USGP Loo-uh-ville

USGPcx weekend #3, World Championships course preview....AWESOME!!! Hard, hard, hard, hard, hard, both physically, technically and mentally. Over 50 starters in the women’s field makes this by far the largest cross race I’ve ever competed in. Have to say it wasn’t one of my better performances this weekend though. Not sure what it was, but things didn’t quite come together for the race the way that I planned. Felt great during the week, really strong and fresh, felt good for the pre-ride (tough a little sore from the 18 hour travel day....funny how you pay less to travel substantially farther then the expensive flights), and warm up was good. Not ideally placed for start either day, second row, far left behind Mo Bruno Roy, I ended up fairly far back in the mix going into the nasty first sand pit each day. Burnt a few matches but managed to get myself up into the chase group.
Saturday I lost contact with the chase group at about 20 mins, but I was able to keep the pressure on and not loose too much time...still finishing 11th place. Sunday I lost contact running up through the sand pit again at about 20 mins and had a lot more troubles mentally rallying myself to keep hammering. Everything felt like slow mo pain and I just held on for 14th place at the end of the race......and surprisingly not that much farther behind then Day 1.
I’ve noticed this year that I don’t seem to have the fitness that I did last year to be able to race to full capacity after killing myself in Day 1....going to insert an excuse here lol, thinking my after work night training may be starting to catch up with me a little......feel like just sleeping...A LOT! Let’s see if I can fudge my fitness for one more week into a very muddy Canadian Nationals this weekend in Vancouver. Going to be one of the most competitive Nationals CX race to date for the women and I’m excited for it to be nasty wet and muddy.
For Day 2 race I successfully ran 19 psi in the rear and 16 psi in the front with my Stan’s Iron Cross wheels with Kenda Kommandos and didn’t burp or roll my tires, on a course that had a high chance of doing so....these things are awesome, I say it again! However it definitely not the best choice of pressures (the old thumb test squeeze for pressure check has failed me), I did have a very cushy ride!