Mad Cross

(Super Fan Hill)

The first round of the USGP series took place in Madison, WI this weekend. I flew into Minneapolis to meet up with my brother and drive down for the race. We arrived to town Friday evening and had a chance to ride the course a bit before heading downtown for dinner. It was a fun and windy (both twisty and breezy) course. The twists are not my forte, but it was fun getting to practice them a bit and riding a well designed cross course is always a blast.

Saturday morning came fast and my brother's race was the first of the day. I let him use my bike as a pit bike, but made him promise not to crash on the first lap just so he could use it (my bike is a little nicer than his bike :). He got off to a great start and right as he was overtaking a guy for the lead, he was squished into the side posts and went down. he got back up and his handlebars were pointed sideways (not good). He was conveniently close to the pit and made a run for my bike (this almost seemed planned). I hurriedly fixed his bike and anxiously watched him race while hoping for no crashes. In the end, he lost a lot of spots with his crash so his plan to steal my bike did not work out so well for him, but he did gain quite a bit of ground back throughout the rest of the race!

My race came later in the day and I didn't have my best start or my best race, and I was kinda caught in no-man's land throughout most of the race. The Chicago and midwest fans were awesome and kept me motivated though -- I got a ton of support all around the race course! I think the crew on the U-turn hill was the best. They made me smile every time around. It was awesome!

Sunday brought similar race conditions, but a bit faster course which I liked. I ended up racing most of the race with phenom junior Katie A -- she is probably the tiniest racer out on the course while I am likely the tallest so it was a pretty funny matchup. Katie also has a big cheering section in the midwest so it drowned out some of my super support, but there was still great cheering all around the course... with some musical instruments too! We were riding back and forth most of the race until about 1.5 laps to go when i caught my handle bars on a post and went flying (the same place my bro crashed -- not good luck!). Then I was back in no-man's land to finish up the race. Missed out on the UCI points this weekend, but hoping to get some more next weekend when I head to San Dimas for Krosstoberfest! Fun Fun!

Want to throw out a big thanks to Becker Law Office for helping to fund my travel -- a great idea by the promoters and generous support from Becker Law to help get more women to the races. A lot of people focus on the prize money to attract bigger women's fields, but women also lack a lot of the travel and race support that men's teams provide, so it's really nice to see promoters helping out the women's field in a new and creative way! Thanks!