I hope I don’t disappoint anyone with a brief race report, but I honestly don’t have a ton to say because everything was so perfect.

Friday night, I slept like the dead.

Saturday, Hiker Hostel breakfast (french toast, scrambled eggs, and oatmeal- all made in front of you in the kitchen) was great.  The night before, they ask what time the racers need to eat, and that’s what time the food hits the table. The coffee prettymuch kicks ass, too.

I knew going in to the race that with 2nd and 1st place finishes in 2009 and 2010 that I’d be a marked woman. Just in case no one noticed, race promoter Eddie O’dea did call-ups for the previous year’s podium finishers that were in attendance for this year’s race. the other women held their positions in the line up… I took the opportunity to move up a row.

The race began with a piece of break-neck speed, off-camber piece of cyclocross course. I rode hard, but smart (a repeating theme for the day), not wanting to fall behind, but not wanting to wreck or have a mechanical, either. I was passed by a few guys that started behind me, but no women.

Once we were on the road, I knew that I had to capitalize on having a cyclocross bike instead of a mountain bike.Just ahead of me, I saw a tall, skinny guy in a Clemson kit, riding at a good pace with his elbows on the tops of his bars. I pushed hard to catch his wheel, and he amicably pulled me several miles to the first of the gravel road hills where I decided that I no longer needed to be pulled, thanked him, and began climbing at a hard, just barely sustainable pace.

For the remainder of the race, I was either climbing at a pace as hard as I could maintain, or I was descending as fast as possible without risking a wreck or mechanical. The descents were a lot rougher than last year, so I knew that Brenda Simril (who was chasing me all day) was at an advantage on her mountain bike. I made it up the first insanity climb, through the first SAG, and down the first descent to the pavement without issue.

Once I was on the pavement and headed towards the next climb, I had to concentrate on maintaining the same effort that I’d put into the previous climb. Generally, if I wasn’t out of breath and my legs weren’t burning, I shifted to a harder gear and pedaled harder. Since the 2nd climb was much more moderate than the 1st one, the pavement strategy worked well for it, too. Between the 100’s of calories of Gu Roctane and a caffeine pill around mile 25, I started the 2nd climb feeling like I was ascending like a monkey on crack, and ended up reeling in a lot of the men who had passed me earlier in the race.

Before I knew it, I was at the 2nd aid station. Soon after, my only race mishap occurred when I lost a water bottle on one of the rough downhill spots. Luckily, #55 gave me one of his extras (I forgot his name, though he did say that he’s got a coworker that’s a reader). Hi! And, thanks again… you saved me!

The remainder of the rollers after the last long descent were hard. I had convinced myself that the other competitors were not far behind me, so I ignored how badly my legs hurt and hammered (as best I could) over the top of every hill. When I arrived back  at Montaluce for the final CX lap, I had a slight inkling that I might win. Eddie had re-routed the course to include a traditional Southern Cross run-up. I shouldered my bike, threw goats & made faces at the cameras, and trotted up the hill.

Ever since French Gulch in Breckenridge, all other hike-a-bike type situations seem somewhat “easy.”

I made my way through the remainder of the course and crossed the line. Ho-lee-isht. Did I win?!?! Eddie seemed slightly doubtful. Others congratulated me. I was 99% sure I’d won, but no one seemed to know for sure.

I have never been as exhausted after that race as I was yesterday. I changed, drank a recovery drink, and laid down on the ground in a fetal position near the food tent, where I passed out for close to 15 minutes. It would have been longer, but Skinny Matt called and woke me up with his SuperFlossy race report.

I eventually ate some lunch, went back to the hostel and changed, had a couple of beers, and returned for the awards ceremony. When I walked in, a bit of a nightmare started… Namrita (Eddie’s wife), approached me, apologizing. She said that someone had finished ahead of me by a few minutes. What followed was on the top 10 list of worst hours of my life. I’d absolutely destroyed myself to win, but I thought I hadn’t. I drank half of Jimmy Deane’s whiskey trying to numb myself from the horrible feeling of riding as hard as humanly possible and still being in being 2nd place.

Then, Brenda Simril stepped in. She asked me if I knew this person that had placed ahead of us. Uh… no. No idea. We talked to the men that had finished ahead of us. None of them had seen any other women. We talked to Namrita and eventually figured out that this person had entered the 50 mile race and only completed the 30 mile course without notifying the finish line staff (she wasn’t at the awards ceremony).

I was back in first place, and $500 richer.

Despite the emotional roller coaster, the day was amazing. After the awards ceremony, photos and celebration ensued…

Photos? I have post-race photos. You’re just going to have to wait until morning.

