Racing into the Season

Got my first two races of the season in over the past week.  And 4 more coming up over the next week and a half!  Then there is a bit of a quiet spell for a while.  I don't really understand why there is barely anything going on on the race schedule in May or June.

Sunday April 12
Blue Ridge Gravity D Cup Finale

Running the Gauntlet

Headed up to Roanoke VA with my friend Candi for a day of riding at Carvin's Cove, a badass trail system around a reservoir just outside the city.  There are mountains here, 1200 feet of elevation mountains, which makes for some fun downhill runs, if you are willing to climb to the top!  Which we did!  We decided to ride up the doubletrack access road rather than ascend the much steeper and more technical trail named Hi-Dee-Ho.  I've been up Hi-Dee-Ho and I hike-a-biked the entire thing.  We rode up the road, and it was long, and uphill. The. Whole. Way.  50 minutes at about a 6% grade, and I only stopped twice--once to raise my seat, and once because I changed gears the wrong direction--oops.  I am almost more proud of accomplishing that uphill than racing the downhill!

That climb though...

Yes, I forgot to mention the race!  We ventured to VA for the final Blue Ridge Gravity D Cup race.  The local group puts on a series of free, fun, hand-timed races over the winter on the local mountain trails.  This was the only one I was able to make it to this year,  though next year I will definitely keep them on my radar.  Everyone was really nice and we ended up having 5 super fast ladies racing down.  I ended up in 4th.  I was kind of disappointed, but I didn't really give it my all.  It is 2.5 miles of DH and I didn't want to kill myself.  I really wanted to see how physically fit I was and I think I passed the test.  The race was finished before I really got tired!  Good sign for my conditioning over the winter, though the race didn't really require much sprinting.  The trail we raced, Gauntlet, is mostly straight and super fast.  Not my specialty.  Flat out speed scares me a bit, so I hold back on trails like Gauntlet.  Give me steep and techy! My friend Candi rocked it and I think she came in 3rd on her new bike, and never having ridden the trail!  The winner, another friend and local VA shredder, just had a baby 10 days previously.  Now, that is badass!

Kelly, Trish, Me, Candi, and Renee

All in all, it was a fun day and I loved the stress free fun race environment.  I loved racing in my colorful gear from my 2015 sponsor Flare Clothing Company and can't wait for my 2015 kit to come in the mail for the next few races.  The biggest bummer was that we had to ride back up to get back to the other side of the mountain to our car.  My legs were pretty shot.  Cue the hike-a-bike.

Saturday April 18
Southern Super D Series #1

Me and Zoe running practice laps at Hobby Park

I geared up just 5 days later and headed out to my local trails at Hobby Park in Winston Salem for the first Southern Super D Series Race.  This is such a fun series and I really enjoyed doing it last year.  Some of the local shops and clubs put it together and they get some amazing sponsors and have great series prizes.  It is also pretty low key and fun and relatively stress free.  We had a good turnout for the ladies once again, with another field of 5!  Last year at many of the races it was just me and my friend Candi, who unfortunately is not able to make the races this year due to her work schedule.  I was excited to ride with my friend Zoe this round. I haven't seen her in 2 years despite the fact that she lives 1.5 hours away!  She is a kickass XC rider and a pretty good dirt jumper too, which is how we met.  I've never ridden trails with her so it was really fun to do some practice runs together and we rode a lap of the park trails after the race. 

I had a pretty good race.  Came in second behind Zoe, which was no surprise.  A girl can dream though and since she went in front of me I made it my goal to try to catch her.  Which, obviously, I did not accomplish.  The course has a pretty wicked climb at the end and I feel like it didn't bring me as close to death as last year, but it was still a challenge. 

All the ladies shredding at Hobby Park.  Clockwise:  Allie, Zoe, Michelle, Podium, Me, Trish

Hoping to see lots of ladies this upcoming weekend at the second Super D race in Boone!  And now, I have to go prep for my first XC race of the season tomorrow night.  Kill me now.