Submitted by Karen Brems on 1/12/10
Sunday was the final of the Surf City Cyclocross Series in Aptos, CA. We all had a 3 week break from racing over the holidays and while I took advantage of some time off work to do some riding, I had not done anything close to race intensity since the last race! The CX season is definitely winding down and fields are getting smaller - I think the only people still racing in the US are those here in CA and those going to Worlds at the end of January!
Course was fun with a bit of everything - some climbing, some fast pavement sections, sand, some tight turns and a pretty long, steep run-up which was immediately after some stairs to make it even longer. Run-up and a set of uphill double barriers with stairs after them were the only off the bike sections.
When Kerry Barnholt and I stopped for the crashed rider in the 2nd race of this series, we lost valuable series points, so I entered the final in 3rd behind Kerry and Stella Carey. By winning all the other races, Kerry managed to get herself in the lead despite a 10th place in race# 2. Stella was 8 points ahead of me, so I needed to beat her and have 2 people between us to overtake her. With the smaller fields, I knew that would be hard. Kerry did not show up this week, so I was thinking about the win until I saw Meredith Miller in the start area! Meredith recently took 2nd at Elite CX nationals (and is also elite US national champ on the road this year) and is on her way to Worlds at the end of the week.
I had my usual poor start with a fumbled pedal, but as we started on hill, I was able to somewhat make up for it. I entered the dirt in 3rd and immediately went around the 2nd rider to get on Meredith's wheel as she powered away. And I do mean powered! My only respite was that she had not pre-ridden a lot of the course, so she slowed down quite a bit before each turn, which allowed my to catch my breath for just an instant. Meredith is originally from this area and just knows too many people here who all wanted to talk to her before the race!
Within half a lap, we had a big gap on the rest of the field. At the top of the pavement climb, Meredith slowed again, unsure of which way to go, so I went by her back down the hill. Through the start finish at the end of the lap, she passed me again. Shortly thereafter, she overcooked a turn a bit and nearly took both of us out! After that though, she got things dialed in and slowly started pulling away from me. The whole first lap was kind of a shock to my system, so once Meredith was gone, I took the chance to recover just a bit. The rest of the race I just tried to ride at a hard but sustainable pace and be as smooth as possible in the technical parts.
Meredith won by 2 min. over me and I was 1 min. ahead of Trina Baumsteiger in 3rd. Stella took 4th, which was enough for her to win the series overall by 2 points over me. It was a nice race and nice to see the NorCal CX crowd again. We've been riding together every Sunday since September :).
Men's Elite CX national champ Tim Johnson also decided to get some race training in here in NorCal, so the buzz was there and everyone was tweeting and facebooking! Here is the CX Magazine story and photos:
http://cxmagazine.com/surf-city-finale-2010-aptos-tim-johnson-meredith-miller
One more race this Sunday and then the season is over!
Photos © Cyclocross Magazine
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