Race, Recover, Repeat: USGP Ft. Collins

It's that time of year for me. The time where building fitness is an elusive task, where the name of the game is race and recover and when I have to walk a very fine line of resting and training in the middle of a ton of travel and racing.

The pre-race week was no fun. No fun at all. Like I noted post Iceman, I had such a terrible flu I wouldn't have cared if I died on the couch. But, by Thursday I felt close to normal, albeit a little weak and was able to go for a little spin on my new wheels!

After the first few pedal strokes I knew what all the fuss was about. Words can't articulate the difference between my old set up (Stan's 355's set up tubeless) and my new American Classic Carbon 58s. Even during the mellow spin along the BLM back roads of Kremmling behind my sister's house I could tell one thing for sure: I just got faster through no additional effort or training-yahoo! A huge thanks to American Classic for hooking me up with some really nice wheels for cross season. And no, Felt and AC did not coordinate the color scheme on my behalf. But you have to admit, together they make one sexy combination:

Thanks to AC, Nate was also able to expand on his ever growing mechanical skill set by learning how to glue tubulars. I can't even fathom the stress of gluing tubies for the first time, but Nate was over the top diligent about doing it right. Rather than passing the buck to a local shop he did a ton of research and even took the time to go into Stu Thorne's shop in Mass. when we were home for a visit back in October to get advice from the legend himself. Again, how lucky am I to be married to such a great mechanic?!?

One more technical note on my bikes. Nate got me set up on some TRP CX9 brakes this year. He bought a few pairs at Interbike on the advice of some of the Giant mechanics-thank god for that because I hear they are so popular you can't find them. They are slightly heavier than cantis but the stopping power is unbelievable. They are so darn strong that I can now ride my cross bikes as I do my mountain bikes that have disc brakes (meaning I can brake harder, for shorter amounts of time which is way faster than dragging on them for longer). I love them and this weekend proved to me that they are at no disadvantage in the mud.

Oh, yeah, about the weekend of racing: The USGP series just rocks. Huge crowds, a ton of excitement, deep, deep fields and fantastic course design. The organization is totally dialed. Saturday's race brought the first real cross weather/conditions of the year: super muddy and cold! Strangely, even after practicing in the mud the previous weekend at Iceman, Saturday was the most I have struggled on a bike in a long time. I admittedly was running my psi in my first race on tubulars way too high and I suffered because of my poor decision. I know everyone struggled and it was a race of who bobbled the least, but I brought riding like a weenie to a new level on Saturday.

Post start line crash aftermath. This is the only reason you will ever see Meredith Miller and Laura Van Gilder behind me.

The course was a maze of off camber turns on what was originally grass before the snowstorm (read: deeply rutted mud) and although I felt fantastic, I rode like I had never seen mud before in my life. I averaged at least 2 crashes a lap, my most spectacular of them being in the last 1/2 lap where I straight lined into some course tape, endoed, got tangled and eventually lost 2 places to Nicole Duke and LVG because of it. But hey, that's cross for you. Despite getting caught behind 3 major wrecks in the first 1/2 lap and riding poorly I ended up in 14th.

I'm grateful that I got held up behind this, not in it! Thankfully Kathy, the one with her face on the pavement, was okay.

I knew I had a better ride in me on Sunday. I dropped my psi significantly and readjusted my headspace according to the slightly drier, more tacky conditions. I had a much better start and even though I was shed from the group that eventually came in 8-11th, I was happy with my post flu effort. Laura Van Gilder and I battled the entire last lap. I tried a measly attack on the last major hill of the course but was unable to shed her. And well, rolling into a finish line with Laura anywhere close to your wheel, either ahead or behind, we all know how that finish is going to go down. I came in 12th, 2 sec. behind LVG.

Nate was great in the pits even after racing his moto early that morning and battling his own version of the flu all week. We decided to spend the night again in Ft. Collins and went to a fun Brazilian restaurant for dinner to celebrate my Iceman win. Great wine, super food and the engaging eating experience of having multiple gauchos come to your table with various meat selections (ever tried wild boar???) was rad. After a long weekend of racing in the cold, it was the perfect ending to a month long road trip.

Now we're home for a week before heading to Jinglecross. Outdoor riding/training is definitely over for the year as it has been nuking snow since we got back, so it's time to make friends with the trainer again. Sigh. Oh well, less than 1 month until Nationals and then it'll be ski season during which I get to tele to my heart's content on possibly the most graphically offensive skis ever made (The Rossi S7s):

Nate will be mounting these fatties for me with Hammerhead's new free-pivot binding the Axl. I should probably ask him to not mount them until after Nationals so I can stay focused....right? Targhee opens this weekend, Jackson Hole the next weekend and I have been dreaming of powder skiing a lot lately. Soooo tempting. But, I think my cycling-specific fit body will freak out (i.e. be SORE) the first time I drop a knee so it's best to wait. The Farmer's Almanac has promised the deepest snow year in recent memory-I think I can wait 3 more weeks!