'tis the Season
By Shannon Holden
Spokane, Washington
Can you believe it's cross season already?
I am so excited. This past weekend my husband, son, and I drove to Portland, Oregon to spend the weekend with my brother-in-law and his family. He is an amazing free rider, so it is always a blast to ride with him. We went on some pretty spectacular rides.
We had made plans to drive to Seattle Monday morning to race in the Labor Day cross. I was pretty excited, because I haven't raced since June. I was actually really nervous driving in, my stomach up in the air. When we got there I got signed up and took out to pre-ride. It was a fun course, really sandy. It had a 3 good run ups and 1 set of barriers. I got a couple of laps in and it was time to get to the start line.
When I got there I noticed there were some pretty fast girls there, Bridgette Stoick, Kelly Jones, Kristi Berg to name some. It was going to be brutal. I took out hard with the front pack. It felt good, I love the run ups. I come from a running background so I can usually do some damage.
We came around to the barriers and when I went to get back on my bike I hit a rut and bounced my chain out. It seemed like foreve and couldn't get it back on. While bent over I saw 2 girls fly by through my legs. So I was sitting in 7th at this point. Furious I took off on my bike and started hammering. I passed one right away. The other is pretty strong so it took me about 1/2 lap to catch her and I passed her on the run up.
So back to hammering. It is so windy at South Sea Tac I never could see anyone in front of me. So I had no Idea where I was. I came around a corner the 4th lap and there was 4th place right in front of me. I got so excited that when we got to the barriers I set my bike down in the same rut and bounced my chain off again and off went 4th place. I pushed hard the last 1/4 lap but just didn't have it.
It was fun. I finished 5th which I was pretty happy with. Plus I got to race cross in September which doesn't happen on the other side of the state.
Full results
We had made plans to drive to Seattle Monday morning to race in the Labor Day cross. I was pretty excited, because I haven't raced since June. I was actually really nervous driving in, my stomach up in the air. When we got there I got signed up and took out to pre-ride. It was a fun course, really sandy. It had a 3 good run ups and 1 set of barriers. I got a couple of laps in and it was time to get to the start line.
When I got there I noticed there were some pretty fast girls there, Bridgette Stoick, Kelly Jones, Kristi Berg to name some. It was going to be brutal. I took out hard with the front pack. It felt good, I love the run ups. I come from a running background so I can usually do some damage.
We came around to the barriers and when I went to get back on my bike I hit a rut and bounced my chain out. It seemed like foreve and couldn't get it back on. While bent over I saw 2 girls fly by through my legs. So I was sitting in 7th at this point. Furious I took off on my bike and started hammering. I passed one right away. The other is pretty strong so it took me about 1/2 lap to catch her and I passed her on the run up.
So back to hammering. It is so windy at South Sea Tac I never could see anyone in front of me. So I had no Idea where I was. I came around a corner the 4th lap and there was 4th place right in front of me. I got so excited that when we got to the barriers I set my bike down in the same rut and bounced my chain off again and off went 4th place. I pushed hard the last 1/4 lap but just didn't have it.
It was fun. I finished 5th which I was pretty happy with. Plus I got to race cross in September which doesn't happen on the other side of the state.
Full results
posted by jen @ 12:06 PM
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