Fall is Fading...

I have cross fever, so I'm a bit ashamed to say that I haven't touched my mountain bike since Interbike, even though we've been very spoiled for the past few weeks with temps in the 60's with very sunny skies. Fearing the impending forecast (rain and snow is on the way) I took out my fireline yesterday, did a bunch of stupid-hard intervals up Teton Pass and met Nate on the Jackson side to ride the Arrow trail. (There is a great mention of this new trail in IMBA's latest newsletter-three cheers for the Boy Scouts!)

We had a great ride, complete with a run-in with an enormous moose, though it was still muddy in the shaded spots. It was strange to be riding through snow at points-a sure sign that it was likely the last mountain bike ride of the season. Thankfully, I was running Karmas, the best all-around tires in Kenda's line. They shed the mud nicely and hooked up in the sloppy corners no problem.

I'm sticking around Teton Valley tonight for the Halloween festivities and tomorrow it's off to The Cube, a local cross race in Rexburg. I missed the first race of the series last weekend because I went to states, so I'm excited to go support the local cross scene. Plus, they have moving obstacles. The course map warns of live duck crossings. Good times, good times.

Thankfully, I love riding my road bike, so I'm not too worried about the approaching weather. I get to look at views like this on my favorite ride in Teton Valley, the Cedron Loop. These shots are from this past week:

Speaking of views, it's hard for me to believe that exactly a year ago, Nate and I were on our honeymoon in Hawaii hiking to this view of the Napali Coast. So cool. I know when it's snowing/sleeting and raining this weekend, I'll be dreaming of timeshares in Kauai:

But, for now, I have to settle for the views off my deck. The sunsets here never get old!

Crosstoberfest-ID State Champs

This weekend we made the drive over to Sun Valley for the ID State Cross Championships. The weather was perfect, the course was over-the-top technical and we ate at Ketchum Burrito every day we were there. Perfect equation for a great weekend of racing.

The course definitely favored mountain bikers or at least people with very good bike handling skills. It was a maze of singletrack, chicanes, technical off camber turns, steep uphills and stupid-steep downhills that sent you straight into a set of barriers. I loved it!

Singletrack by the river. Soooo pretty!

Saturday was far more stressful for me than Sunday's race. They started the women among 40-50 or so men in the B group which made for a really chaotic start. There was a huge pileup right in front of me at the beginning, which I narrowly averted, and the first lap was incredibly slow. There was so much single track and so few opportunities to pass, I had a really hard time catching up to Kris Walker, who had a front row start (I was about 4 rows deep). I made a bunch of sketchy passes and finally caught her at the beginning of the second lap. I put in about a 10 second gap on her for a while, but she caught back on about 40 min. into the race. We were riding together out of a single track section...and I got a flat. Bummer. I was able to get a wheel, but by the time I got back on my bike, Kris got a minute on me and I had to settle for second.

Comin' in hot!

Sunday was the State championship race, so they changed the course to include a heinous run up. Although I never once looked at my watch, I think it was at least a 45 second hike/run up the beginning of the ski hill, to a sharp turn down a super-steep downhill on washboarded gravel. Yikes. That run-up was the definition of pain and suffering.

The women got organized before Sunday's race and decided to give ourselves our own start wave, 30 seconds after the men. Call ups were going to be based on the previous day's results, but according to how you finished among the men. As we were racing for the state championships against women, it just didn't seem fair to shove some of us 6 rows deep and others on the front row. Our start plan didn't really help the congestion at the start, as we ran into all the men immediately on the run up at the start of the lap, but at least it made it a fair start for everyone.

Ouch. 58 min of ouch.

I managed to suffer my way up the run-up in first and by the time I got to the bottom of the downhill, I had already put in a big gap on the field. I held the gap and increased it each lap and managed to keep enough air in my tires (believe me, it was barely enough) to finish a minute up with the Idaho State Champ. title. It's a rare day when your legs feel strong, your bike works and it all comes together, so I was a very happy lady!

I think I was running this barrier as if it hadn't been knocked down.

Nate, as always, was super-mechanic for the group of us from Victor. Believe me, he had his hands full. We had 6 flats between 4 of us racing, Troy broke his chain in the first race on his A bike, then flatted on his B bike, Bergy got 2 flats in Sunday's race, and I flatted on my cool down on the bike path after I won my race on Sunday. Did I mention how technical the course was?

