Greenbrier Challenge

Coming into this weekend, I felt recovered from the previous and fairly excited about my first “official” Cat 1 XC race. By official, it just means that I had to present my license at registration and they did a thorough job making sure it was accurate and my numbers matched up. Apparently they’re cracking down on people who are trying to race with expired licenses. Those weasels.

Because this was a qualifier race for nationals, there were tons of categories for each class. I had the option to race in my age group, 19-29, or Cat 1 Open women. To ensure a place at nationals, I chose to stay in my age group (and because there were tons of fast ladies signed up in the open). The down side of choosing the age group is that we were placed in the back of the pack and it wasn’t until twenty minutes in that we actually started. The pros were finishing their first lap at 23 minutes and finally lapped me on the end of my first. Ryan was killing it on the climbs and leading the pack while Jordan crushed the descent on his Anthem X Advanced 29er.

Ryan in the lead! Photo courtesy of A.E Landes

Jordan ridin' dirty.

After 4 long, grueling laps, I was never so happy to cross that finish line. It was a rough day for me, but hopefully my weekend off will allow me to fully recover. I ended up getting second in my age group and left with some cash in hand. Afterwards, the team and I went to Cinco de Mayo where none of us ordered a meal that sizzled. We improvised though.

Photo courtesy of the winner, Abbey Alexiades

-Callie