Jingle Cross Rocking - Day Two
Sunday was a day that I had a really hard time getting out of bed. After not riding so well on Saturday, I wasn't too psyched to race, and I was still tired. Crap. But I fumbled my way out of bed and hit up the Panera on the way to the race for some much needed coffee. When I got to the race course around 10:00, everyone was already there, far more awake than me. Good thing my race wasn't till 1:30 again.
That gave me time to scope out the new course. It was run the opposite direction of Saturday's course, going over some of the same route, but with quite a bit different also. And it meant that we had to RUN UP the huge downhill. Also, they added a couple barn pass-throughs for a total of three, just to remind us that we were doing CX in Iowa. One of these was pretty dark, just lit with X-mas lights inside, so that was a little spooky. There were 2 triple barriers again, but the placement was much awesomer on Sunday. By awesomer, I mean faster. And in the barn area, the course wound around and around quite a bit, so if you were spectating there, you could see riders going in and out of the barns in all directions.
Hollywood rocked the singlespeed division early in the day, along with Kristi on her singlespeed 17.5 inch men's bologna-bike, and Jackie kicked butt in the Cat 4 women's race. At 11:40, the 3/4 men's race started, and I was given the task of bottle and beer hand-ups for the Little Guy, Lalla, and... what? Two Velo Bellas? Somehow S-R and Dis got into my suitcase and hijacked my Bella kits for their race. I gotta hand it to them, they looked damn good. And it was OK, because I hijacked Jay's Hollywood Cycles skinsuit and wore it for the weekend.
At one point during the guys' race, I was running over to give Dis a hand-up and I heard a loud gunshot. Actually, no, it was just Super Rookie's tire popping explosively. But he got back in the race like any Velo Bella would and finished it out.
I had warmed up a bit with Amanda, and then finally, at 1:30, it was time for me to race. Sunday, there were a few more women, maybe 21, and again about half of them got the call up. This time I elbowed my way to the second row anyway, so I had a better start. Our start was slightly more low-key than Saturday, and after the first lap, I was still in the lead group of 7 women - made up of the top 8 from Saturday with the exclusion of Linda C, who had dropped her chain. It was all good for a bit, but then the girl in front of me had an ugly crash on one of the corners. Ouch! After I managed to avoid her and ask if she was OK, I looked up and there was quite a gap between me and the rest of the group. And... it continued to widen. I hung out alone in 6th place until Linda C caught me. We hammered along for a lap or so together, and then I drifted off her wheel into my own comfortable spot in 7th place. From there, I rode alone for the rest of the race, and it was by far the most fun I've had in a CX race!!
On one side of the course, Hollywood, Kristi, Jackie, and some of my new friends from Saturday night were hanging out, yelling for me every time I came by. They were amazing. Super-encouraging and made me want to keep going. Then on the other side of the course, I was getting hand-ups from (Dis)pencer, along with solid encouragement from Super Rookie and the Little Guy. In fact, at one point, I think Super Rookie actually flashed me, and then on the next lap, I'm pretty sure the three of them were chanting, "K-A-R-L-A, Wooooo!" They were in the barn area, so it was kind of nuts - every corner I rounded, one of them would pop out and yell. Awesome.
Then there was the hill - I'd say the majority of the spectators gathered on top of the hill to watch the action. Since I was racing alone, and I'm pretty slow on the run-up, that meant that all the fans had plenty of time to yell directly at me, and aggressively ring all their cowbells right in my ears. It made me laugh every time though, and that's always a good feeling.
All in all it was a wonderful weekend, the promoters did a great job and the weather was perfect. A good end to the season. Thanks to (Dis)pencer and Lynne for the pics.
