My new HIDEOUS/FABULOUS skinsuit got a second debut at yesterday's Jackson Park cyclocross race. Man, I LOVE cyclocross. I'm no good at it - I'm completely incapable of getting over a barrier and back onto my bike without coming to a complete stop. Which, as you can imagine, is a bit of a handicap. And with a handicap like that, 30 minutes isn't enough time to wear out the competition sufficiently to really make up for it.

But its SO MUCH FUN!

I decided not to cat up to the women's 1,2,3 field - no point until I can work out my issues with the barriers. There were over 30 women lining up in the cat 4 field, which is HUGE - so cool to have so many women racing. I think xXx had seven women in the field, most for their first cross race. I knew there was some strong competition in the field, so my goal was top 10.

I did Ok in opening sprint - not great, but OK. I was about eighth or ninth by the time we hit the ersatz singletrack through the trees. The three or four in the lead were opening up a good gap, and I was unable to get around the line of women ahead of me to keep up. Eventually some dropped off and I ended up behind Amy from Mox - which is a familiar place to find myself. I wasn't being aggressive enough about getting around her either. My teammate Courtney caught up to me and Amy and I fell behind them at the barriers. Then Amy slid out in a corner and I shouted at Courntey to get around her - we both did! I rode Court's wheel for half the course then decided to be more assertive and tried to pass on her inside in a corner. Unfortunately there were major ruts and Courtney had to almost stop to avoid them. I didn't want to screw up my own teammate! She got ahead of me again at the barriers and this time I was inhibited about trying to pass.

I could see that some of the women ahead of us were tiring. Courtney and I were working past them. I could see Britt from Verdigris, Cathy from Project 5, and Natalie ahead of us. I saw that Courtney was able to work around Nat and Cathy (who fell and lost a few places) - the barriers continued to hold me back. And then the race was over - almost before it started, it seemed.

My crazy strong teammate Julia won - no surprise there, I knew she'd dominate the first time I saw her graceful leap onto a cross bike - and Courtney took third! Woo! Natalie and I were sixth and seventh. So I made my goal of top ten and I'll get a call up at the next race.

Eileen - my teammate who took the women's cat 4 series title and state jersey last year - was very strong in her first women's cat 1,2,3 race. She dropped some serious competition and ended up third or fourth [final results aren't out yet]. She's so impressive. Yelling at her and at the men in the masters' race while I marshalled was almost more fun than racing myself. Huge props to Greg for putting this race together - and to Brian and Mike and all my other teammates who spent so much time and effort to not only make the race happen, but to make it so great. The whole Chi Cross Cup series ROCKS!