Weekend cross report - Almost there

Another weekend of two cross races - I think I'm starting to get used to this. Saturday was Rum River Cross up in Milaca, it was a gorgeous day and a fun course, probably my favorite one so far. Two really fast sets of double barriers, and two more double barriers on hills - one rideable, and one definitely was a run-up. We started out with 5 women - me and Margot, Linda S, Linda C, and Gopher Sara. Margot and I got a bit of a gap towards the beginning (afterwards, we found out that Linda S' shoe had busted at this point - bummer!!) and traded pulls, Linda C caught us and then somehow I gapped both of them a tad. Soon Linda C caught back up to me and I let her get in front. She's got quite an engine on her, so I figured I would sit on her wheel and then try to gap her in the more technical woods section. Theoretically it was a great idea except I hit the corner way too fast and biffed. I jumped back up pretty quickly, but she was already pretty far up. It took me about a lap to catch back up, and quite a bit of an effort. She pulled away from me a bit on the second to last lap and held an even gap until the end. I ended up in second - I was happy with the way I rode. I was sorry about Linda S' shoe, though, and also Margot had a tough break - her thigh got in a fight with her chainring in the middle of one set of barriers.
All photos courtesy of skinnyski. You should definitely check out the other photos - there are some great ones from Rum River.

Today was Lake Rebecca - a beautiful course around a small lake. It rained a bit before my race, so the course was slick. I loved it, sliding around on a bike is always a good time. There were some fun corners, too, but I think Saturday still wins as my favorite course. Today there weren't any really fast barriers - they were all at the hills. There were only three women in the B race - me, Linda C, and Korey. We started off about 30 seconds behind the men. I led into the wooded section, and as we went around a corner, Tina yelled to me, "get on your bike and ride the hill!" That was a great tip - coming up was a single barrier at the bottom of a relatively steep hill - I had originally thought I'd probably run up it, but I jumped back on my bike and rode. It worked out really well, and when I looked back, I didn't see either of the other women. So I gunned it, and kept going. I think I was gaining time in the more technical section, and had quite a lead after that lap. I stayed ahead, feeling pretty good, until about 2 laps to go - all of a sudden I just couldn't push the pace anymore. Linda caught me, and I jumped on her wheel, but when I dropped my chain coming into the hill, I kinda gave up and settled for second place. I had so much fun sliding through the slick corners though, mostly on my bike, but once on my side. I think I ran my tire pressure too high - I don't like to have it too low though, because I always seem to flat. Hmmm, time for me to get some tufos. I actually had a lot of bike trouble today - dropped chain twice and my horribly budget pedals kept upclipping as I cranked up the hill - but H-Wood is going to get me set up this week, and then I'll have no more excuses.

It was great to see Bellas Barb and Manda in the C race - for being one of the smaller teams in the MCF, we sure are representing well at the cross races!

And it was sweet to hear Super-Rookie and team Awesome cheering and telling me to blog it. He almost caused a disaster in the first lap of our race when he walked in front of the entire women's cat 1/2/3 field! It was all good though. Now I'm going to sleep a lot.