The race was tons of fun, and I am now hooked on cyclocross! Check out the Maxxis Spiral of Death.

True to cyclocross style, it was cold and rainy. As a cyclocross virgin, I raced cat 4. There was just over twenty riders in my race. The guy in the tall red socks in the center of the picture started out hard, gapped the field immediately and held on to win the race.

I had an alright start but did no barrier practice prior to the race. The one barrier on the course was early on the first lap, and as a result of my poor mounting skills, I got passed by several people. I ended up getting stuck behind traffic as the red socks guy rode away from the pack. Before long, I moved up to second place but was dragging a pack of guys behind me, many of which passed me again on the next barrier. Eventually, I passed them all back and the field spread out. I had a good back and forth battle with the kid in the glasses behind me in this picture. I would continuously get small gaps on him on the climbs but he kept catching back up on the barrier. Eventually, I put the hammer down and dropped him for good. I wasn’t strong enough to catch the leader, however, and ended up second.

My ungraceful attempt at running and jumping on my bike seat. Big thanks to Went for letting me race his bike.

The course was all short rolling hills with some mud pits and lots of very tight turns.

This guy won my race. I started gaining on him towards the end but didn’t have the power to close the gap. A bit of an over exuberant celebration for a cat 4 race if you ask me.

Will Black won the men’s 1-2 race despite being in his 40’s and on a single speed.

Carla crashed early in the first lap but quickly recovered and dominated the women’s cat 1-2 race. I think she beat over half the cat 3 men.

Our assistant coach Robin finished second after a hard fought battle.

The race was tough but a lot of fun and, I am now totally hooked on cyclocross.

Here are some photos from my cross country season at Lees-McRae. We had a great season, finishing second in our conference and fifth in our region.

Our first meet was at Appalachian State University. I was pretty rusty after not running track last semester and my time showed it, but I soon got back in the swing of things and was running faster than ever.

The whole crew at the start of a race in Lenoir, North Carolina.

It was a relatively small meet of about 70 runners. I started out with the lead pack, somewhere I am not used to being in cross country, and hung on for about half the race. After getting dropped, I maintained my position and finished 6th, my best place in a cross country meet ever.

The rest of my team was close behind and we won the meet.

Next we raced at Appalachian Sate again on the exact same course six weeks after the first time we raced their. It was a huge meet with over 220 racers. This time I was ready to race and managed to squeeze myself into the top 100 with a strong last mile and finished 93rd. I ran the 8k course in 26:53 , beating my personal best from the week before by 3 seconds.

Our conference championship was next. It was a brutal course with rutty trails, lots of hills, and some sticky mud pits.

My teammates Critter and Craig Simpkins ran great and finished ahead of me in 4th and 7th. I was close behind in 9th and mt teammate Cody was close behind me in 10th.

Craig kicking my ass.

This monk got our times

It was a close race. Despite having four runners in the top ten, we lost to St. Andrews College by just five points.

Regionals was next. We needed to get 2nd as a team to advance to nationals. We fell short of 2nd but were ranked 7th going into the race and ended up 5th out of 20 teams. Most importantly, we beat St. Andrews by two points. The course alternated between wooded trails with lots of hills and turns to open fields. It was a surreal feeling going from the lonely silence of the woods with no one around me but a few other runners to the roar of the crowds screaming in my face in the open parts of the course.

Critter’s beautiful flowing mohawk.

An interested spectator.

I was teetering on the edge of hitting the wall almost the whole race. The course was rolling hills the whole way and up every hill I wanted to give up. From the gun, I was somewhere in the low twenties and yo-yoed between 20th and 30th until the last mile. Critter started faster than me and soon was almost out of sight. Craig passed and dropped me about half way through and caught Critter. Regionals is a 10k race rather than the normal 8k we ran at every other meet. At the 8k mark, I found myself somewhere around 30th and finally decided to suck it up, accept the pain, and make a move. By this time, most people in the race were starting to crumble and I passed a group of runners ahead of me. With about a half mile to go, I passed Critter and Craig and didn’t look back. In the end, I finished 22nd out of 140 runners.

Carla ran great and finished 6th after winning three national championships in mountain biking two weeks before.

Lees-McRae women won the meet and are on their way to nationals!

All in all, it was definitely my best collegiate running season yet and we had a lot of fun.

I’ve done a lot of brutal races in my life, but there is nothing that quite compares with the pure agony of cross country. I believe this is written on the faces of the athletes in these photos.

FACES OF PAIN

Zoom in on this one, pretty hilarious

Many people tell me that I am foolish for continuing to ride after breaking my neck at the beginning of summer. Some think that I am brave and admire me for getting back on the bike. I’m not sure if I think it is courage or stupidity when I attach the race number to the handle bars of the machine. I had this intense feeling inside of me that I wasn’t meant to quit, the passion I have for the sport cannot be silenced and shouted inside my head all summer as I struggled with my handicap.

