Cathys Report

This was an amazingly fun day of racing with my fellow NorCal girls. The morning started with Mary and Claire picking me up 30 minutes early! Must be one of the perks of an all female race team. I remember the time Leo and I waited 4 hours for my brother; he ended up showing up at the race the next day. Theres a story there but I wont tell it! Then theres the time Snap drove our Gianni crew to a race at Lake Berryesa. The drive from Occidental took about 6 hours...

Anyways, back to Billy Cross. Not only were the girls early to pick me up, but Claire (Jay has now taken to calling her Claire Bruyneel in honor of her thorough directeur sportif skills) had packed everything a team could need, from shade tent, race food, and sunscreen, to individual little tupperware containers for each of us of what she called her special "fruit cup." On top of all that, Penny brought enough food to feed an elementary school class (and Id know about that), although I did have to pass on the tofu sandwiches.

Our lap times put us in the middle of the mens class, which seemed particularly good considering a couple of us are from "The Day." Claire is insisting I take my bar ends off...maybe she has a point. Overall, his was an awesome day! We earned 1st place medals, and had fun to boot. Whats better than that?!

Pennys Billy Cross Report

I never knew how much fun Billy Cross could be until I had 3 teammates to share the pain, sweat and attitude. In my mind, the 8 hour team race at Lake Sonoma converted Claire to a Mountain Bike race devotee (she is talking wool jerseys now) and resurrected Mary Bracken and Cathy Crawford back from The Day. I could be making this all up, but it sounds good, dont it?

We arrived in the team bus, Marys vintage pop-up VW van. So right from the start we were cool. Add to that the fact that we all matched and had the only team banner and the cool factor gets higher and higher.

The day started off positively balmy which for Lake Sonoma means anything below 90. We decided each of us would do 2 laps back to back initially and we elected Claire to go first. This was really the hardest lap because everyone is jockeying for position from the start. But Claire was definitely up for the challenge. The rest of us picked a vantage point above the course and watched as she easily picked off several men on a technical section of the course, and she made it look easy. Then it was just a matter of waiting for her to come through the staging area the first time so we could cheer her on and I could gauge how much time I had before it was my turn.

I warmed up by riding a short section of the course and then waited until I saw the Claire and took off on my first lap with adrenalin practically pouring out of me. The first lap was a matter of getting my stride and settling in. It is only about 4 = miles but with quite a few technical sections and endo opportunities. The climbs are short but steep and the downhills take your full attention. Coming through the staging area on my first turn I got a charge from teammates ready with GU and a little push. The second lap I was much more relaxed and looking forward to passing the baton on to Cathy.

The best part of a relay race is the honeymoon phase right after your laps. You get a long break for eating and stretching while your sisters slog it out. Cathy was up next and before we knew it she was finishing her first lap. Uh-oh, I wasnt going to get as long a break as I thought! Meanwhile it was starting to heat up and we decided that our next round would be single laps, except for Claire who would do another 2 back to back because she is Claire and we love her. Mary started her laps in the afternoon and looked very calm and collected as the day wore on. She was rewarded after her second lap with an ice cold one and looked very appreciative.

By now it was officially HOT and Claire was off for 2 more laps. The rest of us hid in the shade swatting flies and swapping lies. Before I knew it I was up again for my final lap of the day. By this time I was Very relaxed, almost too much and had to watch out for those endo opportunities. I enjoyed this lap the most, got into my groove and tried to give it everything I had, knowing there was a cold brew waiting for me after the final hill. Another Cathy lap and we were done, without a single mechanical or injury between the 4 of us.

Even if we hadnt all gone home with a GOLD medal I would have called it a successful day. I couldnt ask for more excellent teammates. Great teamwork and support makes all the difference in the fun factor. We also drew inspiration in knowing Erika was the first woman finisher of the Terrible Two the day before and that the Paulinator was up in Oregon doing the Cream Puff at the same time as our race. Many thanks to Ken Keasey, a.k.a. RocKenRoll and his daughter for giving us Billy Cross racing.

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