The weather took out yet another race this year: Sugarbottom. That is a serious bummer because I really enjoyed that race last year, and I wanted to take another stab at it. I have also been recruiting some other gals to come try out a race – Sugarbottom is a pretty beginner-friendly locale - so the cancellation forces them to have to wait til 2010 to try out the sport.
When Sugar got cancelled on Friday night, we had to figure out what Plan B would be. Options included heading to SW Wisconsin for a race or stay local and do a ‘cross race in Pella. I was still pretty amped to race a mountain bike, but the thought of another 4+ hours each way in the car made my stomach turn. It turned out not to be much work to convince Cam that sticking close to home might not be such a bad idea. Besides, I kinda enjoyed the one ‘cross race I did last year, and you are pretty much guaranteed a good butt-kickin’, high-intensity workout when you race ‘cross.
Neither one of us has a ‘cross bike, so we do it ghetto-style on a mountain bike. And a hard-tail works a little better (and weighs a little less), so the ‘Goose was the ride of choice for both of us. My race was up first with four Cat 1/2/3 women and seven Cat 4 – a couple of PRC chicks, a bunch of DMOS ladies, and me. The four 1/2/3s were gone immediately, and I settled into about 5th or 6th place in my class following another one of my not-so-stellar starts. The course was one of the more mountain biker-friendly ‘cross courses I’d seen, so after a couple of laps, I’d worked my way up to what I figured was third place, where I stayed for a couple more laps. I went back and forth with the DMOS racer ahead of me. I’d catch her on the technical parts and climbs, then she’d pull away on the straight-aways.
When Sugar got cancelled on Friday night, we had to figure out what Plan B would be. Options included heading to SW Wisconsin for a race or stay local and do a ‘cross race in Pella. I was still pretty amped to race a mountain bike, but the thought of another 4+ hours each way in the car made my stomach turn. It turned out not to be much work to convince Cam that sticking close to home might not be such a bad idea. Besides, I kinda enjoyed the one ‘cross race I did last year, and you are pretty much guaranteed a good butt-kickin’, high-intensity workout when you race ‘cross.
Neither one of us has a ‘cross bike, so we do it ghetto-style on a mountain bike. And a hard-tail works a little better (and weighs a little less), so the ‘Goose was the ride of choice for both of us. My race was up first with four Cat 1/2/3 women and seven Cat 4 – a couple of PRC chicks, a bunch of DMOS ladies, and me. The four 1/2/3s were gone immediately, and I settled into about 5th or 6th place in my class following another one of my not-so-stellar starts. The course was one of the more mountain biker-friendly ‘cross courses I’d seen, so after a couple of laps, I’d worked my way up to what I figured was third place, where I stayed for a couple more laps. I went back and forth with the DMOS racer ahead of me. I’d catch her on the technical parts and climbs, then she’d pull away on the straight-aways.
This continued on for the remainder of the race; I even passed her a few times, only to get reeled back in a short time later. After 45 minutes of racing in the red zone, my oxygen-deprived brain decided that a third place finish was going to be just fine, so put it in cruise control and finished out the race. I even added a little flair with a triple bunny hop across the finishline…
It was cold and blowing, so after a quick cool-down lap with Maria, I passed the ‘Goose off to Cam and changed clothes. I checked out the posted results to see how everyone else had finished and was surprised to see my name listed as 2nd place! It turned out that the vast majority of the race I’d been battling for the lead! A race is a race and I know that whenever I am in a race I should be fighting for every spot like it is the lead. I admit, however, that I did have thoughts throughout the race that I would certainly “settle” for third rather than turn myself inside out for second. Had I known that I was fighting for first, I know I would have gladly made blood shoot out of my eyes to fight for the win.
It was my bad. It was not a good race strategy, and I learned the lesson the hard way. So, although I was disappointed with not getting to race at Sugarbottom, we had a great time in Pella, and I am looking forward to Spooky Cross in a couple of weeks!
Cam had a good race, too. The Zoom Performance ‘Cross Team duo of Tony Nichols and JJ Bailey went one-two, and Cam pulled a strong third. Tony was off the front the whole race with JJ chasing. Cam worked his way up to third and challenged JJ a couple of times, but JJ’s barrier prowess was too much to overcome for a guy who would much rather stay clipped in to his pedals the whole race. The ‘Goose got a good coat of mud, and we got one last high-intensity workout before our season finale at Sheboygan next week. 
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