St. Cloud race report Girlz B race
From: Sara Brokaw
Date: Sep 24, 2007 8:54 AM
Lynne Congrats on being the first Gopher this year to “do the double!”
Yesterday was a bit warm, but everybody looked resplendent in the
blue & orange! I thought a short sleved skinsuit would be
sufficiently cool, but it was not! Chills post-race confirmed it was
atypical Cx weather!
Last week mentally I wasn’t quite ready for cx season to
start…needed to be October or something. An attempt at one final
pitstop led Velo Bella to yell, “Sara they’re starting!” Skipped the
final pitstop & raced to the line just in time for the field to
depart! Relief but I knew starting position can make or break ones
race, and this is just how today was going!!
Just focused on watching the girlz in front of me….H-wood, IS Corp,
superstar Jenna Zander, ND Linda were ahead, and girlz at the back
consisted of 2 B-wood (including BWARC), Corey C, and myself. A
Dropped chain in front of me on the first runup lost a bit of
momentum, but I just focused on hanging on to those in front. Hadn’t
encountered the barriers redlined yet this year, but the first attempt
over the double section went rather smoothly. Bobbled a couple of the
uphill remounts (post barrier) and had to run after coming to a
complete stop.
Early on in the race, I passed Bwood#2, and she passed me back, so I
just focused on staying close. BWARC came by and again focused on
staying close. Bwood#2 went backwards after being passed by BWARC,
and I just focused on BWARC, noticing that Corey was closing from
behind. Soon after the double barrier section, I passed BWARC and
tried to focus on staying smooth.
25 m before I saw 3 to go, the leaders came by, giving myself & a very
relieved Loon State rider TWO to go!! Now I just needed to not make
mistakes & focus on holding the gap. Soon Rodent Wheeler came by
having a most excellent race (ended top5?)!
In the end held position (despite mistakes on the uphill remounts)
ahead of scrappy BWARC & Corey, but a super fun race given that we had
a tight race amongst 4 of us (Bwood#2 abandoned).
Of note, bike seems perfectly dialed, I feel smoother over the
barriers compared to last year. I do need to do a bit of skill
practice since I was really riding pretty sloppy throughout the day.
Great to see so many gophers participating in the most difficult of
cycling disciplines!
Sara