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Full disclosure. I went into this cyclocross season fully prepared to be in the back of the category 3/4 race, wearing a tutu, taking all of the hand ups and having fun with my Sorella teammates. My husband and I had just finished a months long training session for Mountain Bike Marathon Nationals and I was in no way prepared to continue training. Or even take the season seriously. I was just ready to have fun on bikes with friends in the most fun bike discipline there is: cyclocross!

However, that isn’t what ended up happening. I went into the first race in Boone, NC ready for the fun. And although I did have a ton of fun, I ended up pulling out a 2nd place finish! I chalked it up to freezing temps (which I love!) and the beginning of the season. Little did I realize, I was actually really going to surprise myself this year.

The next weekend was a double weekend in Raleigh, NC with races on Saturday and Sunday. I was ready to give it my all but to be honest I thought the weekend prior was a fluke. I dug in Saturday and pulled off a 3rd place finish. Sunday my legs were wrecked. I kept telling them to pedal but they wouldn’t go anywhere. I decided I was fine with the back of the pack…however 3 laps in and my legs finally woke up. They started doing what I told them to do and I ended up catching back up to the lead groups and finished in 3rd place. This is when I started thinking hmm… maybe my initial plan for the season wasn’t going to go the way I thought it would…

Which brings me to Winston Salem, Oct 30th. It was HOT! And when I say hot, I mean hot. For those of you who don’t know me, I melt in the heat. I don’t do well and I totally overheat. So, before this race I pulled out the pantyhose and ice. I put a huge ball of ice down the front and back of my skinsuit, totally soaked my hair in cool water, filled my water bottle with ice cold water before the start of the race, and hoped for the best. The race started and I just kept pushing. My plan was to go as hard as I could for as long as I could and see what happened. Turns out the ice kept me cool and I totally surprised myself with a 2nd place finish! I was ecstatic to come in 2nd but also pleasantly surprised that I had worked my way up and through part of the 1/2/3 category as well. I started wondering what category I should be racing in? Should I jump up and race the 1/2/3 or stick with the 3/4? I decided to stick with the 3/4 race at least until I came in 1st. (I’ve been racing cyclocross for well over 10 years and I’ve never had a 1st place finish. It’s something that hadn’t really bothered me before but in this moment I realized it was within my reach.)

November 5th. I was finally able to stand on the top step. All of my hard work (okay, I still wasn’t training. But I did learn how to push through all of the pain and rely on the SOLID base I started the season with) paid off. I came in 1st! I was so excited when I finished I thought I might cry. But instead I just laughed and smiled ear to ear. It felt amazing to pull off a win. But then it also had me wondering again… do I jump up to the 1/2/3?

This is the question I asked myself every weekend, all season long. Where do I fit? I’ve never really “fit” in the 1/2/3 race before and the middle of 3/4 category has been my jam. But somehow things changed this season. (I think it was the mountain bike marathon training that gave me an awesome base before the season even started.) I ended up sticking with the 3/4 category all season. I was fighting to hold on to my 1st place in the series standing and didn’t really want to let that go. It also made it so we had a Sorella racer in every women’s category. Which is pretty cool. Was that the right decision? I’m still not really sure. But I was racing against a lot of really fast women who were pushing me to be my best. So, I stuck with it.

Fast forward to the last race of the season and I realized (after doing lots of incorrect math) I had to come in 1st in order to hold on to my 1st place series standing. I was determined and ready to give it my all. The race started and I quickly realized that the woman in 2nd place in the series realized if she won this race it would push her to 1st. I made up my mind then that I wasn’t going to give up like I would have in the past. I was going to race strategically and leave everything I had out there. The first lap, I held on to her wheel. I knew from past races that she was strategic and if I went off the front then she would hold my wheel to the end then sprint. I wasn’t willing to let that happen. I rode her wheel for half of the second lap and then decided I didn’t want to go that slow anymore. So, I made my move. She followed and despite every attempt I made to gap her she stayed on my wheel. She was so close for 3.5 laps that she actually hit my wheel 5 times. She apologized each time but after the 5th time I said, “Can you please stop hitting my wheel?” She apologized again and backed off an inch. I kept pushing trying to make the gap larger and with half a lap to the finish it finally started to work! I then put the hammer down thinking “if the gap keeps getting larger, she can’t catch me in a sprint!”. After pushing myself the hardest I’ve ever pushed, I came across the finish line in 1st place and then promptly laid down on the grass laughing. I couldn’t believe I had pulled that off! Not only was it the best I’ve ever done in a cross race but it was also the best cross season I’ve ever had! (Later I looked at lap times for the race and based off of times I would have come in 4th out of 11 in the 1/2/3 race. That is something I never thought I would have ever been capable of!)

This cross season totally didn’t go as planned and actually ended up being the best cyclocross season I've ever had. Something “clicked” and I went with it. I loved racing with my Sorella teammates weekend after weekend, seeing friends, and hanging out with my husband and our dogs.

Did I make the right decision sticking with my category instead of racing up? I still don’t know but what I do know is that I'm already excited about racing next year! Will I start the season as a 1/2/3? Yup! I just hope I have the same fitness next year that I had this year!