Travelling circus

by Melanie
I feel like a travelling circus traversing the east coast from North Carolina to Gloucester,MA with Kona tent and Velo Bella banner packed tight and four bikes on the roof. This season I’ve logged over 4,000 miles DRIVING all up and down the east coast for the sake of the thrill of a 40min race and hanging out with the Bellas, and I love it.

So I skipped Thanksgiving dinner with the family due to the passing storm which you all had in Portland the week before. Friday the skies cleared up and the sun was shining for the 8 hour drive to Sterling, MA for a classic Tom Steven’s New England style course. I had to see firsthand the log pile climb-up that “Scout” kept talking about in NC. Tried to calm Scout a little bit because she kept going on about how she never does well on this course of grass with crazy steep run-up and stomach-in-mouth drop-of-a-hill into this four foot high log-pile-steeplechase-like-thing….Turned out she had an awesome race and now can’t say it’s her worst course anymore since she had a rock solid, impressive ride.

Anna and I both hoped for better results as each of us ended up riding solo in no-man’s land.

*****

After the race Judd and I packed up the tent and hit the road to head to Maryland for the local Wash DC area championship race. Arrived at midnight, washed some of the mudd off the wheels in the hotel bathtub, and went to bed. Legs were feeling a little tired from the time-trial the day before but once the gun went off for Sunday’s race, the legs felt fine. I really wanted to win the local cx bragging rights since I just missed out on winning the local series. So from the start I made a mad dash for the first turn and tried to increase my lead with every lap, just in case something should happen like a flat or mechanical or a fall. Although I did get taken down by some course tape towards the end of the race, I was able to force myself to stand up and accelerate out of corners and dig deep on the road sections in an attempt to not let my competitors gain time on me in these areas. Ended up finishing with the win. Mission accomplished.

A hometown race this weekend. Then the final trek of the year back up to New England. Looking forward to seeing all you Bellas at Nats.

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