Best of Intentions
“I don’t really intend to race cyclocross this year.”
It was August 1, the unofficial first day of the cyclocross season. My tires were mismatched. My shifters didn’t really work and my cycling cleats had muddy residue from the last race of the previous year. I still made high-pitched nervous squealing sounds and braked way too much when I went around corners with lots of soft dirt and gravel.
“I don’t really intend to race cyclocross this year.”
That was on repeat in my head as I lined up at the Cross Crusade series opener at Alpenrose Dairy in October with nearly two hundred women; seventy alone in my B category.
“I didn’t really intend to race cyclocross this year.”
I was driving to Salem on a Saturday morning in November for the Oregon State cyclocross championships. The weather more closely resembled a monsoon than ideal bike racing conditions.
“I didn’t really intend to race cyclocross this year.”
It was 7:00 a.m. at the start of December and I was sitting in a warm car, wrapped in blankets and waiting for the sun to rise so I could pre-ride the race course at Portland International Raceway for the U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross. Despite all this, I was still thinking about how I hadn’t intended to really race cyclocross this year as I warmed up on a trainer at 6:30 a.m. last Thursday in Bend. It was four degrees outside, the ground was covered in snow and ice, and I was scheduled to race in the women’s B category at the national cyclocross championships.
I didn’t really intend to race cyclocross this year – but I did. And it was awesome.
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