Heres a couple of pics from Nationals:
Racing the elite race
Junior Girls 17-18 Podium L to R Michelle, Kaitie, Coryn, Me, Kendall
cornering during the elite race
Wow, well I'm sorry I've been so lazy about posting, I had a TON of school work to catch up when we got back from nationals, but we had over a foot of snow dumped on us here, and school's cancelled so i finally have some time to write.
Sunday's race in Kansas city was super fun, there was no pressure and I was really able to just get out and enjoy racing. I was hopeful when we woke up because it was 58 degrees out when we went for breakfast, however around noon the temperature dropped about 2o degrees in 5 minutes :(. I'm a wimp, and by the time I was on a trainer warming up it was very very very cold, thats the first time I've ever warmed up while wearing a scarf. The start did not go particularly well for me, it was very agressive and for the first half lap or so I was getting shoved around quite a bit, and losing places. Finally through the barriers I was able to find a rhythm and start making up some lost ground. I was catching and passing lots of people on the climb, but visibly losing time on the descent, which was frustrating but at least i know what i need to work on. During the last lap I started making up some good time on Anna Milkowski and Coryn, who were right in front of me. Luck, however was not on my side and after the run up i went to remount and realized that i had dropped my chain, the usual dismounting and frantically trying to put my chain back on ensued and about 45 very frustrated seconds later I was back on my bike and headed down the hill. At that point all I could do was stay calm and work to make sure that the riders behind me didn't catch me. I rolled through in 22nd place, a bit annoyed but mechanicals are part of cross, so oh well. I had a great time and I'm so proud of my teammate Kristin who placed 15th woot woot!
The mens elite race was great to watch, I was wearing so many layers that I couldn't raise my arms above my head and I had a blast running around the course cheering for JP and Mark and ringing one of the 160 bells that Diane, Kristin, Lauren and I had spent Saturday evening stickering. Mark rode a great race to come in 11th, and has a recap on his
BLOG. Jonathan also rode very strong against some tough competition he ended up third and overall Planet Bike had a great day.
As I mentioned the week has been a bit insane, with school work and college applications (I'm almost done YAY) but I found some time on Thursday to go for my first xc ski of the year. The snow conditons were amazing, and after an hour of skiing I realized that I had forgotten two things; one, how much fun skiing is (it really is great) and two, cyclists don't use their arms . . . skiers do. Lets just say I'm not going to be lifting anything heavy in the near future.
Thats all for now
Peace