My First 'Cross Race

Cyclocross is fun! Today's race was at Wheeler Historic Farm in Salt Lake. I raced the Women's C race. That's the race for the ladies who have never raced 'cross before.

First things first: I want to thank my teammate, Shanna for letting me borrow her 'cross bike. I was so excited after the race, I forgot to thank you. It was so much easier to pick your bike up than it would have been to have to heft my mountain bike around. It worked great for me! Thanks!

Here I am pre-race:






And here I am taking a warm up lap. Luckily, the girl I'm riding with here had a tour guide showing her the course (it was her first time, too). This was good for me because I got a lesson in 'cross as well. I'm glad they let me ride along. I would have totally missed the run up section if the guide hadn't showed us where it was. The most important thing I learned during this warm up lap was how technical the course was.
For a roadie like me it was super technical!
It was muddy. It had narrow, foresty areas. It had some sharp turns. It had steep climbs; most of which were steep enough to get off and push the bike. There was one section where you rode along a narrow, muddy trail that had an incline to the right and you had to make a sharp left, get off your bike and hike (or run if you could) up a steep, weedy section to the top of a hill.

I was excited to see Kelly at the start line. I told her I'd try my best to stay out of her way. And I did a great job at it, too. I got behind her and never was able to pass her.



I love this picture of Kelly. She looks like she is having so much fun with that big smile on her face.




A junior group went out right before our race started. Here I am passing some of the junior boys. Speaking of juniors, there was a tiny little girl on a teeny bike out racing today. She must have only been two or three years old. At one point I saw her going the wrong direction. I just figured that some mom had lost track of her kid, but later realized she had been racing because she came to the finish with a loud roar from the crowd. It was cute.
There was a lot of thinking involved with racing this course, and I think that's why I had so much fun. You don't get this kind of thrill from road racing.



Here's the run up with the barriers. This hill was deceiving to me. It seemed like I could ride up it, but I had to get off to go over the barriers. So I would stop (I need to work on getting on/off while moving), probably way before necessary, and run up. This was my least favorite part of the course. Probably because there were so many people watching my goofy racing skills.

After my race, I hung out and watched my teammates, Nancy and Shanna, race the women's A race.



Then I watched the men's A race. Here are some of them on the weedy run up section I wrote about earlier. There was one guy (I think it was the guy who won) who didn't even have to get off his bike. He would just power it up.




And here's Turbo on the barrier-run up. These men were amazing on the run up! You couldn't even tell when they got off their bikes. They kept moving at a steady pace, got off while moving, ran and got back on the bike. All without changing speed. It was cool.


It was quite an amazing day. I may be hooked on this. Great. Just what I need: another hobby.