A few weeks ago I decided to race Day 1 of the UCI Planet Bike CX Cup on Saturday followed by the Shawano WORS race on Sunday. I learned some very interesting things at my first official UCI race....like there are no feed zones. So say it's 90 degrees outside and you don't have a water bottle cage on your bike, you'll just have to suck it up and pretend that you're a camel. Of course all this information was relayed to me as I was sitting at the start line, so suck it up was all I could do. In fact, I sucked it up all the way to 5th place out of 16 starters in the Women's Cat 3 race. WooHoo! Price to enter the race - 30 dollars. Prize money won - 31 dollars. Net gain - one dollar. Sweet.
With a dollar in my pocket and white dehyration spittle crusted on my lips, I headed to my parents home in Green Bay for a some dinner and a good night of sleep before the WORS race. While I didn't have high hopes for Shawano, I didn't realize how smoked out I was going to feel after racing CX. The race started and I was motoring with everyone on the lead out, then the singletrack, and through the tunnel. When I hit the flat horse pasture I watched almost everyone in the field ride away from me and I had no answer. And to top it off I rode singletrack like a beginner. Result - DFL....and actually, I believe this was my first DFL in a mountain bike race ever. So I left Shawano with a mildly bruised ego, a nasty cold that would cost me a few training days, a realization that I suck on flats and no confidence heading into Sheboygan. At least I had a dollar in my pocket.
No comments:
Post a Comment