Against my better judgement (ha), I headed down to Macon for the first race of the Georgia Cross Series. I had raced at the venue before and felt that the course didn't suit me very well, but was pleasantly surprised when I saw that this year's course had a couple of forced dismounts through the sand. The Women's A field was pretty stacked with a Pro XC racer and a handful of roadies. My start was bad, as expected, as I just didn't have the horsepower to go out that fast. As we hit the transitions, I started picking off the girls in front of me and eventually made it up to third. I held the girl in front of me to the same gap for a couple of laps, but just never could catch her. The intensity HURT, in a good way, and the running sections were pretty brutal - especially since they all seemed to be at the end of the lap.
It was great to get out there and it reminded me of some things I need to do to perhaps improve my placing next time...
1. Arrive early enough to do more than one lap of a pre-ride and do it at race pace. I misjudged how long the drive there was and we got there late. I didn't do a lap at near race pace, so I didn't have all the corners dialed in and lost a good bit of time on the first lap.
2. Shift to an easy gear before the transition so that you can ride out the hill instead of running the entire way up it...had I done this, I may have been able to catch 2nd place.
3. Do some freaking intervals that involve running up a hill, then jump on your bike and push so hard your eyeballs bleed.
No pics this time...hopefully I can get Chris to go to the next one and take some photos with his snazzy new camera.
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1 comment:
Congrats on the new addition to the family and your first cx race of the season. I was the second place rider you were chasing. You kept the heat on the whole race; I was glad it was only six laps. Good race!
Kristen
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