Granogue/Wiss Weekend

If my race reports are too boring, you can always be entertained by reading these:

C3-Sollaychicks
Beth
Fatmarc

Granogue:

I have a love/hate relationship with this course. I am not a technically gifted rider and the off-cambers frankly kick my butt. I think I am personally responsible for washboarding some of the downhills by being on the brakes so much. Sorry to you guys racing in the later races about that. As for the love, well you are supposed to love Granogue, right? I just haven't found any parts of it that I love, except the scenery and atmosphere when I'm done with my race and cheering for others.

I had a good race. As is the norm for the MAC races, I found myself chasing Kim, who found herself chasing some chick on a mountain bike. Normally I'd say a mountain bike in a cross race is a disadvantage, but not Granogue. She was able to ride the run-up and gapped me and Kim everytime. She seriously was almost at the right turn off the pavement after the run-up by the time Kim and I hit the pavement. Funny thing is that she was sooooo bad on the rest of the course it was almost humorous. Kim and I would catch her, usually right before the run-up, where she'd gap us again. After a few laps of this, the race was over. I was not sure where it even went. I rode a very conservative race, not wanting to make stupid mistakes and rolled in some 5 or 10 seconds behind Kim for 3rd, who by the way, is a rockstar on the downhills. My teammate Bad Kat had a stellar ride for 6th.

Wissichickon:

Now here's a course that I love! No hate whatsoever. It's what I would call a roadies course. It's got a few tricky turns and a sandpit, but both are insignificant as the time gains to be made on the rest of the course completely nullify my bad handling thru the turns. And the sandpit... ahhhh, she's completely ridable. If fact, I used the sandpit as recovery, easily spinning thru it while others that had opted to run were gasping for air.

My poor start (what's new, I am a notoriously bad starter) had me in about 15th position or so when we hit the first turn, which by the way, is exactly the same time we ladies hit the back of the C-men. Some of those fellas were having a really bad day. The downhill/uphill hairpin turn had C-men all over it and I was forced to dismount. In my pre-ride I had determined this turn to be rideable so an unplanned dismount had me suffering from brain freeze and I completely forgot how to get off my bike, finding myself somehow on the right side of the bike. Once thru that mess, and sorry if I pushed some people around (Monkey, Lindsay, any others?), I started to pick off the riders in front of me. Eventually I found myself in third, at least that's what Joe Jefferson was saying.

I love listening to Joe, even while I'm racing. I'm not sure if this is a good thing though, because his quip about the pack being "strung out like Amy Winehouse" had me laughing and misjudging one of those tricky corners. However, he usually knows what's going on and I can count on his commentary to keep me abreast of the race up ahead of me. Now, I could see Lenore in front of me, but according to Joe I was in third place. Who, I was wondering, was leading? Well, Joe got it wrong, and once again had me laughing with his apology to the dude who must have looked like a lady. In the end, I could not close the gap to Lenore. I had told her before the race that this was her course and boy was I right. I came in second and very satisfied with the weekend.