Kona Cross

I know, it's a lil late with this one....but better late then never right :)

Last weekend, Thanksgiving monday was the Kona Cross up in Naniamo, BC.....and it was one of the coolest, but toughest courses out there. Lots of climbing, lots of corners, lots of sand...what else, oh ya, lots of people. Record turn out with 134 people!!!!! That's awesome for an island cup race!!! I love it.

I decided the night before that if I had any chance with staying with Wendy at nationals that I'd better race against her as much as possible leading up it.....which means racing with the Expert Men. The women's race is usually about 40 mins long, so the extra 20 mins of the hour long men's race was guaranteed to be TOUGH!!!

I was able to hold my own off the road start...just barely....finding myself mid-back of the pack as we turned left to climb the tight steep switchbacks. As per usual when you hit the first singletrack in a large group, as soon as one person dabs, everyone is off running.

My main goal of the race was to not get lapped. It was a relatively long lap so I was pretty optimistic that I may be able to fend off the leading men. With 3 laps to go I saw the leading Craig Ritchey gaining time on me fast :( And he seemingly effortlessly passed me like I was standing still...thanks guy...hehe. With him passing me that dropped me down a lap, so I gave it all I had left...not much at this point.....for my final lap. Drew MacKenzie caught me half-way through the last lap, and Tyler Trace caught me just before going up the stairs right near the end of the lap. Finished 11th on my first Expert Men's race, and yup, that was definitely good training :)

reganpringleshoots

Regan had an Epic battle with Pro City's other ugly skin suiter Scotty, finishing 8th ;) Look at the cross monster I've created!!!!!

After the race we boogied back down to Victoria, and ate the biggest turkey I've ever seen!!!! Topped off with Pumpkin Cheesecake!!!! No wonder I was in a food coma for 3 days. So glad my second week of work was a short week :)


This weekend we have today, Sat to be bums and do all the Suzy Homemaker stuff, with the 3rd cross race of the Cross on the Rocks series in slightly up island in Duncan on Sunday. Workout for today is short and sweet...hopefully I can convince Regan to ride hard around a grass field, jumping on and off the bike!!!