Estrella Hedgehog Hustle, Race 3, March 1

Saturday the 23rd, Zach, Robert, and I and a few other Prescott people drove down to Phoenix to preride the Estrella race course. I was finishing up the antibiotics and Allegra I was taking to rid my sinuses of its horrible infection. I blame the Allegra on the way I felt. I woke up with a headache and just felt like crap the whole drive down. It didn't get any better once we started riding. I was pegged from the start; felt like I had no energy the whole day.

We started out on the tech loop, then did two long loops. I pinch flatted on the first long loop, and told Christina to ride on. I felt like crap and didn't want to hold her back. The second long loop was complete torture. Robert and I called it quits after that; Zach and Christina did an additional tech loop to finish their day at 30 miles! The bright side for me that day was of course the group we rode with, the weather, and the post ride stop at Chipotle.

Estrella is fun, but brutal. We decided the best descriptive word for it is relentless. The bumpy rocks and loose gravel never end on the tech loop. The long loop has some tame sections where you can gain composure, but the semi technical section at the end followed by the long gradual climb up get you too.

So needless to say, I did not have a warm fuzzy feeling going into the race this past Saturday.

Zach and I drove down Friday night and stayed with Christina, which was so awesome (we would have had to leave Prescott at like 4am). We didn't get there until after 8 and ended up watching 24 Solo. By the time we went to bed we were all beat.

Saturday we get to Estrella before 7 and the strangest thing happened. We were being swarmed by mosquitos!!!!!!!!! WHAT THE HECK!! Everything I've heard is that Arizona doesn't have any insects, especially mosquitos! After spraying on some repellant, we got registered and I had to start getting ready. I spotted an Alterra kit through the crowd at one point. Turns out it was Anna Fink. It was her first race she had done in a while so she decided to race sport. It's always fun to catch up with someone from the Midwest.

I snuck up to the line at the last minute and fit in on the left again. Christina was a few rows deep so she made her way up too. The gun went off and Jennifer Sica (the only pro) and Christina were out like lightening off the front. I hung on behind Christina with Heidi right on my tail. She passed me at one point; she's fast but she's a roadie. After riding behind her for a few minutes it became clear. She wasn't aggressive enough for me on the technical sections, so I passed her back the first chance I had. Christina was pulling away. The expert women's race was a tech loop, a long loop, and a tech loop. The pro women's course was long, tech, long, so Jennifer had already turned off onto the long loop; it was just Christina and I out front by ourselves.

Christina was holding a great pace, and has better handling skills than me so I stuck behind her for most of the first lap. On one of the last climbs at the end of the lap though she took a drink or ate a few blocks so I passed her on the hill. I was out front for the long loop...felt really good at that point. On one of the last rolling downhills towards the end of the lap, I felt unusually out of control. I actually almost bit it hard but thankfully recovered. Was fatigue setting in? I kept looking down at my wheels to see if I had a flat but they looked okay. I grabbed my last water bottle from Zach and headed out for my last tech loop.

Unfortunately, my handling problems did not improve. I was all over the trail. Couldn't hold a line, descending or climbing. I wish I would have stopped sooner. It was totally messing with my mind. Finally, towards the end of the lap, after you climb up and over and start heading down the technical section, I stopped to find out what was wrong. Sure enough, a front flat. I tried to stay calm and think clearly. I was not changing a flat this late in the race, so I decided to try and fill it w/o changing the tube. After my first attempt at the CO2 inflater, Christina flew right by. She asked if I was okay and if I had everything I needed. I said yes, and thanks and now knew how the race was going to end. There was no way I'd be able to catch her. I finally got some air in and started to wonder if I had ever screwed my valve back down after filling before the race. What the heck! Did I have a slow flat from a cactus needle or was it my own fault! THAT'S IT! I AM NOT GETTING MY BIKE READY BEFORE ANY RACE EVER AGAIN! Actually, I'm not even sure if a tire will go flat if you don't close the valve, but that's all I could think.

I got back on my bike and still had a hard time getting a good rhythm going. Riding almost that entire lap out of control left me with no confidence at all! I kept riding and just hoped to finish in second. I make it over the crest and head down the few rolling hills to the last long gradual section back to the parking lot and what do I see? Christina heading toward the finish. She was going unusually slow. I might actually have a chance here. So I pedaled hard and caught her at the last sharp right turn that was only 50 feet maybe from the finish line. We both took it easy on the gravel turn and kicked it in to cross the timing mats first. It was for sure a photo finish.

We had a good laugh standing there wondering who took the race. Turns out Christina rode in on her rear rim, which explains her speed at the end. She punctured her tire good enough on a rock in the last mile that Stan's couldn't patch it. She said a win for her would be bittersweet, since I had flatted. I certainly felt the same way. Shortly after that Heidi and Spring finished up and we all chatted for a while. Spring is from Tucson and had just raced 24 hrs of Old Pueblo with Susan Haywood. She'd be a pretty strong teammate, huh? Yeah, they took the win.

It took a while for our results to get posted, I ended up crossing ahead by three tenths of a second.


Christina and I both had handoffs to do so we huddled up under her teams ez up in the feed zone with Jeff and Elizabeth. Zach was doing long tech long. It should be no problem for him since had ridden more than that the previous weekend. It's so hard to tell at these races what place he is in. They don't use backtags and there is no categorization of the number plates. So I have no clue until the results are posted. He finished the race without changing any flats but had one minor fall that scraped his knee a little. He ended up with a 4th place finish! Tim finished in 7th and Jeff in 23rd. Jeff had a tumble over the handlebars and skinned his thigh pretty good.

Checking out the bikes last night, Zach had slow leaks in both tires. And it turns out I did have a slow leak in my front tire. Whew, I thought I was going to have to hang up my mechanic apron. Plus, I'm not the sofaking I thought.

Elizabeth and Jeff talking traveling













view of the race venue with Phoenix Int'l Raceway in the distance.