Yellowstone Lake Cross
Race #2 in the WCA series was hosted by the UW Whitewater Cycling Team at Lake Yellowstone State Park. It never fails that when the UWW team puts on a race they try to find someway to make everyone suffer (oh those wacky college kids). This race was no exception. I could probably sum up the race course by saying that you were either hanging on for dear life on some rutted, bumpy downhill or going over the two sets of uphill barriers or climbing some lung-busting hill.
Turnout was pretty low for this race because it was in a location not convenient to a lot of racers, it was on a double race weekend which we don't have much of in Wisconsin and because rumors had been circulating about how hard the race course was. This race had the A Women and B Women combined (the C Women raced at their own time) as a small field was expected. There were 4 of us at the start and I was the only one who has been doing the A races so I felt the pressure to do well. However, on the line were women that I wasn't sure I could beat -- one I had never beaten in mtn bike or road racing and the other women were fast and were experienced and one of them had beaten me plenty of times at cross. Pressure was on to have a good day of racing.
Off the line I was in second and followed my Alan teammate down the bumpy rutted downhill that made you wish you were on a mtn bike. The downhill ended with a culvert that you needed to bunnyhop or risk being thrown into the trees. Right after that was an abrupt uphill that had two barriers with a nasty uphill remount and grind up a climb. I passed my Alan teammate on the remount and tried to keep my speed high on the climb. Once you finally got to the top of that hill you had a very brief respite through the woods on a not too bumpy trail before going out into the open again and having some climbing and then some more bumpy downhill into some corners and then a series of sharp turns where you needed to keep your speed up and fly down a hill before the second set of two up hill barriers that had another uphill remount and then a downhill before the annoyingly steep climb up to the start/finish area.
Amazingly I was still in front after lap one and had a little gap over the other three who were riding pretty close together. My friends were going crazy to see me at the front end of the race but I was wondering if I could keep the lead (they probably were too). At the start/finish area they told me 6 laps to go and I asked them if they were joking as I really didn't want to do that 6 more times. Luckily I knew the 30+ Men would lap me at least once so that would mean only 5 times and maybe 4 if I were lucky. I flew down the crazy downhill, bunnyhopped the culvert and headed out for more climbing and by the
next time through the start/finish I still had a nice gap.
However, the next lap was not so good. On the first set of uphill barriers I slammed my right knee into the barrier going over. Normally that wouldn't be such a big thing but that is the knee that I had surgery on so it freaked me out as I hit it hard. That threw me off and I slowed down and then at the next set of uphill barriers I was being too tentative and actually tripped and fell (see photo).
That was all it took for one of the women to start closing the gap and by the middle of the next lap she was right behind me. Going up through the second set of uphill barriers I tried to make sure that she couldn't come around me and I just barely held her off from passing me on the climb up to the start/finish. As we crested through the start/finish it was the last lap so I just threw the bike into my biggest gear and went all out on the downhill knowing it would either get me the win or I would crash and that would be the end of it. I felt like I was going to bounce off the trail but I just tried to keep the bike upright and tried to come into the culvert bunnyhop as fast as I could. I was smooth enough over the up hill barriers (by which I mean I didn't trip) and when I remounted and starting trying to hammer up the climb I realized that she wasn't on my wheel anymore.
From there I just tried to limit any gains on the climbs where I knew she would be a lot stronger than me and then I just hammered all the downhills and corners. By the time I came to the second set of barriers and the final climbing I had a nice gap back again and took the win.I have to say that my arms, legs and back had taken quite a beating on the bumpy course but I was thrilled to have my first win since my knee surgery.
The next day was my race at Badger Prairie and it rocked. My actual race was a blur and when someone asked me how many laps I did I couldn't actually recall. Yes, I was tired but I have to say that the race was cool and I think people enjoyed the day. Enough said.
Turnout was pretty low for this race because it was in a location not convenient to a lot of racers, it was on a double race weekend which we don't have much of in Wisconsin and because rumors had been circulating about how hard the race course was. This race had the A Women and B Women combined (the C Women raced at their own time) as a small field was expected. There were 4 of us at the start and I was the only one who has been doing the A races so I felt the pressure to do well. However, on the line were women that I wasn't sure I could beat -- one I had never beaten in mtn bike or road racing and the other women were fast and were experienced and one of them had beaten me plenty of times at cross. Pressure was on to have a good day of racing.
Off the line I was in second and followed my Alan teammate down the bumpy rutted downhill that made you wish you were on a mtn bike. The downhill ended with a culvert that you needed to bunnyhop or risk being thrown into the trees. Right after that was an abrupt uphill that had two barriers with a nasty uphill remount and grind up a climb. I passed my Alan teammate on the remount and tried to keep my speed high on the climb. Once you finally got to the top of that hill you had a very brief respite through the woods on a not too bumpy trail before going out into the open again and having some climbing and then some more bumpy downhill into some corners and then a series of sharp turns where you needed to keep your speed up and fly down a hill before the second set of two up hill barriers that had another uphill remount and then a downhill before the annoyingly steep climb up to the start/finish area.
Amazingly I was still in front after lap one and had a little gap over the other three who were riding pretty close together. My friends were going crazy to see me at the front end of the race but I was wondering if I could keep the lead (they probably were too). At the start/finish area they told me 6 laps to go and I asked them if they were joking as I really didn't want to do that 6 more times. Luckily I knew the 30+ Men would lap me at least once so that would mean only 5 times and maybe 4 if I were lucky. I flew down the crazy downhill, bunnyhopped the culvert and headed out for more climbing and by the
next time through the start/finish I still had a nice gap.However, the next lap was not so good. On the first set of uphill barriers I slammed my right knee into the barrier going over. Normally that wouldn't be such a big thing but that is the knee that I had surgery on so it freaked me out as I hit it hard. That threw me off and I slowed down and then at the next set of uphill barriers I was being too tentative and actually tripped and fell (see photo).
That was all it took for one of the women to start closing the gap and by the middle of the next lap she was right behind me. Going up through the second set of uphill barriers I tried to make sure that she couldn't come around me and I just barely held her off from passing me on the climb up to the start/finish. As we crested through the start/finish it was the last lap so I just threw the bike into my biggest gear and went all out on the downhill knowing it would either get me the win or I would crash and that would be the end of it. I felt like I was going to bounce off the trail but I just tried to keep the bike upright and tried to come into the culvert bunnyhop as fast as I could. I was smooth enough over the up hill barriers (by which I mean I didn't trip) and when I remounted and starting trying to hammer up the climb I realized that she wasn't on my wheel anymore.
From there I just tried to limit any gains on the climbs where I knew she would be a lot stronger than me and then I just hammered all the downhills and corners. By the time I came to the second set of barriers and the final climbing I had a nice gap back again and took the win.I have to say that my arms, legs and back had taken quite a beating on the bumpy course but I was thrilled to have my first win since my knee surgery.
The next day was my race at Badger Prairie and it rocked. My actual race was a blur and when someone asked me how many laps I did I couldn't actually recall. Yes, I was tired but I have to say that the race was cool and I think people enjoyed the day. Enough said.
posted by MadCross at 9:23 PM
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