Sun loving! NMBS#2: Nova National, Fountain Hills, AZ, April 4-6, 2008

Back to Arizona for more fun in the sun. After a few days of 'training' or just riding awesome trails in the sunny weather, it was time to get back to business. Why were we here again? Oh yeah, to race... Life is rough. But fun first.

Sunny riding in AZ. Yahoo. OK, back to 'training'.

Gives the whole phrase "shooting the shit" a new meaning.
Wendy Simms checking out the Petroglyphs.

Friday the 'real' fun began with the Nova National stage race at McDowell park, just outside of Fountain Hills, where we are lucky enough to have Paul Gundlach living to give us a great home. Tim showed up Thursday p.m., so Friday a.m. we went to ride at the course and register etc. Then the fun began.

Race Day #1: Friday, 4/4/08, Super D
Super D is kind of misnomer for this race. It was basically a time trial that was mostly downhill. It was super fun and super fast. I didn't have the best 'seed', but who cares, it is against the clock. Aside from a few bad corners and one flying stop into a desert tree, I had a great race and finished 13th. Hmmm. Did I lose at least 10 seconds on my bad bike handling. Probably. This may become a trend this weekend...

Race Day #2: Saturday, 4/5/08, Short Track

Ready to suffer!

Lucky for me, they lined us up according to our time trail results, so a great second row start would give me a slight advantage. And it did. I had a great start, but then to the run up, and this cyclocrosser had it in the wrong gear, got to the top, got back on my bike and couldn't pedal. It was a slow motion fall and I caused a huge mess. Oops. Bad bike skills again. But my legs felt great and I didn't get pulled and finished in a strong 16th place. Although room for improvement, it is a huge improvement from the suck fest last weekend. I ended up 12th overall in the GC. Have my legs come back???

Race Day #3: 4/7/08, Cross Country

Off the gates strong. I am up there in the green and black.

One year ago, this was my first race ever. Give me a better start position and 20 degrees cooler, not to mention one less lap, I felt like I had hope. Actually, I had more than hope. I had brand new PEARL IZUMI carbon mtb shoes (they are hot!), my new REYNOLDS carbon rims, KENDA small block eights, my amazing CANNONDALE SCALPEL, and Matt Ohran & Chris Moor being a rock stars and getting it all dialed. And even with all that, hope lasted about 500 meters when I saw Katarine Nash laying in the trail and I either braked too hard or caught bars with someone else. It happened so fast, I really didn't know, but I found myself exactly where I was last year. In the very back of the LONG line of people on singletrack with very little room for passing. I did my best, moving up, but found myself stuck. I was being polite, trying to get by, but that wasn't working, so I went for a different approach. A very aggressive pass on what could have been an o.k. place to pass, but without buy in from whoever it was, it ended in a major crash with bikes flying and bodies sliding on the pebbly gravel. Needless to say, my chase was not going as planned. But I relaxed and kept riding strong. I felt great. In the feedzone the first time, I was still back in 25th or so, but the next lap I kept it clean and started picking people off. And rode by numerous people on the side of the trail with flats. I ended up 15th and was escorted straight to the medics. They weren't the most helpful, so it was into the shower to have Emily (THANK YOU!) help scrub the gravel out and pur hydrogen peroxide on me while I wailed in pain. It was excruciating. That's what you get for not keeping the rubber side down! But despite the pain and regrets, I had fun. That's what counts, right???

OUCH!!!

And of course, what blog report would be complete without posting Tim's results. He is really my hero, working full time, training and still getting out there and beating up on the competition. He posted a 4th in Super D, 2nd in Short Track and 6th in the Cross Country, giving him a 3rd place podium finish in the GC for the stage race! Nice work honey!!!

The goof nuts from Colorado, Tony and Tom. I can't tell the difference, can you??? Well, one of them gave me my new sweet shoes. Thanks Tony.
(btw, if you are reading this, thanks for all of the great butt pics you left on my camera.)