First 'Cross Race of the Season

Amesbury is my kind of cx course - rooty, twisty, lots of woods, not so much grass and two fun power hills. I was totally stoked for the first cx race of the season but at the same time a little freaked out since I hadn't raced in, oh, what? A month? Since Nationals? So I spent most of the drive to Amesbury trying to bury that, "What are you thinking?!?!?!" feeling and telling myself, you have nothing to lose, go out, have fun. As I thought more about that on the hour drive, I realized that last year's season wasn't really fun - every race felt too hard, too fast and I was too tired. Not sure what was going on then but I do know that after a successful season of MTB racing, I put a lot of pressure on myself to do really well in 'cross. And somehow, that just took the fun out of it. And so, the UberGoal for this season is simply, "Enjoy".

And of course, there were some modest goals for Amesbury: 1) stay upright, 2) don’t go out too fast and burn everything in the first lap, 3) ride the crazy little power hill parts 4) get back in the ‘cross groove

As I was pre-riding the rain-slicked course, I approached the first power hill and bailed. I heard the MRC boys yelling at me, "Teri! You can ride it! Do it again!!!!" And as they stood on the other side of the fence on top of the hill, they pointed out the best lines. I love those guys. Thanks to them I rode those power hills almost every lap and the one time I needed to run was because someone fell in front of me. During the rest of the pre-ride, I started feeling a bit more confident. The twisties, roots, and dirt totally suit me. I hate the long power grass sections you see on most cx courses.

In order to achieve goal #2, I decided to start a little back in the pack (field of about 25?) so I wouldn’t feel so compelled to go nuts for the hole shot, sprint on the grass section etc. Last year, I did get the hole shot (my first ever!) and led for 3/4 of a lap but had such an adrenline rush from seeing all these women chase me that I burned all my matches by the end of lap one and faded fast. At the whistle, I headed down the dirt road 2/3’s of the way back in the back and slowly picked off people. By the time we hit the stairs, I was about 12th place and then picked off a few more folks in the twisty, rooty, wooded section. By the barriers, I was in 9th place and pretty much stayed that way for the remainder of the race. Midway through the race, the skies opened up. Yeah! More mud + CX = more fun! I seemed to be trading spots with a rider from ECV. As we headed down the grassy section, I decided I’d just sit on her wheel for a while but as we rounded one muddy turn, she went down and I narrowly avoided riding over her. Much to her credit, a lap later she caught and passed me. I tried to hang with her but just couldn’t and concentrated on not losing ground to anyone else for the remainder of the race.

All in all, I felt strong throughout the race (it even seemed short to me! I think I'm growing too accustomed to 2hr mtb races). I stayed on my bike the entire race. My handling skills have certainly improved. Very satisfying watching other riders pick tentatively around stuff, hop off, biff it etc and ride right by them. Oooooo...mean streak showing.... :)

After the race, I enjoyed one of the Car Bomb cupcakes (chocolate cake with some stout in it, white frosting with a shot of Baileys). Good stuff.