…at the Pre-SouthernX Hiker Hostel. Aside from a couple that’s thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail (the woman is nearly blind and told a humorous story about using her hiking pole as a white cane), there are a bunch of internet celebrities…

Chris– one of the many random Canadians that are here. Southern Cross is his return to bike racing after a bit of a hiatus (read more on his brand new blog)

Then there’s Jimmy Deane. He’s racing a 39×18 on his singlespeed tomorrow. Ryan says, “That’s just silly.”

Of course, Dicky is here, too. He looks like Mr. Peepers. My goal for the weekend is to get him drunk enough to spill the beans on the whereabouts of his next frame.

In Brickhouse news, the pre-ride with Antique Gun Show went well. The CX loop at the start/end of the road loop is going to be tough. Not French Gulch tough, but it’ll hurt a bit.

“Andrea Wilson” “Outdoors Inc”

There. Now I know you’ve found me….

My coach told me to quote him on this:

“Victims! All you see are victims! Cool, the plan is: rest, worlds, Z2 Endurance, rest, open up, let the massacre start”

See you all on the 26th.

I’ve been relatively quiet on the sponsor front because I’ve had a couple of things in the works. As you may (or may not) know, my 2009/2010 road team was Marx-Bensdorf (local elite team). The ladies were great. If I were to road race again in 2011, I’d would have loved to race with them. However, the team management was not willing to sponsor my mountain bike pursuits (don’t get me wrong- they’re on top of the road game, and adding MTB to the mix would likely complicate things. No hard feelings towards them at all). That being my main focus and top priority, I had to look elsewhere.

Luckily, about the time I went searching, I also found my awesome job at Outdoors, Inc. This is an excellent on two fronts- I get a lot of products at a discount very similar to what I’d get if I’d propositioned each individual company,  and the store has also had a USA Cycling registered team for about as long as I’ve been alive. A couple of phone calls and breakfasts later, and I’ve got myself additional backing from the shop I love. So- new, big sponsor #1- Outdoors, Inc.

You might also have noticed that I’m a big fan of Niner bikes. It just so happens that they’ve got an amazing grassroots program, which they are graciously allowing me to partake in. Hell. Yes. So- new, big sponsor #2- Niner Bikes grassroots racing program.

There might be a little shuffling around of the individual companies you see on the right. Some of them are products that kick ass (like Trail LED, Raxter, and Stuffits) that Outdoors doesn’t carry (and that I generally like better than comparable products that Outdoors does carry). Others are covered under the Outdoors “umbrella,” so they’ll get absorbed by the benefits of working in a bike shop. As always, stay tuned…

Yea, two posts in one day. Seems I’ve got a lot to talk about this morning.

The wheels are starting to turn on an Air 9 Carbon build. Once again, I need some help from the studio audience. This is going to be my primary race machine. While I plan on racing singlespeed whenever it’s either a)offered as a women’s category or b)not offered, but not a disadvantage, either (example of a “good” singlespeed course: Syllamo; example of a course where it’s a disadvantage against geared riders: Shenandoah 100)

Bottom line- there are going to be times when I want gears.

Enter the SRAM EP (employee purchase) program. I can get an XX group (including the fork and brakes I need for my SS build) for less than retail price (the first rule of EP is that you don’t mention the actual cost of EP). My original plan was to utilize the XX crank and hunt down a SS ring to convert it much like I have the Noir crank that I use on my One9. However, I found this memo from Niner:

There appears to be a compatibility issue with the GXP version of the SRAM XX crank and our CYA system. The GXP design has 4mm of float built into the system. This can in some cases allow the CYA cup to push out of the frame 4mm and cause the chainring to rub the Ti guard.  If a customer wants to use the XX crank on the AIR9 Carbon it should be in the BB30 style crank set.

So… this throws a proverbial wrench into my plans since the Niner EBB isn’t made for a BB30 crank. Sure, I could just have two cranks (a SS one and a BB30 XX one) and two BB inserts (the EBB and the BB30), but that would mean spending more money and time when I want to jump to gears and back. I’ve been researching and sorting through options, and this is what I’ve come up with so far:

-Get the XX group minus the crank and purchse a different crank that uses an EBB-compatible bottom bracket. Get a crank that can be run with either 2 rings or 1, such as the triple (with some modification) from e*thirteen.
-Get a nice SS crank (such as the one on the e*thirteen site linked above) and a chain keeper (again, refer to above link). Go 1×10. This represents my simplest option. No front shift housing/derailleur to mount, and no chainrings to change out. However, is it the most advantageous from a performance standpoint? Simplicity is good, but being able to go fast is the #1 priority.

So… what do you all think?