XC Race Season has finally arrived, my
friends. Sunday, March 3rd kicked off the Maxxis Southern Classic
Race Series for 2013 with the Killer 3 in Sumter, SC at Poinsett State Park.
The new course, The Knot, is a 7 mile fast flowing single track loop consisting
of short climbs, fast descents, twisty turns and a few super fast miles of
gravel/sand fire road.
My TotalCyclist Mountain Bike Race teammates
arrived the day before and were able to scope out the race course. I decided to
drive down the morning of and was looking forward to the 2+ hour drive to calm
my nerves. Pulling into the park, I glanced at my nifty outside temperature
indicator and rolled my eyes…37 degrees.
People who know me know that I detest cold temperatures (anything below
65 degrees). Still in denial that it was
actually that cold outside, I shuffled over to registration.
I reluctantly started the long process of
putting my ten thousand layers on…bibs, knee warmers, arm warmers, arm warmers
(yes, that’s two), jersey, star socks (yay!), toe covers and everything
else. I was about to start my warm up and noticed that I couldn’t feel my
toes. I swapped out my toe covers for my
sock booties, found my teammate and continued the frigid warm up. Even after a few sprints I couldn’t get warm,
and my fingers and toes were still painfully cold. One last swap of foot
gear into my mac daddy neoprene booties, and I was off to the start.
We waited for an eternity for our Cat 2 women’s
group to be called to the start line. I was in an uncontrollable full
body shivering state when we were finally told to go. I gave it my all
and took the lead into the woods. Thanks, Mark Kane!!! All that
Kane training has helped my starts tremendously!
I kept the lead as long as I could but had to
allow a few ladies to pass since I had blown myself out too soon. I
shocked myself at how well I was cornering and taking the turns. I
struggled with it so much last season, but my TotalCyclist coach (Luke Sagur)
had me work on this skill all winter. It was awesome to see it all come
together that day. Thank you, Coach!
Sandy Marshall from Giordana-Clif Bar took the
lead, and I hung on to the lead group. We stayed this way through the
single track but Sandy was pretty far from the rest of us by the time we popped
out onto the fire road. The remaining three of us swapped positions
multiple times the entire way to the start/finish. I was first into the
woods again for our second lap but lost the lead once more.
I started to feel it then…a little sluggishness
coming. I had not been drinking my Infinit like I should have been…didn’t
have a chance to even with a camelback on, so I took in as much as I could and
waited. Somehow I fell back to fifth place, but then an angel fell from
the sky in the form of a really large man on a bike barreling down the
gravel. I jumped on his wheel and hung on for dear life, allowing myself
to recover a bit in time for my third and final lap.
Slightly refreshed, I went (what felt like) as
hard as I could for the last lap. It paid off because I saw fourth place
just ahead of me. Luckily I had a few guys with me, so with all of us passing
a good gap was made. We all stayed together for the remainder of the
race, and I crossed the finish in fourth place. Not bad for the first
race of the season.
Bonnie Kleffman also had an awesome day on the bike. She took the win after four laps in the Pro
Women’s Category.
They say that luck happens when hard work meets
opportunity. I’m looking forward to many more lucky moments for 2013. Thank you to all our sponsors: TotalCyclist,
Kane Training, Bicycle Sport, Giordana, Infinit Nutrition, Meg-Art, Carolina
Realty Advisors, OTR, ESI Grips
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