Napa Valley Dirt Classic 2016 - Women's CAT 2

[Jennifer Hibbitts]

What a messy, muddy day! I drove up to Angwin, the start of the Napa Valley Dirt Classic, with several nagging thoughts in my head, mostly irritated that it was raining, and that it had been raining for the last 24 hours. Would this be a disaster of a day? I pulled into the Pacific Union College parking lot and it was raining and 49 degrees. What was I doing? I wasn't fired up for this race. Got my race number, put on my Acme jersey, got bike ready. Did some warming up and headed to the line. It was still raining. Was I in the mindset to race and crush it? No. I put on my game face and was going to try to make it happen. Not a good way to start a race. 

I had never ridden this course before. I talked with my Acme teammates who had experience on this course and they gave me some tips, pointers and insight into the course. The major warnings were the Sand Hill downhill (make sure you get a good line and don't get stuck in one of the bad ruts!), and the BIG CLIMB at approx mile 15 that keeps going and going and is steep and relentless.

Off the start the ladies in my group took off like a shot up the road to the singletrack. I let them get ahead, figuring I would pick them off once on the dirt.  I felt slow from the beginning. A lot of riders had already been through the course ahead of me and it was getting pretty beat up. On the short, punchy uphill climbs my rear tire was spinning out.  On the downhills, it was hard to go fast without fishtailing through the mud. The long single track section was pretty awesome though and I had managed to pass 2 women that were in my start group. 

There were numerous college volunteers on the course, warning of upcoming dangerous sections that had deteriorated with all the riders that had passed through already. The course was very well marked. 

At one point I was trying to go as fast as possible down a muddy double track, while trying to stay in control in the deepening mud. Before I knew it, my front tire did a 180 degree turn and I crashed into a bush on the side of the trail. Oh fuck. Kinda funny. I laughed at myself and got back on the bike and kept racing. 

I knew I was on the BIG CLIMB when I couldn't stay on my bike due to steepness, rear tire spin outs and muddiness. Pushing bike uphill, but slipping and sliding on the bike shoes - tough to get traction! I tried to stay on the side of trail in the grass for some traction. When I was able to get back on the bike for a few of the uphill sections, I had trouble clipping into my pedals as my cleats were so caked w mud. Oh jeez, what mile am I on? How many more to go? 

I thought the race was 22 miles. So I was super surprised when at the last water station the volunteer told me I only had 3 more miles to the finish. But my Garmin said I was on mile 16. So, I was glad that I was near the finish. But bummed that I didn't realize I was so close to the finish and hadn't been pushing harder sooner. 

I was sure glad to see the last single track through the woods that put me back onto the field to the finish. Rode hard to the finish, but disappointed with my time. Lessons learned in this race - start with a positive attitude, warm up really well, and stick with your competition as much as possible. And the reminder that I always have in my head - Every second counts. 

Congrats to all my Acme team mates that rocked this race and had a positive attitude. You are an inspiration! 

On to the next race!!