Short track #2 = Second Place!!

Went out for my second short track race this year. I moved up one place! Got second in the womens pro field. I'm getting this whole 45 minutes of "as hard as you can go" thing figured out...slowly. This time I warmed up for a good 45 minutes, did some high intensity openers for about 5 minutes and tried to keep spinning around until about 5 minutes before the start. The last race I somehow got stuck out on the course during the race that was right before me and had to start cold. I didn't warm up until the last lap...not fun! This time I was pretty warm. I think I need to do a little more high intensity in my warm ups because I didn't feel "great" until about lap 3 (20 minutes into the race). My sister comes to all my races (best cheerleader ever!) and she says she can tell which lap I finally warm up in because I don't look like I'm dying! :)

Next Monday, we'll try some more high intensity for longer before the race and see how that goes. Sunday is the Fluid ride cup DH up at Ski bowl, so my legs will be pretty shot. Should be fun. Post to follow!

Finish

Hood River Super D

Last weekend was the Hood River Super D. I knew about it for awhile, and had been riding it with a group that was going to race it, but my sights were on the Downhill at Mt. Hood the day after the Super D race. But the more I rode the course, and thought about the technicalities of the Super D, it really sounded fun...and challenging. For those who don't know me, I'm a bit A-D-D and I am always looking for something different to try. I have raced the Mt. Hood Downhill for many years now, but had never raced the Hood River Super D.

First thing was to figure out which bike to race. It was an extra hard decision, because I had just fond out the week prior, that Ellsworth is sending out a small Moment, which would be the absolute perfect bike for this course!!

The course started out on a Motorcycle trail that was pummice with baby heads everywhere...definetly want your DH bike, then went into a super steep shoot with drops and rocks and roots and baby heads, yup...DH bike. The course then went out on the ridge and it was a fairly smooth, bermy single track with tons of flow, long travel trail bike here. Then....the UPHILL!! Open, exposed south facing, pummice, steep. Super light XC race bike for the next 5 minutes. Back up on the ridge, long trail bike here, down a newly made, very rocky, steep, drop off section...DH bike. Down a super steep shute, across the road and straight up a steep bank to hopefully "jump" back onto the trail. Once you got back on the trail...up we go!! XC bike here. Then gods country! The next 5 minutes of trail were open, smooth, fast, huge berms you can rail and know you will stick. Long travel trail bike. Well, I have two bikes...a full DH bike with 9" front and rear, or an XC race bike that's super light (with expensive, breakable parts). Hmmm...do I lose time on the down or the up. I rode the course on both bikes, and on the DH bike the uphills were so steep that I couldn't peddle, so I would be walking up the hills. Unacceptable in a race. On the XC bike, the uphills were cake, but the gnarly rock sections were a little sketchy with my steep head angle and little weeny XC tires. I decided that my best bet would be 2.2 tires with super thick sidewall on my XC bike. Worked like a charm! I actually passed the two girls that went off in front of me...on the uphill! With the big tires on the bike, I was able to have more control in the rocky sections.

I won the pro women's class with a time of 20.56. Fastest male time was about 15'. The winner of each field recieved a comp. entry to the Crankworx Garbonzo super D. Unfortunatley, it's 2 days after my wedding...next year! Can't wait for more Super D races! I will have my new Moment in about a week! Yea!!!

Ellsworth

Dan's bad a@# bike

Last night was our conference call with Dan, from Ellsworth bikes. Ellsworth is now the Velobella title sponsor, and I can't even begin to express how excited I am! Anyone who rides a bike can tell you that Ellsworth handcrafted bicycles are pretty much the bomb-diggity!! I had Dan send me a picture of the color and OH MY GOD! It's so fast! I decided to get a Moment, which is their Super D, long travel trail bike. It should get shipped next week, I can't wait to ride it. I'm having it shipped back to Spokane so I can have the local shop build it and the maiden voyage will be at Beacon, the local free ride area where I learned how to ride.

We were chatting with Dan last night about all the latest technology that Ellsworth bikes offer. The most exiting is their "center tracking" technology. Usually, with rear suspension, when the back shock compresses, it shortens the chain and changes your peddling. With Ellsworth, the bottom bracket actually shadows the rear wheel during activity. No change in peddling, no change in chain length, no loss of energy! Check out their website: www.ellsworthbikes.com

First Short track race

I've decided this year to branch out and try more cycling disciplines. Portland has a great, local, Monday night short track series...so I thought.."What the hey?" I called my best cheerleaders (sister Laura and friend Cindy) and asked them if they wanted to check out the Portland International Raceway short track races. "SURE!!!" The best thing about the PIR short track is that about 50% of the track is on their motocross track...super FUN!! Woops and jumps and super bermed turns.

While I was checking out the course and chatting with my sister, a woman in a Velobella shirt came up and introduced herself. She said this was her first short track race ever and she had a blast! We exchanged pleasantries, chatted about biking and Velobella. Every time I am at a race wearing a kit, I always have someone come up to me and introduce themselves. They are either a fellow bella, or they know someone who is or was. It's so great!!

I didn't get a chance to warm up on the track, so I tried to get a good start so I could follow the people who knew the course. I started out in about 4th place in Pro/Open women, after about a minute, I passed 3rd and pretty much stayed in 3rd the whole time. Sue Butler was in first (she is an ANIMAL!! :) ) and Alice Pennington (another local animal) was in second. I was actually in 1st place for about 30 seconds when they missed a turn and I caught up to them and made the turn while they were backtracing on the course. They stayed in my sight for the first 4 laps, and then they were about a minute ahead of me. I had a very solid 3rd place the entire time. I was pretty stoked, and I was having a blast!!


Still smiling, after the race!