Cross and More Cross

We're heading over to Seattle tomorrow to do Starcrossed, which is such a cool event. Cyclocross races begin in the afternoon, and continue into the evening, with the elite women and men finishing up under the lights of the Marymoor Velodrome. By the time the sun sets, the crowds are big and the beer garden is full. Speaking of the beer garden, it is situated in the center of the velodrome infield, with the course snaking around it, which makes it easy to spectate and have a drink at the same time. The beer last year was PBR, so it left a little to be desired. This year, however, Deschutes is the sponsoring brewery, so it will actually be worth it to have a beer or two.

I'll be racing with the elite women. Since I have a cat 1 license on the road, USA Cycling insists on making me a 1 in cyclocross also. I'm in a rough spot because I tend to place at the top of the B women category, or at the bottom of the A category. I guess I might as well challenge myself by racing against all those women who are better than I am, with hopes that it will rub off on me eventually!

We'll do another race in Seattle on Sunday, which has a super long run-up. I believe it's about 80 meters long, and it really does make the legs burn. If it rains, I imagine it will be super sloppy and muddy.

It looks as if the race we're promoting in Pullman will go off okay. We have our officials, our course, and all of our permits. I think we'll even get some turn-out from the local mountain bike community. In fact, there seems to be more and more interest for cyclocross in Pullman and Moscow, as we have had random people ask us about the sport during our practices. Now if we could just get some more women to give it a try!