Wednesday 19 October 2011

Watch more video of Who's #1? North America Cyclocross Rankings 2011/2012 on cyclingdirt.org



Yipppeeee!! I made the top 10 again :)

Have you registered for the Furious3 yet???!!! Furious3 is a new race series consisting of three separate 3 day events. That’s right, 3 awesome days of mountain bike riding!

2011 was the first year for the Furious3 held in amazing small mountain town of Fernie, BC, no better place to do it. Each stage of the 3 day event starts and finishes in downtown Fernie, eliminating the need to move base camp each day making it an easy event to plan and book hotels for. Fernie trails are some of the most amazing and epic trails in North America. From fast and flowy to slow and technical, lots of climbing but lots of descending, you will not be disappointed with the riding…..and 3 days of it. Like most stage races, you can compete on a team of 2, or unlike all stage races, you can also compete solo.

2011 Furious3 in Fernie was a huge success with a lot of very happy racers, and the organizers have worked hard to bring back the Furious3 Fernie, but also introduce two new locations for 2012!!! Furious 3 Whistler and Furious3 Moab!! That’s right, how does a 3 days stage race in Whistler in August sound, or a 3 day stage race in Moab at the end of September sound??? Sounds like I’m going to Fernie, Whistler and Moab to me!

Furious3 Fernie June 30 – July 2, 2012

Furious3 Whistler August 24-26, 2012

Furious3 Moab September 29 – October 1, 2012

Registration for Furious3 Fernie and Whistler are open, but filling up fast, and registration for Furious3 Moab opens Nov 15, 2011. Sign up now for your Best Damn Mountain Bike Race…..Period experience, I know I’ll there.


Furious3

Event Photos

Monday 17 October 2011

Double Header on the Island

Oh ya!!! First double header on the Island this past weekend, with two awesome courses in Naniamo! Saturday was our very own Island Cup Championships at Beban Park. This was the location of the my very first cyclocross national championships in I think 2005, and a very similar course....minus a gnarly nasty steep wet grass run up, and the barriers in the barn. Bright sunny and very chilly morning, definitely feeling like fall right now on the island...but I'll take the cold and sunny over the cold and wet any day!

Friday night I joined Robin Farrell at the fire fighters calender launch...hehe. Yummmmm, great food :) Late night (10pm is late for me), then early morning drive up island to Naniamo.


Warming up I was kicking myself for not bring all my winter riding gear again!! But once the race got going the temp was perfect! It was a really fun course with a great mix of fast straight aways, tight technical single track (I wish was was UCI legal), a sweet BMX course and of course some leg killin mud. After hammering the first couple flat grass corners we were shot down a rutted out gravelly decent onto a rolling tight singletrack section. Geoff Robson had the crash of the day there, I miss it but saw him rolling around on the ground for a while before picking himself up and finishing the race. Witnesses say he flew and rolled and hit the ground really hard.....OUCH. From there we moved onto the BMX track, a very technical track by cross standards. Once you roll over the starting gates you hit the steep jumps hard and fast, it was really hard to keep you bike under control while trying to maintain any speed. I cased the last double in the very last lap hard, but managed to stay up, when I gassed it to pass one of the masters men racers before hitting the singletrack again. There were a number of racers walking really stiff after not being as lucky in the BMX track......it's definitely not soft landing.

After the BMX track we headed to the short stair run up then into the mudddddd slog. It's funny, I pinned through here and I felt like I was not moving!!! But I was really happy to hear that I wasn't the only one. Once the track opened up, you had 2 corners to recover before hitting the final confusing mess of corners that switched back into itself and around it and, and....it was confusing in pre-ride, but when you hit it in the oxygen deprived state of racing, people were blowing corners left, right and center!!


photo from Geoff Robson

I had a great race, feeling strong and took the yellow winner towel for women 20-35.....after cheering Regan onto an awesome 9th place against some really fast guys....we packed up and drove back to Victoria to host the Pro City Sistas wine tasting and Rom Com party. Bridesmaids is hilarious!!!!!!

Another early morning drive up to Naniamo in the morning took us to Bowen Park, and the same really hard course as last year. This is one of the most challenging courses I've ever done, a lot of hard steep climbing, rough singletrack and deep sand! I decided to race with the big boys today....gave Regan a kiss and the throat cut...the gloves are down!!

