dwindling chances

The end is nigh!

As the season heads to closing, I realize I have only 3 races left to get it right. And by "it", I mean racing with my helmet on straight and even! Hi, my name is Briana, and I often race with a helmet that is either loose or crooked.

This example is from Hillbilly Hustle, but I have plenty of similar evidence. People, if you see me headed towards the start line, please don't snicker to yourselves and let me go on my merry, crooked way!

Last weekend was the Hardwood Hills cross race. I wish they had put it on the same weekend as Baseball Cross in Barrie, because they are so close, it would be much easier to make a weekend of it.

Anyway, where Baseball Cross had lots of open grassy areas and fast corners, Hardwood had hills and sand and run ups. I had a great start, and moved up into third as we did the "prologue" from the start to the finish. I was feeling pretty good, and was doing my best to hold that position, but I could see Julie, Lori, Rachael and Michelle not far behind. Julie could clearly see that the hillier course was not my friend, and with a really strong push, caught and passed me. I kept plugging away, trying to be as efficient as possible, and take as much advantage of the sections where I felt good, but with two to go, Lori also made me feel like I was standing still. I thought I could keep her within close distance, but on the last trip through the sand pit, I hit it with a lot of speed and instead of rolling gracefully through, I hit a rut badly and just kind of bounced up and down all over the place. Ah well - 5th woman and 4th elite is still pretty good!

Adding a photo, by Rob MacEwen, to show off my awesome old Cactus Cup jersey, worn because it was Halloween and I couldn't find anything else that qualified as a costume. And, of course, because it is pretty cool. I won it when I got third place in Beginner Women at the Whistler Cactus Cup in 1994 (I also got so, so, lost pre-riding, still have scars from crashing on a dusty downhill switchback, and finished about an hour behind 2nd place... but there were only 3 of us, so I still made the podium!).