Spooooooky

    Back to back double headers really are kicking my butt this year, not to mention the change in weather right now...I'm finally starting to come around almost 1 week later!

    Home monday from the USGP #2 in Fort Collins, work 3 days, then straight down to LA Friday night for SOCAL double header Spooky Cross and Krosstoberfest. Really fun event....some cool costumes (damn UCI rules or I would have had something fun on), a little sand pit action (with a surprising amount of new sand dumped for the first lap), some awesome BMX action (big air!) and great weather.

    Got in really late Friday night so it was really nice having an über lazy Saturday morning leading into the night Spooky Cross. Though getting ready for a 7:30 pm race has it's own challenges. My first front row call up at a UCI race of the year...yippee...so I finally got to test out my starts. Yup, still got my starts :-) Now if only I could hold that for 40 mins...I'd be like World Champ or something maybe! Head down and hammer, hammer, hammer for the first lap before I finally relinquish my lead....okay, I got overtaken. It was a great battle with us 4 leaders attacking each other the entire race. Elle Anderson, Teal Stetson Lee, Courtney McFadden and myself. Road tactics really played a large part in this race, with a lot of fast open straight sections you could really save a lot of energy by drafting. 3rd lap in Elle took a flyer and put a good couple corners into the rest of us. At this point I was really starting to feel my first lap effort of trying to ride everyone off my wheel....haha, yes, I know! It looked like Elle was going to have a clear shot at the win, when all of a sudden we come around the corner to find her picking herself up at the bottom of the stair run up. Even pros have dismounting and mountin issues sometimes! Teal attacked here and broke us up completely. I tailed along just out of reach and finished in 4th place, with my first podium of the year!

    Day 2, on the exact same course I decided to employ a slightly different tactic, not launching my start attack and try to sit in a little more off the start. Sunday's race ended up with the same 4 women off the front killing ourselves. Teal launched an early attack and she was slowly reeled in only to have Elle counter attack and have a smooth run in for 1st place. 3rd place sprint came down to myself and Courtney, I didn't play my cards right and I just didn't have the kick to get around her. Pair of 4's for the weekend!

Photo: Dorothy Wong

Photo: Phil Beckman

    As per usual, the Stan's No Tubes CX team works together flawlessly making for a great weekend, thanks team. Regan came with me as team mechanic, so of course my bikes worked flawlessly, thanks Regan!! Thank you to Matt Wehn (Kenny's dad) for the awesome home stay and thank you Dorothy Wong for hosting the weekend!!

Photo: Phil Beckman

    Stressful flight home with rain delays and lost luggage...doesn't make me a very happy traveller when all 3 of my bags don't show up, especially when you have to pay extra for the bikes! Not to mention the fact that when I called 2 days later, they didn't have any idea where my bags were!!! Bikes have since made it home safely.

    On completely different and other exciting news, Regan and I, after a lot of thought, have adopted the sweetest little girl ever. Big brown eyes, big sharp teeth....haha yes, 9 week old Laila is a Boxer puppy. So this past week has been a flurry of poop and pee and kisses and all sorts of new adventures. I'm a first time pet owner (besides the typical gold fish) and Regan has some limited experience growing up with a dog, so this is all new, exciting and scary! I really want to get her a little pumpkin costum for halloween!!! Yup, I'm going to be that kind of mom :-)