Mt Bike, PIR Short Track 2009: Round 7 of 7, August 3. Upgrade!

PIR Mt Bike Short Track, August 3, 2009

Cat 1 Women, 7th Place

by Elaine Bothe

Short track season epilogue. I upgraded tonight after clinching the series title. It's fun watching the race I competed in last week, but kinda lonely at the same time. All my buddies were out there and I'm trying to keep warm.

I'm nervous, way outside my comfort zone. I don't know who's racing, how many or exactly how they stage.

I'm taking notes for next year. My new race is an hour later (Rats! should have brought the clear lens glasses!) and 10 minutes longer. (Yay! more time on the dirt.)

I get a rotten start (nerves) but manage to stay at the end of the pack. I even pick a few off, and all my buddies are cheering me on. There's a lot less traffic in this race, in a lot of ways it's easier. And, it's still fun. Bittersweet, though, since this is the last short track race of the series, and the highlight of my racing year. I'm bummed it's over.

Looking forward to next year, I have some work to do to stay competitive. I didn't finish last, I hope to improve by a lot!

Photo courtesy of Mark Bothe.

Mt Bike, PIR Short Track 2009: round 1 of 7, June 22

Race Report: PIR Short Track, mt bike

Round 1, June 22, 2009

Category 2 Women 35-44, 1st Place

by Elaine Bothe

Isn’t that motocross track in the middle of PIR sooo tempting? OMRRA has to work hard to keep the kids and their bikes off it during race weekends. Irresistible.

But I paid my fee, signed my waiver and now I get to go like, well, whatever, Monday nights for 8 weeks straight. (Last week was just a fun preview day, no racing.)

I line up at the start, just in front of the motocross gates. I stage on the front row in between teammate Sage and her healing ribs (broken a few weeks ago in a crash) and my buddy Eileen. There must be 50 Cat 2 Women of all ages bunched together raring to go.

Cue Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkries,” we are out for blood. Not really, it’s actually very polite racing.

Mark jumps the fence to give me my lucky start kiss, and tips me (and all my competitors nearby) that the first lap is different, we go hard right on the gravel after the narrow opening in the fence. That should be a logjam, I decide I need to be in front early.

I share the hole shot with Sage after fumbling a bit with my cleat, but I got past her through some mud and led the first lap. Through the gate, hard right… I hope I’m headed the right direction because there is absolutely nobody in front of me. I look back, and see 49 focused faces strung out behind me!

I lead the second lap, too, but I got passed in the third by a woman named Kris, long blond ponytail... I don’t know which age group she’s in, but I am racing for the win this time. We battle back and forth for some fabulous racing. She's ahead, goes down over a log and I thought I had enough space on the right... but I didn't. I avoid running over her front wheel and went OTB. Kris gets up first, my bike is tangled in the course-marking tape. She goes off course and so I get ahead.

Back and forth, now I'm camping quietly (wheeze wheeze, huff puff) on her wheel waiting for my chance. We're side by side through some wide spots, and the first whoop section, so she knows I'm there... the second section of whoops are tougher. She takes the left side and I go right... I actually notch it back a little because you either need more speed to jump stuff, or slow down to stay in control.

I know she's going hard. I’m calm, patient, leave her lots of space just in case she goes down. And she did. “Are you OK?" “Yeah,” but she’s tangled in her own bike. Off I go and she loses about 2 minutes sorting herself out. I push on, trying to make sure there's no one else coming up behind.

Hey, there's the checkered flag. Since there’s still no one in front I have to make sure I’m done and ask! They pull me off after only 4 laps, rats, I had another couple laps in me... that was fun. Kris comes up and gives me a big hug and says that was so much fun, great race. She just has some scratches and bumps, me too.

Oh well, skirts are out of the question for the next 2 months.

So I managed to beat all the Cat 2s. Four of the top 5 finishers are in my age group. After that I lost count. In my age group, a woman named Patty who usually beats me in cross country races took second, Eileen took third, Sage, fourth and Kris ended up fifth.

Thanks as always to my many sponsors: my team Sorella Forte and all our team sponsors, River City Bicycles, Jeff Tedder and Hammer Nutrition, Mountain Feed Bags by Epic Rider Research, Life Flight Memberships, Icon Tattoo, Acme Moto Wear and Corey Cartwright at Seven Corners Cycles.

And of course thanks to my cheering section: my hubby Mark, always the loudest and the best spotter, my sister Peg, Brian P, Brian M, Kevin P and teammate Shari and friends, all were cheering fervently.