A Tale of Two CX Races

Sunday saw my sister and I both doing a little cyclocross racing, though in very different conditions.

Kristen raced with the C Women at JingleCross Rock, which also happened to be a UCI C2 race in Iowa City. Meanwhile I got my first taste of racing at Golden Gate Park in the Pilarcitos/Bay Area Super Prestige, which was also race #5 of the NCNCA Cup. Here’s a little photo documentary to provide a visual comparison of the two events. Photos of Kristen courtesy of Mom and the ones of me are from Terry.

First, here is the starting line shot:

Note the short sleeves on me and the snowflakes you can see falling in front of Kristen.

Next, a little CX action, with Kristen headed up a run-up while I’m going over some barriers.

Again, nice warm light shining down on GGP while 3″ of snow blanketed the Johnson County Fair Grounds.

And finally, a little bit of riding thru some twists and turns.

If you look closely at the background in my photo you’ll see some white course tape on the ground. That would be where I broke through it a few laps prior when I didn’t see a turn. I clearly had no excuse with the dry tacky dirt under my tires as compared to Kristen’s snowfest.

I’m not sure how Kristen actually finished, but considering she had to do most of the race with only two gears in the back because the rest of the cog and deraileur iced over and without being able to click back into her pedals once they got snow/sand/muck-packed, finishing was accomplishment enough.

As for me, I loved the course at Golden Gate Park. Looooved it! It was a blast to race there. Niki B. and I rode together for a few laps – she’s so smooth on dirt it was fun to follow her lines. And we got to giggle at the pot smoker on the run-up. The bummer of the day was that Melanie, who has been my main and very tough competition during the NCNCA Cup races this year, got her feet tangled up going through the last set of barriers on the first lap and went down. Terry said she got back up and on the bike but we never saw her again. Hopefully she’s okay. I was happy to see that a few of the fans put dollars out for the women’s races this time, and I even tried to grab a few on the last lap, but I missed all of them. I need to add “reaching for the beer dollar” to my weekly ‘cross skills practice session I guess. I won the race, with Niki coming in second not far back. It was an insanely fun race and a good one for the end of the Turkey weekend.