Poolesville RR, Reston Crit, and New Bike Update

Thanks to Jen C I finally have that Poolesville win.

Overall it was a fine weekend of racing for CycleLife Powered By Specialized. I won the Poolesville Road Race; Robin got 3rd at the Reston Crit with a fine leadout by Sara Z (who still managed a 5th place finish), LJ scored a silver medal and Sonja pulled in a bronze in their respective categories at the Masters Nats Road Race in Louisville.

Not one to write race reports I'll just say this about Poolesville. Jen C led me to the gravel perfectly and I attacked on the third lap bringing Harlow with me. We bridged up to NCVC's Beth who had rolled off the front prior to the gravel. Harlow was not feeling well and had to pull herself out of the break and Beth and I worked well together to get a minute lead on the chase. She was an awesome break partner and I look forward to racing with her again.

On another note: Do Jen C and I really look anything at all alike? I've got at least 10 pounds on her and am not Asian. I only ask because when she violated the yellow line rule during the race, I was the one called out by the moto ref and asked to move to the back of the pack. Then when I was in the break, all the roadguards were yelling "Go Jen!" Beth even asked, "You're not Jen, right?" It all was quite amusing.

At Reston my legs were tired. Not tired enough that it was an overly difficult race, just too tired to do anything other than sit in. I still managed 7th overall coming in on Jen Max's wheel as we were pretty much the last 2 standing after a massive crash on the last lap. We had no hope of catching the group of five up ahead as we were gapped off from the crash so we just rolled in. I was fine with that as I was pretty apathetic about the whole race. I never once made an appearance on the front, never once attacked, never once reeled in an attack. I was just happy to finish with the pack on lead lap which is a first for me at Reston.

And finally an update on the new bike. The parts are ordered and should be in the shop. I'm just waiting on the call to bring the frame in to have it built up. SRAM Red with Nokon cables with white housing. Should look pretty sweet.

Something to make me laugh and something to make me smile

I was looking for something to make me laugh yesterday and decided to look up some video of one of my favorite SNL skits, Debbie Downer. Go ahead. Watch it. Try not to laugh.



In other news, I received my new super secret bike frame yesterday. I am grinning ear to ear. More on the bike later.

Numbers

14 road races already in the books
Approx. 25 more road races on my schedule
15 cross races on my schedule, not including Mercer Cup and Nationals
111 days until my cross season begins

Can you tell what’s on my mind? 111 days. I’m already looking at wheels and tubies for the upcoming season. Sadly I had to retire my tubies from last season but I did manage to get 2 (TWO!) full cross seasons out of them. I put some slicks on my cross bike last night so I can start commuting to work on it. I know I’m not the only one. I’ve been reading blogs and Facebook status updates and can see the current swelling. People are starting to have dreams about cross, starting to think about practice at Fort Reno, starting to talk equipment.

In the meantime I’ve been enjoying the road. I do love racing my bike on pavement, but something about racing cross just makes me smile. I’ll be racing with the big girls this year so I expect that smile will be masking quite a bit of pain, but I will still be smiling. One thing I noticed is that every single picture of me racing my road bike… I am not smiling. In fact I am sneering, grimacing, snarling, you name it. But pictures of me racing cross… I am smiling (or at the very least don’t look like I’m about to kill someone) even though I am sure the amount of pain I am in at the moment is almost unbearable.

Last weekend I went down to the Clarendon Cup to watch the elite CycleLife gals race. LJ and Sonja rocked with top 10 finishes. Mitch and Mel were also in the $$$. Hopefully someone will write a race report here. This weekend I am heading up to Philly to watch them race the Liberty Cup. I may be helping out in the feed zone, but if not, I will probably be hanging out at The Wall or on Lemon Hill. I love this race. In fact, it’s probably the only race which makes me want to one day upgrade on the road to a Cat 2. One day… but for now I’ve got 111 days on my mind.