Cheshire 'Cross - Women's Report
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Conditions/Course:
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Air temp 20 F Wind 23 gusting to 30
The ground was hard.
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Results:
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Women’s Open
- Janet Ramos – 7th
- Julie Lockhart – 8th
[Janet Ramos]
It was soooo cold at this race and my legs just did not want to move even during the warm-up. I had a less than stellar start but that’s okay. On the first lap I did keep up with the rest of the group (9 of us) up the stairs after the first big turn but I had a tough time keeping up with everyone after the first set of roller coaster hills on the back side. So for the rest of the race I was out there alone which was fine but an added bonus was that on the run up there were some hearty souls cheering even for a slowpoke like me. Even though the wind was blowing at 20+ miles per hour I did keep warm (my toes too) for the 4 laps that I did. This course was more suited to mountain bikers so if that is your racing bag do consider this race for 2009, you will love it. My one beef with this race is that at the bottom of the run-up they had a piece of paper with a smiley face on it and at the top of the run-up they had a piece of paper with a frown face on it, what’s up with that? Seeing the smiley at the top would have helped my stiff legs to loosen up for sure…
[Julie Lockhart]
Great Start to the U-turn onto the course.in front of a couple of people … next to a very tight chicane near the (pitiful) pit …I let everyone slip by before the steps, so I could pursue my skills exercise without interfering … hung out at the back of the pack for the first lap and a half, then relaxed and worked on jumping out of the corners and trying not to get lapped. Got the difficult hill (lesson learned, check what chain ring you are in before a difficult climb), Loved conquoring the bridge. The bear of a run up is difficult, need to prepare a little better by hill runs. Nice course, different course each year.