Sent by Karen Brems on 11/1/09

This weekend was a double race weekend with 2 more races in the Surf City CX Series. This is the only double race weekend I will do all year!  Both races were at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds in Watsonville.Kerry was in first and I was 2nd after the first race of this series. Josie Jaques-Maynes was 3rd, but she didn't race this weekend. 

Saturday Halloween Race

Sat. was the traditional Halloween race where everyone dresses up in costume. There is a special costume race right before the women's race and some people also do their "real" race in at least partial costume. I have to admit that after a week of work, I just didn't have the time, energy or creativity to think up a costume, so I skipped that part but I  always admire the creativity and effort some people go to to come up with  elaborate costumes. Carmen D'Aluisio always has one of the best!

We had a good sized women's Elite field of about 25 riders including no less than 3 "retired" pros who have competed CX at the World Cup and Worlds level: Kerry Barnholt, Carmen D'Aluisio and Gina Hall (making her first CX race appearance of the year). The rest of the usual top NorCal suspects were there as well. The course was pretty good for me: only 1 time off the bike per lap with a double barrier going around a turn only about 20m from the finish line. CX race promotors really don't seem to want sprint finishes! It was pretty flat with only a short climb, the bottom of which was steep and rutted, but rideable with a good line and some momentum and then the climb continued maybe another 100m on a fire road.

I had another bad start, fumbling with my pedal. Luckily we started on the hill, so I was able to pass some people once I finally got clipped in and entered the single track in 3rd following Kerry and Stella Carey. Kerry almost immediately started gapping Stella, but there wasn't much I could do about it until we got back on a fire road and got around Stella and up to Kerry. Kerry seemed to slow up a bit at this point and Stella came back around us both. This was before a fairly long flat headwind section though, so it was OK by me. By the end of the first lap, the 3 of us had a gap on the rest of the field that was growing. I led most of the 2nd lap and Kerry led most of the 3rd lap. We gapped Stella on the climb on the 3rd lap, but she chased back on. We dropped her again on the climb on the 4th lap and this time the gap grew.

With 1 1/2 laps to go, Kerry and I were about 15 sec. ahead of Stella and Carmen was a ways behind Stella. We came up to a lapped category C rider (they race the C women behind us and we start lapping some of them by about the 2nd lap). It was on a straight but bumpy descent where there was no passing available. Kerry and I got close behind her so we could pass as soon as the road opened up a bit. Then all of a sudden the C rider crashes herself. I'm not sure why - maybe her hands slipped off the bars on the bumps. Somehow Kerry and I managed to scrub off enough speed to avoid hitting the rider and bail sideways, putting a foot down and avoided crashing ourselves. All 3 bikes were in a tangled mess though and the woman who crashed is lying in the middle of the course screaming and moaning. Kerry is a physical therapist and has some medical training and that instinct kicked in as she immediately got off her bike and tried to calm the woman down and stabilize her head and neck. I tried to disentangle all the bikes and get them out of the way before more racers came. Stella came up behind us and also stopped. The woman is still moaning and spectators are starting to come over and yelling for a medic. Somebody whipped out a cell phone and started calling 911. Now Carmen comes through and of course has no idea what is going on and finds a path around us and keeps going and Trina follows her. Then Stella follows and more and more racers go by. At this point, enough spectators had gathered that there was not really a need for more people to stop but Kerry is still holding this woman's head and we are trying to get her off the course. There was no blood and it seems the woman just knocked the wind out of herself, which is scary, but fairly temporary. Now I don't know what to do - Kerry can't drop the women's head, and we are basically the "first responders" but the rest of the race is going up the road. Imagine the comic strip character with the little angle and devil on each shoulder! In a crit, a downed rider in the middle of the course neutralizes the race, but I guess that is too hard to do in CX. Finally Kerry and a spectator get the rider a little off the course and I look at Kerry and say we might as well finish the race. My chain is off my bike and takes a while to get back on and Kerry's bars and saddle were crooked, so she took longer to get going. I passed a few people, but I didn't know what category they were in. On the next lap, I head an ambulance siren coming and the woman is still lying by the course in the same spot. I heard afterwards though that she was sitting up and talking and laughing and did not actually get into the ambulance when it came. The next day one of her teammates said she went home sore but basically OK.

In the end, Carmen won the race, Stella was 2nd, Trina 3rd and Gina 4th. I ended up 9th and Kerry was 10th. There was nothing that could really be done about the results, but Kerry and I asked the promotor of they could at least not count this race towards the series. He said they would probably just let everyone drop one race. That helps a little, but it also helps those riders who missed the first race! He also gave Kerry, Stella and I a free entry into the next day's race in appreciation for stopping.

Print | posted on Tuesday, November 03, 2009 2:20 PM