Blind Date at the Dairy - Race #1 - 9/29/10

Last night was the first race in the Blind Date at the Dairy Wednesday night series - and it was a blast!

Check out www.pdxcross.com and click on the gallery for 'Tickle at Twilight' - my friend Laurie and I are in the third picture at the front of the lineup.

The field was a little bigger than Sunday's, and there were some new faces lined up in the Women's B field. The gun went off and I think I was about12th off the line. Oof - Got to work on those starts! My goal the first lap was just to keep moving a steady pace and stay upright in some of the loose gravel turns so as not to get tangled with anyone. By the end of the first lap I think I had moved up to about 5th. My friend, Lindsay, passed me at the beginning of the second lap - and she was setting a great pace on her SS - I just kept thinking to myself 'stick with Lindsay, stick with Lindsay' - she is such a strong rider, and it's so great to see her out racing and having fun after the past year. She pinch flatted somewhere along the line though - so after that I spend the race reeling in the other two women that were left ahead of me. I caught one of the during the 4th lap - which left a single Ironclad rider out in front - and holy cow was she strong! I had no idea who she was, but she was setting a blistering pace on her SS, and I likely would not have caught her except she had a very unfortunate mechanical on the last lap. I came up on her on the backside of the course fiddling with her front wheel, so I stopped and asked if she wanted me to wait for her to get her bike fixed. Right as I was asking she was closing her quick release and yelled "NO!" over her shoulder as she started up the run up ahead of me. I was still standing still straddling my bike - so I quickly dismounted and started up the runup after her - the chase was on! There was a short, steep downhill after the run up, and I think she may have had trouble clipping in, or hit a bump funny, in any case - she swung wide into the left-hand turn at the bottom of the hill and I was just able to sneak the inside line on the corner and catch up with her. From there on out we were neck in next going through the village and into the finishing field. It was pretty fun going through the final set of barriers right next to someone! I knew I couldn't mess up at all going through the final set of S-turns either. As usual, I neglected to get out of my saddle for the final sprint (oops), but I ended up crossing the line in front anyways. (i.e. I won!). I think my favorite part of my race was Margi cheering her head off at the finish - I think it made me corner better. =)