The course was a 5.5 mile loop and the cat. 1 racers did 3 laps. We were pleased that the course was dry, in contrast to last year where there were sections that was a soupy mess. Living in the northeast tests our abilities as the weather and terrain are always so varied.
Jeff races in the singlespeed (SS) division which is an open division and in my mind, one of the most difficult. Yes, as the word implies, he uses one gear and before every race, he has to make a judgment about the cog/gear that he will use to compete. For those of you who have never done this, it is a true physical test. I've only done one single-speed race and had a blast, but this is Jeff's beast and he finds the challenge of this type of racing as a fall back to when he was a child and had a one-geared bike that he rode around the neighborhood. In the SS race, Jeff's well-respected friend, Brian, took the win and for Jeff personally, he was riding with another competitor and it came down to a sprint for 3rd or 4th place. Jeff has incredible leg speed, but his competition beat him into the final stretch of single track which forced Jeff at the end to attempt to come around him. Jeff lost 3rd place by 1/100th of a second. So far in the series, Jeff has a 3rd and 4th place finish.
By the time Jeff was picking up our bottles from our fabricated water station, I was coming down to the end of my race. I've had a slow start to my race season. During the winter, I was plagued with low back problems. I wasn't able to get in the training I needed and as school wraps up, I am starting to get in more saddle time, while being ever so cautious of protecting the back, which is a constant reminder every morning I wake up. Oh the joys of getting old.....I had a solid race and was riding with the top gals on the first lap. The downhill was pretty technical for me and I made a few bobbles which allowed Marianne to go around me. I was never able to close down the gap after that. On my last and final lap, Ellen passed me which means that I was now in 4th place. I knew that I was doing the best I could do. I was able to close the gap between myself and Ellen on the last part of the climb and knew I had to 'let it hang out' on the final descent. Ellen it such a great technical rider that I was certain that she'd be able to chase me down on the descent. Luckily, I held me own and was able to roll across the line in 3rd place. Great! So far, two 3rd place finishes in the series. Nothing shabby at all the women in my age group are by far, some of the most talented riders I've ever seen.
Two days later, we traveled to Rochester for the final race in the Farmall Tuesday night series. Jeff and I participated in the first race in the 3 race series, missed the 2nd race, and competed in the final race. We were still somewhat tired and fatigued from Sunday's race, but wanted to see our friends at the final race. What a beautiful evening we had and what a great turnout for a mid-week series. The Farmall race course is held on private property and encompasses a roller-coaster type of 2 mile loop....lots of gut busters and fun rollers through the woods and back into the open fields. RV & E bikes puts on these Tuesday night race series and have done so for quite a while now. We use the spring series to ramp up our training, as the course and the competition tests our anaerobic levels. The races are short and intense -- for the gals, we do 5 laps and I have finished in about 58-59 minutes and for Jeff, he does 7 laps in about 1:08. I had what I would call "a sloppy race." The speed and the traction (due to the dryness of the course) coupled with my tiredness from Sunday's race had me over shooting turns, riding into the weeds, and even wussy out on one short descent. Ugh! Not a good day, but I did hold on to win the ladies race and due to my win two weeks earlier, I also won the series. Since there is no SS division, Jeff races in the open men's race where all men race together and then are broken out by age groups. Imagine Jeff spinning his brains out at the beginning of the race as dudes on their geared bikes vie for a good position heading into the single track. Jeff and I have a personal competition to see how long I can hold him off -- he always laps me -- but, I held him off a little longer this week and when he goes by me, he always has a nice thing to say to me and I cheer him on....he finished 3rd (maybe 4th??) overall and in the overall series, he got 2nd in the 40-49 age group. Local strong man Andy A. took the overall win for tis age group. By the way, where was Anne A. on Tuesday night? I love racing with Anne. One summer, we did a 6 hour race series together and Anne was the best teammate! We also missed our great team manager, EJ, (GO RIDE MF!), who was home watching the peanuts. See you next week, EJ, at the Park Ave. series?
One our way home, I called good girl friend, Christina, who lives down state, to check on her progress. She's been plagued my low iron and elevated heart rate. She's my rock and we try to help each other as much as possible. If anyone has any ideas to help her out, feel free to post your thoughts under the comment section.
By the time we got home Tuesday evening and showered, it was 11:30 and both of us were up early the next morning. I had a workshop at school and Jeff had work. I rode my bike there and left the house at 6:50....as tired as I was, it was a beautiful morning. Jeff met me on my bike on the way home on the road Tuesday evening and even carried my backpack for me. We rode side-by-side and talked about our day. He always makes me feel better about myself.
Check out our photos from Tuesday night! Thanks fellow Crankskin.com teammate Tommy and his lovely wife, Chelsea, for getting these to us.
Long weekend ahead for us -- we get four days together with no school work, no work, and just time working on the yard, garden, cookout, and of course, lots of riding! Maybe even a cookie ride in Fair Haven?
Collectively, we are Jeffina, crankin' out the miles, crankin' out the love for Cranksins.com.
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