Norm does his little pre-race talk to the group and before he's even got his bike turned around the guns goes off!!! haha, crazy start, no one was ready for that one...but we're off. My typical good start doesn't mean a whole lot racing with the men, and as we gas it up the long road start, I find myself right in the thick of the group. I had a great race, blew a little at the 40 min marker, but working through those last 20 mins are going to make me faster....right??! Finished 8th in the men and didn't get lapped, like I did last year on this course, which was my big goal.

I'm definitely really cooked today, hurried home, got fed and cleaned up in time to make the Sunday night yoga class down at Lululemon.....only it really wasn't the best recovery yoga class and I'm sore and cooked now...haha. I think I was sweating more here then during the race!!

Thanks Regan for the yet again awesome weekend!!! Less then 2 weeks till we move into our condo :)

Friday 14 October 2011

Whats going on this weekend?

Spent the night sealing my tubular tires.....and I think I'm still a little stoned right now from sniffing all that glue, and I only got one set done! It's funny how labor intensive these tubular tire things are.....but they are definitely worth it!!!

What's going on this weekend??? Cross on the Rocks double header up in Naniamo, on two pretty sweet and super fun courses. Saturday is the Island Cup Championships on the old Nationals Course, one of the hardest but funnest courses around......bmx course included.

Saturday night is the Pro City Sistas wine tasting party.....yippee, and great recovery for the Sunday race!

Plane tickets are booked for the not so stellar looking Nationals course and the wicked looking USGP in Louisville the weekend after!! I think I'm hooked!

Tuesday 11 October 2011

Fort Collins USGP

My first USGP cyclocross done and in the books, and what a really cool experience. After a quick pre-ride of the course on Friday in the blazing hot blue bird sky, there was no way that I was believing the snow warnings for the next day! A fast, and very rough course on a sloping farm field, it's a different course then I've ever ridden before. With 3 relatively long steady climbs, lots of tight corners and fast rough descending, it was guaranteed to be a very hard race.

Saturday morning we woke to sound of none other then rain! Just above freezing and rain!! REALLY??? Turning on the news showed the all of surrounding towns with 2, 3, 8 inches of snow!!! Wow, even though it was forecasted, I really wasn't expecting that!! When Peter Wellsman came back freezing and barely able to move, I was a little less then stoked to go outside. After begging to borrow a trainer to warm up under the back door of the van I was warm, dry and read to go play in the mud. As I was standing at the start line I was thinking, cross is all the things you don't necessarily like about mountain biking....riding in a grass field, in the mud, in the rain, in the snow, running with your bike and carrying your bike.....but in cyclocross, it's so much fun!

Second row call up I lined up behind Nicole Duke, which ended up being a great decision because she took off at the gun getting the hole shot prime, giving me room to move up into the top 6. With the clayey mud and the tight turns, it was definitely a mountain bikers advantage course. My Challenge Grifos worked awesome in the mud on my new CrossRock AX, and my super comfy Sidi Spiders were killer with the long Sidi toe spikes in the gnarly mud. Katerina and Katie (aptly names the Clash of the Titans) put an early gap on the field, with Georgia and myself chasing and creating a little gap to the rest of the chase. I managed to stay within contact of her for about a lap and a half, but she was slowly powering away from my.

There was a lot of tri-poding, slipping and sliding going on, but I managed to have a clean run and stay up on my bike.....and even grabbed my first dollar bill hand out!!! Haha, I'm proud of that one :) My fingers were so frozen that I could get the bill stashed properly, so it ended up flapping in my face for the last lap as I finally managed to stuff it down the neck of my thermal undershirt. After slopping across the finish line in my first 4th place in a USGP, I promptly washed my bike and went straight into the shower fully clothed. That poor shower!

Yup, I slept good that night. And woke to the beautiful sight of blue sky again! The course went from sloppy mud to hard packed and fast over night. Second row call up again, I found myself behind Caroline Mani and Georgia Gould. Great decision again, as Caroline got Saturdays holeshot, letting me move up into the top 6 again......love starts! Again Katerina and Katie didn't want to have anything to do with the rest of us and took off! I found myself battling with Nicole Duke for the first 3 laps, Meredith Miller caught, passed and put some good time into us. Part way through the third lap Caroline Mani and Sue Butler caught up as well. For the next lap and a half I was hanging off the back of this group by a thread. I'd close on the corners and the barriers, and get dropped on the accelerations and straightaways. I thought I was going to crack! And I could definitely feel the little bit of altitude today with my ragged breathing.

