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12/30/03 - Its not over yet!
Even though some of us are still suffering from a "post Nationals hangover," (especially those of you who partied with Wells and Co.) cross season is not quite over yet. Over here in NorCal, we just held our NorCal District Championships which are actually like the state championships because only like 7 people in Southern CA race cross. I'm kidding! There's actually more like 20.
The District course was old school "Bob Liebold jungle cross." With mud, barns, stairs and probably a fair amount of horse poop. But does horse poop scare us? Nope. Our newest cross sensation, Barb Howe won the Elite Women's race. CX Diehard, Andi Mackie, won the Women 35+ race. And feisty Suzy Nahlik competed in her first ever cross race on a singlespeed! So, and the end of the day, we had two Districts Champions and our 11th dirty dozen member. Not a bad day at the Velo Bella office.
Check out Abbiorca's always-excellent photos of the race.
The last race in Nor Cal will be held on Jan 4th at Coyote Point. Series prizes, including a bag of fun stuff donated by Velo Bella, will be awarded. More info here.
And before you SoCal cyclocrossers get all cross with me, I've got some photos of a recent SoCal race that I will post here soon as penance. So stay tuned.
12/15/03 - Bellas head North
A small contingent of Bellas packed up and headed north to Portland to race, watch, cheer, pit, dance and slop around in the muck with the nation's best cyclocrossers. We took home some mud, some medals and lots of macs.
It, of course, rained a lot in Portland for Cyclocross Nationals. Between the three days, we saw all the mud types on Dave Carr's mud index. Christine would have loved these conditions and we missed her, but we carried on.
Sami, Karen and Andi raced the masters events. All three scored top ten finishes with Andi overcoming a crash to still land on the podium for 5th.
Karen and Sami returned the next day for more duck muck fun. Karen raced the Bs and Sami hung tough with the big girls. Joining Sami in the elite race was Sarah and Barb. Sarah suffered a first lap crash but carried on and plowed through the field from dead last to 18th. Barb, in her first season of racing cross, rode on to a very fine 9th place finish. Watch out!
Our podium boys did almost as well. Podium Boy #2, Jon Hansen, won the singlespeed race while decked out nicely in a Velo Bella jersey. Podium Boy #2, Alan Coats, wasn't wearing his Velo Bella jersey, but he still stormed to a WIN in the Masters 35-39. And Podium Boy #2, Brent Chapman, was our MVPB, Most Valuable Pit Boy.
Read the Race Reports...and check out the pictures!
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