Beer, Bikes, and Snow

Two years ago was the last time I raced at Jungle Habitat .  And it was one of my worst races.  My race was a mechanical disaster.  I dropped my chain seven (yes, 7) times.  At what point do you just give up? While I never gave up, I finished almost dead last, completely frustrated and mentally defeated. Luke captured my frustration in 2012 with my "Sonic the Hedgehog" face Last year I didn't race Jungle as it fell on the same weekend as French Creek.  This year I wanted redemption - to finish with no mechanicals. I saw that this year's course was running reverse of what we've all grown accustom to riding.  I wanted to check out what we would be racing, so Lance and I hopped on the Team Town Cycle pre-ride last Thursday.  It was humid and we had passing showers, which made an already technical course even more challenging.  I was starting to wonder how this race was going to go. We arrived early Sunday for our race and happy to see th...

French Creek has been my favorite mountain bike race since we started racing there three years ago.   The past two years, the course has been the same.  Long climbs rewarded with long descents.  Throw in some rocks and punchy climbs and voila.  But this year there were some changes made due to weather and conditions.  The week leading up the the race there was chatter of running the course in reverse, omitting trails, and adding other areas.  Regardless of the changes, I knew there would still be a fair amount of climbing. The start and first portion of the course were the same as previous years - a gravel road climb into a rocky descent followed by a long climb.  I wanted to get to the start early and get a position that would allow me to get a gain on the start.  Both women's fields lined up at the back and somehow I ended up on an off-camber hill.  I wasn't thrilled but accepted it for what it was.  I was still front row and that...

Since Lance mentioned he was racing Turkey Hill Saturday, I figured I would head to Wawayanda Sunday.  So when he mentioned racing Iron Hill (also Sunday), I was a bit surprised.  I was open to racing Iron Hill since it had been three years since we last raced there.  I remembered the course being flowy with some climbing and the "Mega-Dip". Leading up to the race, Mother Nature was not kind.  Heavy rain the few days before the race had us all wondering how conditions would be. We arrived in the morning and parked in the lower lot.  We could see part of the course and watched the Cat 1s and Endurance people attack a punchy technical climb.  As we watched people slide around, we knew the course was going to be slick and challenging. After warming up, both Lance and I made our way to the start.  It reminded me of a CX race - through a muddy field with deep ruts into the singletrack.  I lined up with lots of familiar faces, laughing about t...