Last night was the 3rd and final installment of our local cyclocross training series. It was also the first night that didn’t feature mud and standing water. The course was full of dry ruts from the previous races, but with less tire pressure and more speed, I never really noticed them.

I’m getting better at the LeMans start for sure… with perfect weather, a lot more people showed up, so it was crucial for staying out of traffic.

The course was fast. I FINALLY felt like I was really killing it over the barriers. I rode hard and only had a couple of mishaps- once, I was carrying a ton of speed into a turn, nearly ran into a fence, and had to dump the bike to avoid it; the other was a near-miss- there was a lapped rider in front of me as I approached a pre run-up barrier. For reasons unknown, he decided that it was a good idea to stop in front of the middle of the barrier and step over… I, on the other hand, was screaming towards the barrier trying to carry some momentum up the hill following it.

Important note- Cyclocrunk barriers are a lot narrower and about 3″ taller than regulation-sized barriers.

As I dismounted into a full-on sprint, I realized that he was not going to be out of my way and was forced to stop as quickly as possible so that I wouldn’t mow him down. My knees were a fraction of a second from buckling, but I managed not to make contact with him, his bike, or the barrier. Whew!

I don’ t know how I ended up overall, but I was the 1st place woman for the 3rd time, so, later at the Young Avenue Deli afterparty, I got my Queen of Crunk prize…