let off the brakes, totally relax and quit trying to steer and just let the bike find it’s own line through that kind of stuff. I know that’s what I need to do in my head and I didn’t let fear get the best of me and just did it - and what do you know, it worked every time. Anyway - I got through that and then pedalled my butt off to the finish line for a 14th place finish.

Well, it was a moral victory, if nothing else. It’s not like I expected to do well on a 6″ trail bike. I was only 3 seconds away from 13th place. And I had a blast riding and racing, and walked away with my bike and body intact (well minus some spectacular bruises on my legs). And then we got to watch Allie completely kill it on the DH course and it was so great to be there and celebrate her amazing finish.

Anyway - we all had a really great time - and not just with the riding - with the awesome host housing, swimming in the river, unbelievably good food… I’d love to do more riding on the East Coast. And I’m gradually getting the hang of this riding wet slimy stuff…

Lessons learned:

1. I just love to ride. Period. Right bike, wrong bike, wet roots, slimy off camber grass… I love it. And while I was nervous about how poor my results would be on the smaller bike - I made the decision to just go for it and have fun and it all worked out fine. But having the right bike would have been a LOT better! And speaking of having the right bike, I think I’ll be looking at getting more of a FS XC race bike for Super D’s for next year… That would probably help too when it comes to improving the climbing.

2. I really need to be even more careful about picking lines and not braking through those wet, off angle roots. I wish we had more of those to practice on around here, but wow do those suckers get you fast…

3. I need to work on longer running starts and sprinting up climbs. You get so stuck on mass start Super D courses when you can’t get out front first. So Kimber and I are going to try some cyclocross this winter to see if it helps with all of that.

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