Can’t blog, too busy winning bike races

After a year of unremarkable finishes with mid-pack glory, I knew that 2012 was time for me to step it up and start showing the ladies (well, the B ladies) what a SuperPro is made of. Here’s the breakdown of what your average SuperPro is made of:

But I was hoping to get at least 1% more WIN in that pie chart in 2012. When we last left our heroine (I mean, I’m writing this blog post, so I get to be the heroine), I was learning how to fall off mountains at Downieville and other NorCal points of interest, and waking up early to ride bikes and drink coffee. Additonally, as the season began, SuperPro Dustin gave a few of us a crash course on ‘cross fundamentals, which I have been known to forget as soon as I start racing. I even “raced” in cross-dressing finery at some very technical (read: filled with glass) courses. But would this “training” suffice for actual results on the podium? The answer? No- evidence 1: my Candlestick 1 results.

To rectify this situation, I convinced two ladies to upgrade, and killed eliminated a few others, and remembered that I’m not supposed to wipe myself out with “urban-athalons” on days before races. Using this strategy, I have since taken enough pictures on podiums to cover my mother’s refrigerator for a lifetime. Here’s a quick recap of achievements to date.

Lion of Fairfax Vallejo: My most hungover race! May Woo took an unbelievable hole shot. Thanks to the SuperPros for building an awesome course and to Murphy for the fun!

Candlestick 2: Sand pits, gravel pits, sand pits. I was in third coming down the last straightaway before the woman just ahead of me flatted… second place it is!

 

Surf City 1: Hot! Twisty singletrack! Great run-up! My favorite passing moment, when I moved from 4^th wheel to 2^nd by out-running ladies in the process of remounting after the run-up…

 

Stafford Lake: We got to sleep in the outfield the night before after course-building and teammate Beckie and I rode and re-rode the woop-dee-doos over and over again until we perfected out lines. My favorite race of the year? Maybe!

Sierra Point:Awesome cold night race, despite the abundance of pavement and lack of hill climbing. Cheers to the hecklers! A+ work.

Surf City 2:Mud mud mud mud! I dropped my chain halfway through (my first mechanical of the year) but held on to my second place despite this woman behind me who insisted on “racing” me. Ended up with my last lap as my fastest split. Go figure.

So what have we learned? I need to hella class up… next year. This year, my remaining race focuses will be the following:

• Fast starts
• Pursuing the lead racer with abandon
• Hands off the brakes more
• Focused dollar grabs
• Cleaning kit prior to race day
• Cheering teammates
• More cowbell
• Heckling Cisco
• Roosting Murphy (for mud-applicable races)
• MASH SF hose/ pool party (in my dreams)

As always, this would be approximately 93% less fun without my absolutely favorite teammates who let me know how far I am off the front, hand me water, hand me beer, taunt me with dollars, find my crap that I left somewhere, feed me veggie dogs, debate the value of tubulars versus clinchers (put your opinions in the comments!), and make fun worth having.