This past weekend was Apple Cross, a two day race weekend in Winchester, VA. I had heard great things about the race and the venue and was excited to race a course I had never seen before.
As per usual, we got up super early and drove down to the venue to arrive around 7:00. Even though Saturday was a Sportif race and my race did not start until 10, I wanted to pre-ride a couple of times and make sure that I worked any kinks out of the techy sections before my race. And it was a good thing I did! After setting up the team tent, my significant other and I hit the course. Less than a minute in, we hit our first surprise: an off camber downhill with a sharp corner hidden by a tree with a nasty short climb after it. I was NOT expecting the climb that was hidden by the tree and promptly fell over while trying to get off my bike on it. Whoops.
After several pass through attempts, I figured out the best line and dismount area and found that the left side was the best for running up it. My significant other took some convincing that because of the loose dirt and rock on the hill that it was almost unrideable and it would benefit him to figure out the best dismount area. And I thought I was the stubborn one.
There was another off camber section that I wanted to try again after coming out of it too close to a stake. The second pass was much better and I felt a lot better about NOT running into the stake on that attempt. Most of the rest of the course was fine until we got to the "Belgian Wall". It was long, it was steep, and it was not rideable for me. I immediately decided that I was just going to run the whole thing.
The course on that day had a nice rocky and rooty climb that I loved. It was perfect for my mountain bike skill set and flat bars. I knew that I would be able to either pass folks or drop folks on that climb.
The early races started and we stood around and cheered. It was nearing race time and the sun had come out. It was starting to get nice and warm. I took my arm warmers off and changed to a less insulated hat and went to go get lined up. There were 11 of us racing the women's Cat 4 race. I got a first row call up again. Yay!
Well, the whistle blew and I felt like I got a good start, but my mountain bike gearing and inability to sprint caused me to fall pretty far back as usual. However, once we got to the grass, I started to gain momentum and started to pass a few of the other women. All of my playing around on the first corner came in handy as I was able to dismount and run up while passing several other women. The rest of the first lap was pretty uneventful.
The second lap, Andrea caught up pretty close behind me. I cheered her on and taunted her telling her I was right here that she could catch me. We played leap frog once or twice on that lap. On the third lap, she caught up pretty close behind me coming into the barriers. My teammates were yelling at me that someone was catching up to me. She yelled back, "She knows! It's okay!" and started to laugh. Of course, she passed me on the remount after the barriers. We played leap frog a few more times on the second half of the course. As usual, she would catch up to me on the power sections and I would drop her on the techy sections.
The last little section before the finishing sprint was pretty techy, so I was feeling a little over confident and slowed down behind a friend who is a new racer so as to not freak her out on the techy section. Once I got around her, I saw Andrea around a corner and realized she was closer than I expected. I hit the gas on the last grassy patch hoping I could keep my distance. I hit the pavement as fast as my mountain bike gearing would let me. I heard my teammates screaming as loud as they could, so I knew she was gaining on me. I did not dare turn around, I just pedaled as hard as I could. Luckily, it paid off. I beat her by not even a second, coming in fourth out of only eight finishers.
For a Sportif race, it was a tough field and everyone was extremely strong that day. Unfortunately two friends DNF'ed and one was DQ'ed. Sarah G, who was doing her very first cross race, double flatted on a concrete step up on the first lap. She got back on the bike and finished the men's noon race strong though. Anna had a major equipment failure when she snapped her carbon saddle rails and hit the dirt pretty hard. She was a trooper though and immediately started looking for a saddle to borrow for the next day's race. I told her that I was going to get her on a mountain bike because she had the best attitude about crashing. Unfortunately, Hillary was DQ'ed for feeding on the course after another racer complained to an official. She still looked like she was having a great time though.
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| Saturday Women's Cat 4 Results |
As the men's 1:00 race was getting ready to start, winter decided to crash our cross party. What had started as a sunny, 65 degree day quickly turned into 35 degrees, windy, with some rain and sleet mixed in. We hung around to watch the 1/2/3 race to see an old teammate who was visiting from Texas race.
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| Jamie and Arny - The cutest cross puppy ever! |
Once that was done, we high tailed it down the road through more wind, rain, and sleet. The next day was looking quite miserable.
Sunday
As usual, the day started super early. It was cold and incredibly windy. We arrived back at the venue a little after 7 where I immediately got my number from registration and started my pre-race freakout since I was doing the early race. I met up with another friend, Sarah B, who was interested in racing cross, but nervous about doing a race. She brought her bike so we were going to pre-ride the course together. Unfortunately, the changes they made to the course overnight did not make it less challenging. It made it way more technical (sorry Sarah!). But she was a beast and rode most everything out, even though she thought she was going to die (she was fine!). There was a new off camber section into the first steep run up. There was a different line going into straight away before the barriers. The Belgian Wall was shorter, but SO much steeper (but I was able to ride the short kicker after it). There was a paved climb (ugh... who does that?) and a loose rocky, rooty climb that I immediately determined was faster to run it than to try and ride the slightly less steep option to the left.
Sunday was a Super 8 race, which puts the Women's Cat 4 race with the Men's Cat 5 race. Usually, there are about 60+ Cat 5 men and between 15-25 Cat 4 women. Today was a bit different. There were TEN men and 13 women. We finally outnumbered the men! It was pretty empowering.
As in the day before, I got a front row call up and botched the start. I really do sense a pattern here and need to figure out how to be better at starts. I quickly started to pick off women and settle into fourth spot. Jamie took off and I saw her a total of once on the course after the hole shot. That girl was on FIRE. It became pretty apparent that this was going to be an actual race, with actual racing happening. A group of five of us (Mia, myself, Becky, Maureen, and Evelyn) were in a pretty tight group with a lot of passing and repassing. It became pretty apparent that Becky (whom I had never raced with) was a mountain biker as she was keeping up with me on the techy sections. It was nice to have someone to race with that could match me on bike handling skills. It really kept me on my toes.
After some jockeying back and forth, I was able to get in second for a bit. It was a pretty awesome feeling until I washed out in a corner and had to put a foot down for a second. Evelyn was behind me and I think she did the exact same thing that I did. But either way, we both got passed by Becky. I kept on Becky's wheel for the most part through all of the techy sections. But she had a cross bike and was able to pull away from me on the power sections. I was in third, but had a taste of second and I wanted it back, but just could not catch her. On the last lap, Sarah G caught up to me with her ridiculous roadie strength and passed me on the barriers. I grabbed her wheel and yelled at her that she was not stealing my apple butter (which was a prize for the top three the day before, so I assumed they would do it again for this race). I am pretty sure she had no clue what I meant by that, but she put the hammer down and dropped me like I was standing still.
She also quickly passed Becky, whom I caught up to on the Belgian Wall. Apparently I could mosey up a hill on foot faster than she could. But she broke away on the next power section. I spent the rest of that lap trying to catch up to her. I was pushing as hard as I could and as fast as my gearing would let me. It was not enough, she finished with 15 seconds on me as I came in 4th out of 13 finishers (no DNF's today!).
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| Sunday's Women's Cat 4 Results |
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| Women's Cat 4 Podium - Not pictured: Jamie and Sarah G (who were nice and warm inside the rec center!) |
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