That gave me time to scope out the new course. It was run the opposite direction of Saturday's course, going over some of the same route, but with quite a bit different also. And it meant that we had to RUN UP the huge downhill. Also, they added a couple barn pass-throughs for a total of three, just to remind us that we were doing CX in Iowa. One of these was pretty dark, just lit with X-mas lights inside, so that was a little spooky. There were 2 triple barriers again, but the placement was much awesomer on Sunday. By awesomer, I mean faster. And in the barn area, the course wound around and around quite a bit, so if you were spectating there, you could see riders going in and out of the barns in all directions.
Hollywood rocked the singlespeed division early in the day, along with Kristi on her singlespeed 17.5 inch men's bologna-bike, and Jackie kicked butt in the Cat 4 women's race. At 11:40, the 3/4 men's race started, and I was given the task of bottle and beer hand-ups for the Little Guy, Lalla, and... what? Two Velo Bellas? Somehow S-R and Dis got into my suitcase and hijacked my Bella kits for their race. I gotta hand it to them, they looked damn good. And it was OK, because I hijacked Jay's Hollywood Cycles skinsuit and wore it for the weekend.
At one point during the guys' race, I was running over to give Dis a hand-up and I heard a loud gunshot. Actually, no, it was just Super Rookie's tire popping explosively. But he got back in the race like any Velo Bella would and finished it out. I had warmed up a bit with Amanda, and then finally, at 1:30, it was time for me to race. Sunday, there were a few more women, maybe 21, and again about half of them got the call up. This time I elbowed my way to the second row anyway, so I had a better start. Our start was slightly more low-key than Saturday, and after the first lap, I was still in the lead group of 7 women - made up of the top 8 from Saturday with the exclusion of Linda C, who had dropped her chain. It was all good for a bit, but then the girl in front of me had an ugly crash on one of the corners. Ouch! After I managed to avoid her and ask if she was OK, I looked up and there was quite a gap between me and the rest of the group. And... it continued to widen. I hung out alone in 6th place until Linda C caught me. We hammered along for a lap or so together, and then I drifted off her wheel into my own comfortable spot in 7th place. From there, I rode alone for the rest of the race, and it was by far the most fun I've had in a CX race!!
On one side of the course, Hollywood, Kristi, Jackie, and some of my new friends from Saturday night were hanging out, yelling for me every time I came by. They were amazing. Super-encouraging and made me want to keep going. Then on the other side of the course, I was getting hand-ups from (Dis)pencer, along with solid encouragement from Super Rookie and the Little Guy. In fact, at one point, I think Super Rookie actually flashed me, and then on the next lap, I'm pretty sure the three of them were chanting, "K-A-R-L-A, Wooooo!" They were in the barn area, so it was kind of nuts - every corner I rounded, one of them would pop out and yell. Awesome.
Then there was the hill - I'd say the majority of the spectators gathered on top of the hill to watch the action. Since I was racing alone, and I'm pretty slow on the run-up, that meant that all the fans had plenty of time to yell directly at me, and aggressively ring all their cowbells right in my ears. It made me laugh every time though, and that's always a good feeling.
All in all it was a wonderful weekend, the promoters did a great job and the weather was perfect. A good end to the season. Thanks to (Dis)pencer and Lynne for the pics.
posted by karla at 2:01 PM
7 Comments:
See, LGR really is awesome. I'm just sayin'.
I don't know Strats, KJK looks pretty good in that H-Wood skinsuit....
well, better than super rookie in the VB kit anyway...
Just a FYI, a couple more photos of the event (though not anyone that I would know) can be found at The Daily Iowan.
Hey Karla, why do you and other girls push your bike up that long slog? Seems like it would be faster and use less energy to shoulder it...
ugh.
i totally pushed mine...
I guess I and other girls and (dis) push our bikes up the hill because we find it easier. I don't know -- when the ground is pretty smooth and it's a kind of a long run up (where I'll be jogging, not sprinting), it's nice to be able to lean on the bike, and keep the extra weight on the ground, not on my legs. It's no faster for me to shoulder the bike unless the ground is pretty rough.
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