CX on both sides of the cheddar curtain.

(photo: Kerry Drake) I "raced" twice this weekend. TWICE! How silly.

First up was the Wisconsin race in Washington Park, Milwaukee. Ben and I were lured there by the promise of beer and cupcakes, and on that front we were not disappointed. Got to hang out with Mo, Ross, Mike, Jessica, and Mabel and had a good time of it. As for our races, welll.... I had an awesome start, as usual, and hit the first turn in probably 5th place or so. Then there was an uphill and everyone passed me. Went back and forth with a few other MTB girls and ended up 15th of 18, a complete disappointment. The highlight of the race was when Jessica offered me a WHOLE cupcake and I took it face-first, getting white frosting all over me that made me look like a rabid dog for the rest of the race. Score.

Sunday was the Chicago race. It was muddy and awesome and almost (almost!) favored MTB's. We rolled out in a car with five of us- Jacob, Paul-Brian, Jen, Ben, and I- and 3 mountain bikes. It was Jen and Paul-Brian's first race, and Ben didn't race. We didn't get to pre-ride a lap and Jen and I lined up a little worried about what awaited us.

It was slick, wet fun. Someone crashed right at the line and I managed to get around it for my usual pretty good start, but then right away someone pushed me into a bunch of thorny bushes and I lost a bunch of places. I once again got stuck behind a roadie-who-is-more-powerful-but-hits-the-brakes-for-everything, which really slowed me down on the off cambers, until naturally she hammered-down once we hit pavement. I'm really good at anything technical, I'm even good in the barriers. I lose places, though, on pavement and on uphills. Hm.

(photo: Nikki) Before the start, I had packed 4 beers into my jersey pockets, and over the course of the race handed them down to spectators who had NO IDEA what I was doing. Really, folks were stunned. I'd ride by, "who needs a beer?" I'd get puzzled looks and put one in someone's hand. More than once I heard, "Wow, she just gave me a full beer!" Yes. Yes, I did. The hardest thing about the whole race was getting the beer out of the pocket that my number was pinned over. That was a real challenge. Luckily I was well-fueled in my endeavor by handups from J (from TATI)- twice I got potato chips and once I even had whipped cream, squirted at me straight from the can. Sweet.

There was a lot of back-and-forth, and I think the beer stunts cost me a place or two, but when all was sorted out, I was covered in mud, and in 18th of 27. Not my best, but not terrible either. I'm pretty happy with it. And Jen had a great time too!