Ok what a great day!! First I want to talk about my son Holden who I am so very proud of. He finished out the series even though he was a little burned out on racing and got 2nd overall in his age group. I am so very proud of him, he is only 8, racing in the 10-12 year old cat, and he got 2nd. Way to go Holden, that is the future of our cycling community. Very Proud MAMA!!
Next Congrats to my husband Chad, who had a great race today working with teammate Phil Oppenheimer to get 5th on the day and finish 6th over all in the Master 35+ Cat 1/2 cat. He was a little bummed out because he missed 5th overall by only 6 points, but I am still very proud of him. He is having a great season and is coming into form at the right time!! Congrats Chadly!
And my race. What a great day, the course was awesome. I really liked it, it had just about everything you can have minus snow in a cross race.
I lined up on the line with all the gals in the Cat 1/2 field. I wanted to win today because that would mean I would clean sweep the series winning every race. So that was goal, and my road Teammate Jadine Rolcik also let me know in order for her to keep 3rd place overall I need to win so the points would work in Jadine's favor. So I wanted to do that for her, and the whole race I kept that in mind. It is fun to have my secret teammates out there!!
So we took off off the start, it was a long flat fast grass section into a hard right hand turn then up a false flat that hurt really bad. So I shot off and got the whole shot and decided to just gun it as hard as I could and see how much of a gap I could get. When we hit the turn after the false flat I had about 5 sec on Beth Lynn-Griffith so I keep on it and we hit a series of tight turns in the grass, about 6 or 8, so I used my cornering skills to get a little more ground on Beth. Ann Knapp was coming hard in 3rd position. The next section of the course was awesome, a nice steep technical downhill section that turned right back up into an uphill that a lot of people were having a hard time riding. I brought out my old downhill skills and attacked that section. I loved it!!
Then after that we had another hard downhill left had turn that was pretty slippery and then into the "ditch" that was about a foot deep in mud but at an angle that made it hard to ride. I took the right line each time and got through it with no problems. I was still in first at that point, then we hit a short but very steep run up and with my little legs it was very challenging to get up. Then after that it was a muddy section then flat and fast back through the finish area and through a horse barn. Wish there would have been some horses in there though, that would have been cool.
So going into the 2nd lap I had a pretty comfortable gap, I went one more lap hard to get that gap even bigger then I sat in for the 3rd lap to catch my breath. Then in the 4th lap I realized that Ann had moved into 2nd, and and was coming on strong. She is definitely starting to get her fitness back from having her daughter and is making me work and I love it! So I knew I had to kick it back up a notch to hold my gap so the last 2 laps I got back on it and held my 20-30 gap to get the win and sweep the series.
Next Congrats to my husband Chad, who had a great race today working with teammate Phil Oppenheimer to get 5th on the day and finish 6th over all in the Master 35+ Cat 1/2 cat. He was a little bummed out because he missed 5th overall by only 6 points, but I am still very proud of him. He is having a great season and is coming into form at the right time!! Congrats Chadly!
And my race. What a great day, the course was awesome. I really liked it, it had just about everything you can have minus snow in a cross race.
I lined up on the line with all the gals in the Cat 1/2 field. I wanted to win today because that would mean I would clean sweep the series winning every race. So that was goal, and my road Teammate Jadine Rolcik also let me know in order for her to keep 3rd place overall I need to win so the points would work in Jadine's favor. So I wanted to do that for her, and the whole race I kept that in mind. It is fun to have my secret teammates out there!!
So we took off off the start, it was a long flat fast grass section into a hard right hand turn then up a false flat that hurt really bad. So I shot off and got the whole shot and decided to just gun it as hard as I could and see how much of a gap I could get. When we hit the turn after the false flat I had about 5 sec on Beth Lynn-Griffith so I keep on it and we hit a series of tight turns in the grass, about 6 or 8, so I used my cornering skills to get a little more ground on Beth. Ann Knapp was coming hard in 3rd position. The next section of the course was awesome, a nice steep technical downhill section that turned right back up into an uphill that a lot of people were having a hard time riding. I brought out my old downhill skills and attacked that section. I loved it!!
Then after that we had another hard downhill left had turn that was pretty slippery and then into the "ditch" that was about a foot deep in mud but at an angle that made it hard to ride. I took the right line each time and got through it with no problems. I was still in first at that point, then we hit a short but very steep run up and with my little legs it was very challenging to get up. Then after that it was a muddy section then flat and fast back through the finish area and through a horse barn. Wish there would have been some horses in there though, that would have been cool.
So going into the 2nd lap I had a pretty comfortable gap, I went one more lap hard to get that gap even bigger then I sat in for the 3rd lap to catch my breath. Then in the 4th lap I realized that Ann had moved into 2nd, and and was coming on strong. She is definitely starting to get her fitness back from having her daughter and is making me work and I love it! So I knew I had to kick it back up a notch to hold my gap so the last 2 laps I got back on it and held my 20-30 gap to get the win and sweep the series.
This is my 8th Seattle Series overall Elite women's title. I am very proud of that, I have been racing for a long time and to be able to continue to win the series is really a big deal for me. And to win every race in this series this year is a huge accomplishment. I love racing cross and am so excited for my age group race at Nats!!
I will try to find some pics and get them up.
What a great season I am having so far. I just feel awesome and fast out there right now. I will let you know how Portland goes. Not as excited about those 2 races as I will get a back row call up with only 1 UCI point so I have a lot more work to do just to move through the field of 80 gals. So my overall result may not be as great but I hope to have 2 good races down there to get me ready for Nats.
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!
Kristi
I will try to find some pics and get them up.
What a great season I am having so far. I just feel awesome and fast out there right now. I will let you know how Portland goes. Not as excited about those 2 races as I will get a back row call up with only 1 UCI point so I have a lot more work to do just to move through the field of 80 gals. So my overall result may not be as great but I hope to have 2 good races down there to get me ready for Nats.
Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!
Kristi
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