Weeping Willow XC 5/22/11

Well, I woke up to a chilly morning, and it stayed that way in Ipswich Massachusetts for the EFTA Weeping Willow XC race. I had raced the day before on the road at Lake Sunapee, where our NorEast women's team placed 1,2,3 to clean up the podium! My legs were surprisingly not sore. The course was relatively flat, but it was pretty slick in the single track sections (considering it had been raining for a week straight!). There were several areas of standing water, where literally I would splash into it so hard that the water would fly above my head! I entered the Elite Category (which is the same as a Pro-Open Category). There were 8 racers. The course started with an ATV trail and I was riding in 3rd place for the first single track section. Coming up one of the climbs, I was passed on the inside and then again by another rider shortly after that. The first place women, Karen Potter, was already way out in front, but the 4 of us were riding strongly together for a while until I got wrapped up in a tree and slammed down on my drive train side. I got up and tried to get back on, but my shifting was all out of alignment. There was nothing I could do to adjust it though, the rear derailure was bent. I had lost my carrots to chase at this point and I tried to hang in there. My shifting was driving me crazy! My shifter had moved and it was hard to maneuver my thumb properly.  My knee was pretty banged up at this point too, but the pain was not bothering me 1/2 as much as the fact that each time I came to a short climb, the chain would get all caught up if I down-shifted and or it would drop off. I figured it would be better to just run up the climbs for the remainder of the second lap. I was within 2 miles of the finish, when this stick seriously jumped off the ground and into my spoke. It was the weirdest thing because I one minute was on my bike, the next minute face down in the dirt. This time I landed on the other side of my already banged up knee. My chain had come off and as I was putting it back on another elite rider came by me. Oh no! I quickly got back on the bike, but in the last mile I never was able to make up the 24 seconds that split us apart. The first 5 to place were Pro's. The rest of us were Cat. 1 riders. In the Expert Category (Cat. 1 riders) there were 3 women in the Senior division (my age group, 19-39) and I beat the first place rider by almost 16 minutes. I was less than 2 minutes behind the 4th place Pro rider. I placed 6th out of 17 women combined in the Elite and Expert divisions.


Results