Finally. . . .a race update!

Finally I caught a break in the action to reflect on the race and give my "viewers" an update.

I was very surprised at how I performed Sunday. I expected my finish would be sub-par, and while I hoped for the best, I prepared myself to accept whatever the outcome was. And I must say I was pleasantly surprised.

Off the start line Don called up the "series" gals. . . .except being that my number is 3080, he called up the "numbers under 3051". So that left me in the back. . . .where I am no longer accustomed to starting. I knew I was going to have to blow some of those gals away off the start line, because climbing is my strong suit and if I got stuck behind girls that had to get off and walk, I was screwed. So off we went. . . .and I pounded as hard as I could to work my way up from the back. By the time I came around the "bowl" I was in about 13th (so I'm told) and Bill said there was quite a gap between the #1 gal and myself. . . . a good part of which I would close slowly as the race continued.

Despite the fact that I literally felt like I was going to puke when I got done with the first set of hills, I seemed to be hanging in there and not doing a lot of "stupid" stuff. A few technical mistakes. . . .but nothing like I THOUGHT would happen. Somehow I remembered how to "ride my bike". Thank GOD.

It was either the second or third lap that I shook two single speeders free. . . . .I pounded up those hills and just didn't let up (thanks to SS Amy for reminding me of the basics on our warm-up). I then had Tammi in my sights. I remember her beating me consistently last year. . .she's FAST! And I was hoping I had enough endurance to stay with her. I could see her here and there and then I didn't see her for a while. While I wanted to just recover and scale back a bit, I knew I REALLY wanted to finish in the top 10 and the only way I was going to do that, was to catch Tammi.

It all came down to the last lap between the two of us. I saw she was suffering more than I was on the hills, so I hammered them with everything I had left to make a gap of any kind. Then I hit the new twisty single track and pulled a complete rookie move. I grabbed a HANDFUL of front break and over my bars I flew. Of course she was right behind me and that's all she needed to pop around me. As I got back up I gave the sport boys around us a little lesson as I called out "well boys and girls, that's what happens when you grab a handful of front break". Luckily I recovered quickly and thanks to the routing of the sport boys I hammered again to get on her tail.

Then we hit the second to last stretch of single track. She made some type of rookie move and fell across the trail in front of me. JUST the break I needed. I rode over top of her (ok, not really) and I took off. I didn't see her again until she crossed the finish line and took out one of the stakes. I think I just plain wore her out. Excellent.

8th out of 37 women that finished. . . .9th once results were posted to the web (a single speeder took 4th). While I'm happy with those results, I can't help but wonder how I would have done had I had a DECENT start. . . .guess we'll see at Alpine.