Biscuit Invades Fairfax!

By Erin "Biscuit" Kassoy

The Bay Area hosted a new cross race up in Marin County last Saturday at an elementary school in the town of Fairfax. Marin is frequently shrouded in fog but Saturday is was totally clear and cold when I got there at 9am. Of course, cold is relative - it was in the 40s.

I found Ann Fitzsimmons parked in front of me when I arrived, which brought a huge smile to my face - she's back! We both had our new Kona Queen Anns ready to roll. Also there for the women were many of the local players minus Sarah, who was doing the Bella clinic.

I rode a lap of the course with one of the masters men who had just finished his race. It seemed long with a lot of transitions - it went around the ball fields (we even skidded across home plate backwards from first base) and then wound its way up and down the dusty hills around the school, including a lap around the school's solar panel array. The only strange thing was a finish line on a sidewalk right after a 90 degree turn - there would be no sprint finishes.

The race itself started slow for me but I eventually worked my way up to a group of three that was in third place. Unfortunately, my slow start meant that 1st and 2nd (Rachel and Shelly) had gotten away already. I hopped on the group of three and then attacked through some switchbacks right before all the technical dirt sections. I immediately got a gap and held it for what seemed like forever.

The course kept turning back on itself so I could see where people where behind me and I was still gaining time so was able to actually smile the last lap for a third place podium finish. My SRAM shifting worked flawlessly the whole race and I'm really liking my 165 cranks. After the race, Ann told me that she was happy to be racing again. She'll continue to ramp up her efforts in local races and will be back on the national scene for the Seattle/Portland weekend.

Sunday's surf city was a non-event for me in the racing sense. Perhaps I left everything on the course on Sat., or I spent too much time preparing my costume instead of my racing mentality Sunday morning. Whatever the reason, I pulled the plug after a lap of the Halloween course and spent the rest of the race cheering on all the Bellas. I'll let Sarah tell her story of ghouls stealing her chain in the forest of headless horsemen.

Erin