Ive been busy "training", like A LOT! Here's some pics i have taken recently. I have had a great summer so far, although it doesnt seem to really even feel like summer here. It rains a lot and the sun is on strike in this part of Germany. Some people say this is how it is here. I really miss Colorado, and I hope that we can call it home again, as I miss the endless riding and livin' in the rockies.
Last weekend, Justin and I headed to Hohenfels mountain bike race which is about an hour away. We had heard that this race was "the toughest" in the usafe series, so we were really excited to get our hurt on..
We arrived to the venue and I decided to preride the course. The start was up a slight jeep road and then narrowed into singletrack. The singletrack was tight, twisty, rooty and fast, but you had to have some technical riding skills to maneuver safely through if you wanted to let 'er rip. I decided i better hurry back, because i am notorious for missing my start. But i was eager, eager after that little preride and was anticipating a great race.
Well, the organizers of the race decided to do a lemans start. Justin's race started before me, so I hurried to watch him run and take off. He wasnt the first one on his bike, but after rounding the first corner, he was the first one into the singletrack. I was so excited to see him back in form after being sick and the recovery of his broken leg. Then the ladies lined up, to run, then we hit the bikes. I SUCK at running, and I was the last one to my bike, but amazingly I passed all the girls and was first into the singletrack. Thats when I just let it go. I felt confident rounding around the roots and rocks and twisted my way through the trees. I felt like i wasnt working too hard, but decided to push it because I wanted to hold a good gap on the gals chasing me. I looked back ONCE, only to see how close my second place rider was on my ass, i saw her pretty far back. I didnt race conservatively at all, I pushed the pace and it felt good! I was finally seeing some of my hard work pay off. The course itself was tough. It never really bottomed out so you could recover, it seemed like i was constantly working, always climbing.
Before long, I noticed I was close to the finish. Wow, i made it, I pushed it to the finish, even passed some guys from the mens race (beating boys is ssooooo fun, especially when you started 15 minutes behind them..heehhheeee).
End result: 1st place, overall and in my age group, had a 13 minute lead on 2nd place.
When I came across the finish, they asked me if Justin was my husband, I almost worried something was wrong, but they said he had a 10 minute lead on the group, WOW!! I was soooo excited to see him, when he came in, he had a 5 minute lead on 2nd place. So the Koppa's came and cleaned up and we had a lot of fun. We are going to try and do most of the series races, as it was a pretty good time, and they had food and beer post race, which was super sweet!
We had a marathon race scheduled for the weekend, but they cancelled it at the last minute, so that blows, but Justin ad I will do some good 4+ hour training rides. I love riding with that guy, he is so much fun and we just enjoy being together, he also makes me work hard and he gives me a lot of positive input and advice, i love you dude, you rock my world!!
We are headin' to the alps next weekend and we are gonna ride as much as we can. It is so freakin' beautiful up there and it reminds me of Colorado. I sure hope everyone is doing good and i will update this my results as they come in.
Also, I am doing these usafe races for Velo Bella. I am doing the german races for Big Wheel. I have been with Velo Bella for so many years, I have met a lot of amazing people and feel honored to be on the bored with them so, I gotta give back and do my part to bring bella love and beams to the women on post if I can. Big Wheel is a great opportunity to meet other American racers here Germany and beyond, not just American, but all races and cultures and I think that is pretty cool.
Anyway, I got some ridin' to do...see ya on the flpside..
angie
No comments:
Post a Comment