A Weekend of Firsts

Though this marked the start of only my second full season of mountain bike racing, this weekend was also one of many firsts:

This weekend marked the first mountain bike race of the season. After a long, cold, snowy winter spent on the trainer, Cam and I were both ready to get outside and rip it up on the dirt! We made the easy drive to Bellevue, Nebraska for the opener of the Psycowpath Series: the Jewell Park TT. Neither of us had been there before, but we’d heard really good things about the course. The racing got underway at 11am, but my start wasn’t until 1pm and Cam’s until almost 1:30pm. So, we arrived by 10am, got dressed and made a couple recon laps to check things out. It did not take long to realize why we’d heard such good reports about Jewell Park. Like kids on a rollercoaster, we went up and down and up and down, big smiles growing with pedal revolution! Thankfully it was a beautiful weekend, so we just hung out and enjoyed the weather and each other’s company for a bit over an hour between our recon laps and my warm-up for the real deal.

After pondering the decision most of the winter, I finally decided to upgrade and spend the 2010 season as a Cat 1. Iowa is doing better at getting a few more women to come out and race their mountain bikes, but Nebraska is still lagging a bit behind. So, while this weekend marked my first race as a Cat 1, I think it was also the first time that I raced against absolutely no competition! I was, in fact, the only female racing for either Cat 1 or Cat 2! That means that I scored another first this weekend: my first win as a Cat 1! While it was surely the easiest (maybe the only!) win I’ll see all season, I was just happy to be back out on the dirt!

Another first: a new (to me) race rig. This season I’ll be rolling on a 2006 Orbea Oiz, full-suspension, another hand-me-down from Cam. I got to spend a little time on this new ride in Texas over Thanksgiving last fall, then the snow came, and I never threw a leg over it again until this weekend – more than four months later! What little riding I’ve done on it has been great, much easier on my back, and just as much fun! I’m also getting used to the tubeless tires. Not a big change, but I can run a lower tire pressure, also making my back happier!

Back to the race… without any competition, there was little pressure to perform, but the drive to go fast on dirt doesn’t just go away, so I went hard, but never went so far as to turn myself inside out. Ryan and Roxanne, the race organizers, put a full 10-minute gap between me and the next guys to race, but I knew that I had better ride real quick-like to avoid having one of them potentially catch me from behind. I rode the course in 23:50, with the fastest time of the day being 16:19 (men's expert winner). Knowing the course served the locals well, but Cam rode strong and scored a fifth place finish, just over 40 seconds behind the winner.

We pondered sticking around to ride some more at Swanson, and scope out the next course in the Psycowpath series, but by the time we were through with awards, we opted to hit the road and get back to DM at a reasonable hour.

Sunday was another nice day – a little overcast, but good temps. And that meant I had the opportunity for one more first: my first ride on my new road bike! Back in 2003 when I first got into riding, I bought a Raleigh Grand Prix. And, I’ve been riding that bike ever since! Now that I’ve made the transformation from tri geek to bike geek, I figured it was time for an upgrade. And upgrade I did! I did some research and picked out an awesome 2010 Orbea Diva. While I certainly don’t consider myself a Diva, this bike is definitely a good fit for me! Cam (with just a little help from me) has been building this bike (in his dining room) for a couple of weeks while I gathered parts. Finally we got everything assembled, and the weather cooperated enough to let me christen her with a great 3.5 hour ride on Sunday. The differences between the Diva and the Raleigh are like night and day; actually it’s more dramatic than that…. I’m gonna be enjoying this ride for years and years to come!

The weather is improving quickly and enough that I can ride outside most days. That makes me very happy! I'm also very happy to be looking forward to a very full race schedule this spring, summer, and fall. Next up is the Sylvan Island Stampede, back in my hometown! Last year, it poured rain and was a big mess. This year, the weather looks to be perfect!