Friday 13 April 2007

Day 1 and 2

Yesterday was the Super D, that's a pretty interesting event, but really fun. Any time you're told to go all out as fast as you can down hill is always fun. We started out with about a 100m run with our bikes till we hit a red line drawn in the sand. I had a great start, and being about a foot taller than the average girl there, I had a good advantage running. With a cyclocross mount we were all on our bikes and hammering up the 200m climb. Once you hit the top, your lungs and legs are just screaming and you're starting to go a little cross eyed, but you have to flip it into big ring and stay on the gas on the descent. The downhill was mainly a fire road with little water bars for catching air and deep ruts for makin things interesting. I had the lead over the top, but Kelli Emmett, Marla Streb and Mary-Ellen Ash (fellow Canadian) quickly caught me and we jockeyed back and forth the whole way down. The lead position provided a really nice draft so I just hopped in behind Marla and tried to follow her wheel (very difficult cause she's a really fast descender. At the bottom of the hill there was about a 2km false flat section to the finish, and with all three of us still fighting for a spot we were giving it everything. Around the last couple corners Kelli took the lead and I squeezed into second place just ahead of Mary-Ellen. Definitely have to try more of those.

Today was the TT, really short course, pretty much the same as last year with a couple sharp corners thrown in and really rough from last years mudfest. I figured I could get on the course this morning, but just missed the open course time, so I had to do a ride around the course to get an idea of what to expect. Probably not the best idea, but it would have to do. After a really long warm up (tired from yesterday), we took off in aphebetical order with a 30 sec gap. In front of me was fellow Trekie Lea Davison and behind me was Giant rider Kelli Emmett. I had a great start, great climb up the back side and really smooth run almost all the way through the course, not too bad for no pre-ride. Finished in 7th position and I'm really happy with the day.

Finally made it back to the hotel to try to do some homework, but opted for a nap instead. Yugg, school :)

2 comments:

Poyote said...

Good job if you ask me.

BikingBakke said...

I've ridden mountain bikes downhill with both you and Marla. You're world class in the techie stuff, and that's the truth. And last I checked, your injury list is a little shorter than hers, which really says something!

Great results so far, and good luck on the rest of Sea Otter!