AKA “My Unofficial Women’s SS State Championship Win”

I raced in my 3rd CX race ever yesterday (2nd if you’re only counting the “real” races). It was tough going, but pretty fun. Kym Flynn, an Expert MTB chick from Vantaggio in Chattanooga, was the only other CX 1/2/3 competing, and, not surprisingly, beating the snot out of me! I’ve been mainly base training the past month, and she’s been tearing up the TBRA CX scene, so my fitness for this race doesn’t quite compare :D Oh yeah… the singlespeed setup didn’t help, either. I ran a 42 x 17, which turned out to be just a tiny bit too big- the hills were very hard and I wasn’t spinning out on the flat sections, so I think I could have swung an 18t in the back and felt “just right.” Live & learn, right?

I did manage to pull off one of the funnier falls of the day… one steep section of course required either a run-up or a LOT of speed and determination. On my first lap, I wasn’t focused on the turn before the hill and stalled out, which resulted in the obligatory “waddle uphill while straddling the bike.” Next time around, I got a little too excited, pulled my front wheel off the ground, and tried to set it back down sideways… which doesn’t work too well. The resulting fall was laughed at by many! (myself included). Remaining laps were fine… I hauled a** around the turn and attacked the hill and made it over without a hitch- notice the lean in the photo below- you prettymuch had to maintain speed from the previous downhill in order to have enough momentum to make it up on the SS…

Ryan pulled off a 3rd place finish in the men’s CX3 category. I yelled my head off at him through most of the race and took a few photos until the camera batteries died. He also managed to make the front page of the local section of the Memphis newspaper in this photo:

Photos from the A & B races can be seen in his Gallery

Jd3 from the Roadbike Review forums was there taking som photos as well- you can see all of them in his forum post, but here are some highlights…