Spookycross #1 & 2

A pair of somewhat uneventful races rolled into one post. I was the only 1/2/3 woman racing on both days, so the biggest battle was with the course itself, which had several very challenging sections to negotiate.

I raced the “A” race along with the Masters men and 1/2/3 men. The officials had each category start separately, meaning I started alone, 1 minute back from the 1/2/3 men and 30 seconds behind the masters men. I managed to catch the back of the masters within the first lap, and kept reeling them in, one at a time, over the next 55 minutes. It seemed like half the time I ended up catching people in one of the two singletrack sections and having to force a pass or wait until we exited. The other half of the catches happened to be at the barriers- one huge set of three was at the top of a steep hill coming out of the woods (they were so tall and the ground was so steep I had to get off of my bike early to get a better running start at them) , and the other was a set of three logs that were  insanely fast since they were a little downhill. I caught up to the back end of the 1/2/3 field on the final lap.

Sunday, the course was reversed, and the rotten log pile/barriers that had previously been part of a singletrack runup were removed to create a tight, hair-raising decent with a couple of small drops off of roots and water bars. The huge set of barriers was moved slightly- they were still on a steep uphill, but on uneven ground that fell away from the middle of the barrier, making them a few inches taller. Jeebus.
This time, all of the categories started together. I got a little jammed up in traffic at the start and ended up behind some people who were not very fast on singletrack. Most of the 1/2/3 men got away from me, and I had to make some almost dirty singletrack passes to get through traffic. I reeled a lot of the same people in, including someone who usually kicks my butt- Larry Yancey (seen here in the Walmart kit leading Quadzilla around the tree):

When I passed Larry, he yelled at me only that he’d broken his right shifter off. My initial thought was “HTF did that happen?” I couldn’t think for long, though, because he started to bulldog me for an entire lap before backing off slightly near where I’d caught him in the first place. Later, I found out that just before I passed him, he’d rolled a tubular and endoed, which broke both his frame AND right shifter… honeybadger-style racing from someone who has celebrated his 60th birthday this season:

 

So, again, I finished somewhere around the front of the Master’s category and the end of the mens’ 1/2/3 category. I was somewhat disappointed that no other 1/2/3 women showed, but raced hard against the men nonetheless. I really appreciate that, even though the women were sparse (there were only two Cat4 women), the promoters still paid equally to mens’ & womens’ categories. The 55 minute format was a painful change from the <40min races that kicked off the season. Also, the new bike is performing fabulously, and looks wonderful with the new parts:

(another great photo by Perry Barker)

Future plans? Another double weekend coming up- McEwen (Hoss of Cross) is Saturday and Sunday (another equal pay race! Woohoo!) However, we may venture to Jonesboro, AR on Sunday instead for a big payout CX event up there. After that, the Outdoors, Inc race on Mud Island followed by a few days at Syllamo the week of Thanksgiving. The fitness is falling in place for the leadup to Worlds in January…