Caroline put a gap on the chase, and I had a pop of energy to pull away from Nicole and Sue. For the last 2 laps, Caroline was just out of my reach and I was just out of Sue's, and we were all gaining fast on Meredith and the last podium position. But alas...haha, I rolled in 13 seconds off the podium in 5th place. I'm really happy and still a little surprised with how strong I'm feeling right now...maybe this Xterra training really is good for me :)

I was finished racing by 3:30, was cleaned up and bike was packed within 20 mins (thank the skies it was dry on Sunday) and we were on the road by 4 to catch our 7pm flight out of Denver.....I think that was a record turn around. Thanksgiving Monday was the 3rd Cross on the Rocks race and I had all intentions of racing, double header, sheesh, what about a triple header.....but getting up Monday morning I made the decision to just be a super fan. It's really nice sometimes just getting to run around and cheer your ass off all day! Record turn out for this island race at 191 people!!! That's something like 50 more then the previous record the previous weekend. Awesome, awesome, awesome event......definitely would be a better venue for Canadian Nationals then whats planned right now.

Thanks to all my sponsors, and a huge thank you to Regan for getting up at 4 am to glue my tubulars for me!!!!I have the best mechanic/boyfriend every!

Tuesday 4 October 2011

Monday 3 October 2011

Lumber Cross

I think this was the nicest weather that I've ever seen in Port Alberrni!! Everyone says it gets killer hot in the summer, but every time I've raced there, it's been gnarly wet and muddy. This little mid island (literally right smack in the middle) town and it's ASS (Alberni Single Speeders) association puts on a really cool race. Hosted at the historical sight McLean Mill, the course winds in and around the cool old Mill equipment and contains a mountain bikers amount of tight singletrack. The Cross on the Rocks series has the best courses around!!! And Roland and Katie are the most amazing results posters.......they had everything up last night!!!! (only hours after the race)

Super Norm convinced me to race in the Men's race as training for the upcoming Fort Collins USGP races, so I lined with with 23 men on the starting straight. I gave Regan the "You're Going Down" throat cut, then a kiss...lol. I haven't decided who is more agressive when racing, men or women. I think I was rubbed out more in this race then ever, but it's great training learning how to race with my elbows out :) I had my typical great start, found myself in the first set of singletrack in a pretty good position, and battled for the first couple laps with some fast dudes. Still feeling a little fatigue from the previous weekend I didn't have the pop to pass on the straight aways, and found myself clogged up through the singletrack, but it was actually the best that I've felt all week.

My new ZedWheels where awesome, so stiff and light weight making the already stiff Trek Cronus even stiffer and lighter (16.1 pounds), and my new Challenge Fango Tubulars were awesome...but I do think this mud tire was a little overkill for the conditions..haha...but if it was like last year (mud, mud, mud) they would have been perfect!!! Half way through the 5th or 6th lap I was sitting in top 10 and feeling good.... then there was a wonky pass, a rock shot up into me, and my front tire went flat...SOB, SOB, SOB....not the brand new tubular!!! There was some foul language coming from me, before I realized I was still racing, so I jumped off my bike and ran to the tech pit. Thank you to the guy that helped me change my front wheel, and I was up and running just in time to jump back in and chase after Russ Anderson who was also plagued with flats. I don't think I've ever seen as many flats in a race as I have on this course, every time I passed the pits there was someone different there. It probably was not my smartest idea to run my brand new wheels/tires on this course, but I was so excited to try them out. I have been informed though that they can be fixed (it was a very small puncture) so all is not lost...yippppppppeeeeee!!!

Getting back into the race, I battled back for the remaining 5 or so laps....ya, there was an absurd number of laps!! And finished in 11th (sprint finish for 10th but I couldn't quite do it!!) and only under 4 mins down. Pretty excited that I'm starting to come around and feel recovered from the Xterra adventure, hope the pop comes back into my legs this week.

I want to send out a huge congrats to Regan, 6th place in the fast dude category!!! And the rest of the Pro City Racers who raced awesome...half of which were also plagued with flat tires.....it's so cool lining up with 4 other fruit loop kits :)