Cross Season hath begun!

Wow, it has been quite a week! A cross team meeting and ride/clinic and 2 cross races for the season already under the belt including Cross Vegas and So Cal Prestige Series #1.

I don't have any pix to share yet of Cross Vegas (What happens in Vegas....), but it was quite a way to kick off the cross season, lungs burning and all (hmmm maybe it was the pesticide all over the soccer fields we were racing on!). The race was Weds night (feels like forever ago!), during Interbike, which some of us from Team CICLE attended to meet with sponsors and see all sorts of familiar faces. We ate many clif/luna product samples (yum!) and drooled over some gorgeous bikes and bike products. The race venue drew an amazing crowd including folks like Gary Fisher, lots of dudes and dudettes in wigs, and a really good Elvis impersonator who sang the national anthem for our race. You know you are in Vegas when a bike race has spotlights shining into the sky and a taxi stand! Mandy, Carolyn, Dorothy, Tonya and myself all represented Team CICLE at the race (a.k.a Team Frumpy due to our temp kits that unfortunatly are CLUB cut). We didn't get the greatest warm up because we were busy pinning 3 race numbers on each of us. We did a loop of the course to discover that it was 95% turf-like grass that didn't seem to pack down at all! Lots of false flats and short yet painful climbing sections covered the course. There were also hidden sprinkler heads in the grass that would cause some pretty bad crashes in our women's race. Overall, it was a great experience with an amazing crowd of spectators (felt a little bit like doing the World Cup at Mt St Anne last year). We were up against the best in North America, which felt alot like our National MTB races which a few road and cross stars in the mix. For my 3rd cross race ever, I can't complain too much. With 40 starters, I ended up 31st. Unfortunately there were 6 DNFs! I realized how important a good warm up is and also for me to take my inhailer when I am going to be racing on chemical-laden grass! Congrats to Carolyn for a strong 19th place finish!

Somehow after doing our 7:30 PM race and watching the men's 9pm race, we rallied and made it out to the Sinclair Imports party by midnight (Team Frumpy cleans up well!). What an interesting mix of industry people and athletes including Mario Cipollini, Todd Wells, Georgia Gould, etc. Thanks to Derek (one of our awesome Team CICLE sponsors (Bear Valley Bikes) and friend) for coming out with us girls, it was really fun!

Saturday was the first So Cal Prestige Series race of the season at Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton. It was a nice venue and a fun and challenging course and we had Larry Longo announcing which is always great. We were already used to a mostly grass race from what we experienced on Weds night. Thankfully this race was a bit less like just a road race on grass, and required actual bike handling skills (helps out the mountain biker faction). We helped set up the team tents/booths, etc etc. We all participated in a team relay race which acted as a nice warm up for us. We had a great showing, 10 girls from Team CICLE all in the elite women's race (including 2 juniors). I had no idea how my legs would feel, but I had a good start, lead the race for a bit, dropped back a few spots and witnessed some interesting crashes that I thankfully avoided, but rallied to 3rd place finish feeling like I left it all out there on the course (almost 2nd, 10-15 seconds back or so). Guess I recovered OK from Cross Vegas and a late night out! Congrats to Carolyn who blew us away and had her 2nd win of the season (1 on each coast in less than 1 week). Also congrats to all the girls who gave it their all! it was a tough race and for most in the group was the first of the season.