We finished up with beers at the after party and of course, topped it off with another round of burritos at KB before the drive home. And, because Nate and I finally had another person in our car for the ride home, we stopped in Carey, Idaho and made Bergy take a picture of us that we talk about taking every time we go to Sun Valley. You can't really see us, but you can see the important part:

Victor Cross Series

The last race of the Victor Cross Series is this Saturday, October 18th. Check out the Victor Cross Series blogspot for start times and for more info. The forecast is calling for a nice day, so I thought this would be an appropriate photo.

If you're around, please come join us. It's BYOB (Bring your own bell).

Winter Already???

Winter has arrived. Bergie, Dave, Michelle and I decided that we didn't really care about the weather and headed up north to get cold and muddy in some cross races in Big Sky and Bozeman.

Go to Dave's blog for more photos. He always has good photos...

After finding a great maintenance shed to warm up in, we we ready to rumble. They started all the women, the 4&5 men and the master's all together. This is a great way to go. That way, the promoters don't have to be there all day long and the women get some good competition.

I had a pretty good start, went into the first barrier section in about 7th, and tailed a gal for the first lap. After one lap, I got in front and slowly increased my gap each lap. The course was fast, had a good barriers section and one really awkward barrier that came after an uphill section.

I had 1.5 laps to go and was feeling pretty darn good. We were about 42 min. into the 50 min. race, I had a comfortable 1/3 of a lap lead on the next woman and was 6th in the men's field when I came off a dirt to pavement section, nailed a rock I hadn't seen before and double flatted. Boooooooo. I ran to the finish and called it a day. It was a bummer, but if I've learned anything this year, it's that you can't let the small stuff, especially stuff you can't help, get you down. I had a great, great race, felt like I was learning new tricks every lap and had a blast. I can't let some unfortunately timed flat tires take that away from me.

Plus, they served waffles after the race. How cool is that?

Dave killed it and waged his own personal battle with another guy the entire race and ended up on beating him. It's great to see a guy who excels in the loooong races go out there and kill it in the short stuff. Bergie had a killer result, coming in 5th in a very tough Cat. 1-3 men's field.

We headed up to Bozeman for the night to race a race in the city park the next day. Later on Saturday night, my friend Andrew called me (thanks again, Andrew!) to give us the heads up that Sunday's race had been canceled. WHAT? WHAT? Who the heck cancels a cross race due to weather???

Apparently, MSU cycling had an agreement with the city that they wouldn't run a race that would ruin their grass in the park. Okay, fine. But, geeze guys, don't you think that there's a good chance that there may be bad weather in Montana in October. Just my two cents....

I had so much graduate homework to do Saturday night, I kind of didn't sweat it, but we were all SO bummed to have driven all the way up to Bozeman from Big Sky, spent $$$ on meals and hotel rooms only to find out that we should have just driven home. Oh well.

So even though my weekend involved a bit of bad luck, I still have a certifiable case of cross fever. This is all Bergie's fault and he knows it :)

This Saturday it's another local race, the Victor Cross Series #3. Hup! Hup!

Finally, an update

It's been a long time since I have written. Rather than write an epic passage, I thought I would toss in a few photos to explain...

I turned 30 on Sept 19th and my pal Anna made me by far the coolest B-day cake I have ever seen. Yup, that "lava" in the lava cake is dry ice.

I borrowed a cx bike the morning of my first cross race and managed to come
away with a "W" and a new-found addiction to cross racing.

We took a great trip to Interbike, got hooked up with very nice rooms at Caesar's Palace enjoyed the CrossVegas cross race with 14,999 other rabid, beer drinking fans. After confirming that Titus would not have a cross bike ready this year, I decided to order one of these instead

Our good friends Anna and Rusty got married at the same ranch Nate and I got married at last year. They sealed the deal by sawing a log.

I hosted a bachelorette party at my house for Anna before the wedding. That's a whole lot of girl power....

I did my second cross race ever, the first on my new bike and enjoyed a 40min slop-fest in the mud, sleet and rain. Yee-haw!

Tomorrow morning, it's up to Big Sky, MT and then on to Bozeman, MT for some cross racing. The forecast is for SNOW highs in the 30s. Bring it.