I was allowed to ride trails again on October 1. After almost three months of inactivity I was finally back on the bike. I didn’t think that my coach would allow me to ride since I would only have three weeks to train for nationals. I asked him anyways, expecting to be let down. To my surprise he told me if I qualified for downhill and dual slalom I could race. With the two races left before nationals I qualified.

Because of extreme weather conditions, qualifying and downhill practice were canceled. After watching the cross country race on Friday I went up to Sugar Mountain to do a practice run despite the dangerous conditions. The wind was strong and pierced my face as I went down the mountain. Stubborn, angry rains begin to pour down with great strength as if to protest the presence of the few riders who ventured onto the course. After one run, I was done…the race would be one shot, no practice and no qualifying.

There were about thirty two female racers in the D1 division. I had tough competition in the downhill from the Colorado gravity riders and although I really wanted to place in the top 5, I did not expect too. The course was still extremely muddy and slick from the rains on Thursday and Friday. My run went well though, and I rode all the parts I was worried about–these consisted of the technical section up top, the 30ft rock face, and the river gap towards the end of the race. Despite the conditions, I rode these three sections smoothly. I would like to say I had a clean run, but I washed out on a section of the course that was unexpected. I flew into the tape that was marking the course and it wrapped around my helmet. I feel sorry for the man standing near me watching because I’m pretty sure I wasn’t shouting very nice words as I struggled to unwrap the tap that was docking seconds off of my time. Finally I was able to get back on my bike and rode into the river gap (only a few girls jumped it) and sprinted into the finish. I ended up getting a spot on the podium with a fourth place finish.

Sunday morning was dual slalom, one of my favorite types of racing. We built the slalom course on our campus with the help from the 2007 national champion and Team America rider Chris Herndon. It was a challenging course with lots of sharp burm turns and lots of sprinting. I qualified with the second fastest time and was hoping for a spot in the top three. I advanced to the semi-finals and my next competitor was a strong Colorado rider who won slalom last year. I beat her on the first run, but she got me on the second one. Our time difference was about a third of a second but she knocked me out and advanced to the final rounds. I finished with a sixth place. Wasn’t as well as I hoped but I had a lot of fun and it was great to be racing again.

What happens before, between, and after the bike racing is one of the elements that makes the collegiate mountain bike nationals race such a spectacular event. After all, it is over fifty college teams gathering in one place to ride bikes. The weekend was full of partying, racing, pain, work, mud fights, food, laughter, and excitement. I was lucky to have my dad come for the weekend. He was great company and helped me with race preparation, making me food and fixing my bike.

The weather conditions intensified and I could feel the change as I felt the cold rain sting my face. I was on top of sugar and could faintly see the trail ahead of me due to the fog. I was on hoping to get some practice in before qualifying later that afternoon. Although I was curious at the absence of riders, I shrugged my shoulders and did a run. Once I finally reached the bottom, I was cold, covered in mud, and slightly frightened. At the bottom I also found out that qualifying was canceled due to the extreme weather conditions. I was happy to get a practice run in the harsh conditions because I knew that it could likely be that way during the race.

Saturday morning I cheered on my team as they raced the home short track course. It was a versatile course, with a good climb and challenging downhill section; a loop offering different tests of strength. Lees-McRae did well in the short track. Carla Swart destroyed the womans field. It wasn’t even a race, it was total domination from the very beginning. Brad Parley, who we call lobster, took second place after a long battle.  After short track I went back to make sure my downhill machine was ready and ate a famous logis (made by my dad) for race fuel.

Some cross country and short track photos….

{Part 2 of mnt bike nationals (downhill and dual slalom) coming soon!}

I recently tired out a pair of FMB BOYAUX de COMPETITION silk tires in 22MM on the Trimble Aero bike #067.  The tires are handmade in France and competitors to Dugast.  I think they are equal if not better in quality.  I’ve put about 100 miles on my pair and really enjoyed the ride!  9.5 bar is about the right pressure for my weight and even at that high pressure they smooth out the roughness in the road better than any other type of tire.  The ride feels very smooth and fast. They are available at www.worldclasscycles.com  The tires are glued to a pair of vintage Fiamme Red Label rims and Dura Ace 7400 hubs with 28 spokes.  It’s a very light and lively wheelset, but not at all aero.

Nothing rides like Silk!

Soie Naturelle - Natural Silk

28 spoke Fiamme Red Label rims

I like the tread - lots of grip!

No detectable wear in 100 miles