twenty ten


Welcome back! After living between Hawaii and California in the off season I am in hot pursuit of a successful 2010. I spent the winter months riding mostly road, working at my local shop, Kauai Cycles, and working on cycling skills with a great group of women all participants of Boot Camp by Stacy. Having some cycling knowledge I was on hand to teach flat repair, optimum cadence and bike handling. I race the bike leg of a sprint distance triathlon and took 2nd at a local cross country race held on Kauai and had a great time even though I pulled a rookie move and ran out of water on the 2nd lap.. Where is my feed zone?!

I kicked off my gravity season at the Fontana National where the winds seemed determined to blow not only the smoggy air away but most of the XC and gravity racers. Sunday somehow managed to pull itself together and the winds subsided to clear blue skies. I placed 1st in 4X and 2nd in DH to my friend and fierce competitor, Melissa Buhl. Next stop would be the 20th Annual Sea Otter Classic. It had to be one of the greatest Sea Otters of all those 20 years as we had incredible weather and not a hint of fog, mist or rain.

My usual events of participation went well, new bike for dual slalom, I’ll be trying out the hardtail this year for racing, looking for that extra snap out of the gate and corners. The field of women was the largest it has been in probably 8 years, which is great. I know the womens gravity field is growing across the country and it would be amazing to see that increase have the support to get to the Pro level. I was reasonably pleased with qualification as I had a mechanical in both runs; qualifying 10th put me up against Kathy Pruitt in my first run. With a near crash on my first run I wasn’t able to catch her and was eliminated first round.

Onto DH!! The track was pretty much the same, with the finish being shortened by only a few hundred yards, practice was fun as usual, a non stress race track, with jumps and bermy turns all the way down.

The field was pretty competitive and I placed 8th overall.

1 BUHL, MELISSA

2 ATHERTON, RACHEL

3 MOSELEY, TRACY

4 JONNIER, SABRINA

5 DONOVAN, LEIGH

6 KINTNER, JILL

7 GRIFFITHS, FIONN

8 PETTERSON, JOANNA

9 PRUITT, KATHY

10 BUCHAR, CLAIRE

One of the highlights of the event was being invited as a guest of the Little Bellas Lunch with the Pros. Having the opportunity to meet the girls that could be the future of the sport was amazing, the energy and enthusiasm is contagious and a good reminder of why I do what I do. I love being a part of that and thank Lea and Sabra Davison for the invite.

After the Sea Otter Classic I headed north for the first race in the PRO Gravity Tour held in Port Angeles, Washington. The drive was beautiful and having a venue on the Puget Sound was not so shabby either. The track is top notch, fast, flowing, and just loads of fun. Sitting in the venue on Sunday was somewhat surreal as the sound echoing off the mountain was reminiscent of a World Cup with cow bells, air horns and no lack of heckling spectators.

I was feeling pretty good in practice on a new bike but I had a mechanical in my race run and had to pull off so as not to slow anyone up. It was a great disappointment but I can not tell you how ecstatic I am that it was not a World Cup and I can do everything in my power to prevent that from happening again.

I’d like to extend my thanks to my 2010 sponsors, without you, this would all be a lot more challenging.

Comments

joann kenyon said…
Sweet you are back on the race path for the new year. All of us here wish you the very best season (free of mechanical difficulties.) Thanks for including me in your updates. Go get 'em, girl!
8:44 PM
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