Woo hoo!

(Photo courtesy of Amy)

I thought this course was so much better than last year's race. I called Tom after preriding (to ask him to bring with him some spare socks for me), and told him how great I thought the course was. I lined up with a larger group of girls than normal. I traded spots throughout the race with Beth from xXx. I definitely race better when I'm going back and forth with someone. We both had a few minor spills during the race which facilitated with the going back and forth. I thought she had me and then as I came through with two to go I saw her getting up after slipping going around the tree. I kicked it in high gear, got past her and had my fastest lap of the race. I then saw I still had one to go and thought crap. But, I managed to hold her off. Yea! We had traded spots in the beginning of the season but I hadn't beaten her since Carpentersville so it was cool. I ended up 11th out of 14. I was a little disappointed but there were a lot more Cat. 1 and 2 riders than usual. The officials said 17 girls registered but a couple actually didn't start and one didn't finish.

As I was walking back to the car after getting my Schwinn out of the pit, I saw a small Redline Conquest. It ended up being Sarah Huang's. I was able to ride it around and talk to her father. I definitely had less toe overlap but, when we held the frames up to each other, the geometry was pretty much identical. He said he has 165 cranks on her bike. I'm now trying to find a 165 cross crank. QBP doesn't have any. I found a FSA Gossamer 34/48 online. According to FSA's website, they have a 36/48 in a 165 crank length so I've emailed them to try to find out where the heck I can get it from. I'm also going to try to track down Sarah's dad at Nationals to find out what cranks are on there.

I'm taking a break from packing as I type this. We're leaving for Kansas City tonight. We'll do some of the driving tonight while Christopher is sleeping and do the rest tomorrow. I'm pretty excited to be going. I'm doing the Cat. B and the Women's 35-39. Some of the elites are signed up in the 35-39 so I'm prepared to get my butt handed to me in that race. Tom will be doing the Cat. B 30-39. We'll then start heading home on Friday afternoon/evening with the hope of actually making a family party on Saturday evening. I love cross.