Finally!

Well NOVA nmbs was a blast. I stayed with the sobe/cannondale ladies and it was awesome. I felt like a pro for a weekend. Friday was the Super-D Time trial... and I must say there was no " D" about it. Just a straight up time trial. I have been training pretty hard this winter and this was the true test. I pushed it hard from the start line and managed to wind up 2nd.... merely 7 seconds behind first. I was happy. Saturday I had the day to myself as all the pro ladies had their short track race. Don't get me started about nmbs not providing a short track race for Expert women... pretty stupid I think. But it was nice to have the day to myself. Sunday I had to wake up at 5am for my 8am race start. I was pretty grumpy at 5am... but hey the temp for our race was perfect. I felt great during warm up and was looking for another top 3 finish.

We started fast and I pushed my shifter into the big ring and wawawa.... I thought my shifter broke. Aaaaarg! but it was a mental game with myself. I was finally able to get my chain in the big ring... so I just left it there. I knew I could ride the entire course in my big ring if i had to. I had to calm myself down... no big deal. And I did... i rode the first lap all in the big ring. I came through the start finish in 2nd with my eyes on 1st just ahead.

I just kept going and finally realized that my shifter paddle had just slipped. I was frustrated because I kept yo yo-ing between 2nd and 3rd. She just kept spinning away in her middle ring. Finally I risked dropping down and I managed to figure out the shifting between the middle and big ring. I could do this. We'll it just so happens on the one long hill of the race I got my shifter stuck between gears and the girl in 2nd pulled away. Oh well I said to myself. I had locked in 3rd... and had made my goal.

And well when it was all said and done... the race was an omnium event... and it turned out that a 2nd in super-d and a 3rd in xc was enough for me to win the overall! It was a good feeling!


here is a rad photo of Judy....