CX National Championships 2021 Recap

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When I started racing cyclocross at the beginning of this season, my goals were to have fun, not hurt myself, and push myself out of my comfort zone. I had no illusions of winning a race, or even getting onto the podium. I’m a slow cyclist, even when I’m trying to go fast and give it all I’ve got.

Four months later, I’m wrapping up my first season of racing with a 17th place finish in the USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championship! Still got DFL (Dead F*cking Last) but I finished!! And that’s more than a bunch of people can say! Huzzah!

Photo by Evrgrn Photo

Before we celebrate too much (because let’s be honest, we’re going to), let me back up and explain how I ended up even racing at CX Nationals.

Shimano, one of my primary sponsors, was the Event Partner sponsor for CX Nats, providing neutral support to racers and exhibiting in the main part of the expo. As part of their agreement, Shimano built in a requirement for an All Bodies on Bikes activation.

Working with Shimano, USA Cycling, and Molly Cameron of RIDE Group, we planned a panel for me and Molly about diversity and inclusion in cycling, followed by an inclusive, community ride around the park venue.

On one of our first planning calls, I joked that I should “bring my single speed cross bike and take a lap on the course.” I forget who jumped on my wack-a-doodle idea, but after the call, I had an email confirming my registration for the Single Speed Women’s race. Well, shit, I guess we’re really doing this!

The fast folks at the start line, including Sarah Sturm & Sunny Gilbert, 1st and 2nd place winners. Photo by Evrgrn Photo.

Bike & Race Prep

If you’ve been watching my Instagram from this fall, you’ve seen that I’ve been riding my Surly Straggler converted to a single speed for all of my cyclocross races. I started the season racing with flat bars and 47mm tires - a super fun and rowdy setup. Midway through the season it was apparent that I needed more tire clearance so I swapped to some 40mm tires. Much better, lighter and faster. But turns out I still wasn’t done with modifications!

To comply with the USAC rules, I had to put drop bars and even skinner tires on. Thanks again to super-fast shipping from Competitive Cyclist and priority service from Julian at Peloton Bike Shop, I was able to get 35mm tires and drop bars on the Struggle Bus. Now we were ready for Chicago!

Race Weekend

I arrived in Chicago on Thursday evening and made it to Cantigny Park, the race venue on Friday morning for my first pre-ride. I was admittedly super nervous, expecting a challenging course since this was a National-level event. Turns out, racing cyclocross in the PNW all season was excellent preparation for this course, as it was fast and bumpy but nearly entirely rideable, even on my single speed!

At nearly 3km long, each lap had about 150 ft of elevation gain, which while nothing to sneeze at, was totally doable for me on my single speed. There was one section I couldn’t ride up - Mount Abus - and the sand pit I figured I’d evaluated on race day and get as far as I could on the bike, but otherwise during my pre-ride, I felt super confident about things.

And then everything changed….

Friday afternoon into Saturday brought an absolute onslaught of crappy weather to the Chicago area. In fact, this is the same storm that spawned multiple tornadoes across the midwest. High winds caused havoc in the expo, destroying a ton of team tents and causing lots of damage. Saturday’s races were pushed back a few hours to allow for cleanup, and we ended up cancelling the All Bodies on Bikes ride because of the gusting winds.

We were still able to have a short discussion about inclusion in cycling and the smaller audience allowed us to talk candidly in a relaxed group. Instead of stressing about leading a group ride, I was able to hang out, relax, and mentally prepare for my race.

The Actual Race

I was the very last to be called up, with zero USAC race points. This was great as I actually prefer to start in the back of the pack because I know I’m slow and don’t necessarily want to be in the way of fast folks racing for the hole shot. With my signature lipstick, crop top and bib shorts (https://www.avantlwith a base layer - don’t worry, I’m not an idiot in 30 degree temps), I lined up at the start feeling excited and confident.

Immediately after the start, a number of racers crashed out in front of me, but benefit to being slower - I could go around them. When they went down, I optimistically thought “hey, maybe I won’t be dead last!” My optimism was short lived as I was quickly caught in the sand pit and passed. No worries- I’m used to being alone on the race course way behind the rest of the pack.

As soon as we exited the sand pit, we were greeted with a rutted, muddy, sloppy course. The fast and fun course from my pre-ride just a day before was long gone, along with my ability to ride most of the course. Each pedal stroke felt harder than it had before and as I made it to the Shimano barriers, I realized my heart rate hadn’t dipped below 180 yet.

Because I’ve been wearing and training with the Wahoo Kickr heart rate monitor since last summer, I know that I can comfortably ride at 165-170 beats per minute for 30 minutes. I’ll be tired, but it’s do-able. My heart rate during CX Nats was upwards of 185 the whole time - I desperately needed to get it down.

As I mentioned earlier, my goals for this CX season were to have fun and not get hurt. I carried those goals into this final race with one additional goal - represent bigger bodies on a national stage.

I’m not going to lie - this was probably the hardest riding I’ve done all season. The adrenaline from the cheering crowds, hearing my name announced throughout the park as I tackled the course obstacles, and the excited of this race meant that I didn’t necessarily ‘race my race.’ I let the excitement get to me, took off way too fast at the start, and found myself gasping for breath as soon as I hit the mud.

It was evident from the start that I’d be lucky to get two full laps in - the leaders were doing 8-9 minute laps while I was midway through the first lap with nearly 20 minutes elapsed. Taking stock of my options, I decided to just have fun with it. I stopped and took nearly every handup that was offered to me, including more than one shot of Malort, a gummy bear filled jello shot, and multiple dollars! Heck, I made $9 in this race - I think that officially makes me a professional cyclist! :)

As I rounded the corner into the Belgian stairs, I took my first fall of the day. Thankfully it was into some some mud, so no worse for the wear except a few big bruises that showed up later.

At some point, the leaders Sarah Sturm and Sunny Gilbert, who would go on to win the race, passed me. Both of them, even though they were racing for the National Championship were kind and funny and encouraging. While we were racing, they each cheered me on as they passed, which brought a huge smile to my face. I feel so honored to be part of this sport where we take care of each other and encourage each other, regardless of our speed.

I met my goals and finished the race with a huge smile on my face. I was so proud of myself - from never having raced a cyclocross season to completing a season where I successfully finished every race I entered. Dead last in every race, but I still did it, which is a huge accomplishment.

I watched the men’s single speed race after mine, still muddy and gross. Next time I’ll wash my bike and legs before spectating, but I didn’t want to miss a minute of the action! It was so fun cheering people on - from the fast guys in front to the party pace crew in the back. This is what cyclocross is all about.

The elite championship races were held on Sunday, but I had plans to meet up with some friends in Chicago for a ride. We met and rode the North Branch Trail nearly 20 miles (again on my single speed) and I’m still amazed by how flat this part of the country is! I couldn’t ever imagine enjoying riding a single speed 20 miles in Seattle, but here I was, enjoying every pedal stroke!

After our ride, I headed back to Cantigny Park to hopefully catch the championship races. I arrived after the Women’s race, which is probably a good thing, as there were a number of anti-trans people who showed up to protest the inclusion of transwomen in the race. I say it’s a good thing I wasn’t there because I won’t put up with that non-sense and would’ve maybe gotten in a fight. Transphobia and discrimination and hate have no place in cycling and the community made it clear that they weren’t welcome. Unfortunately, USAC didn’t do anything and a number of racers felt intimidated by this hate group. In the wake of this, the CEO at USA Cycling is out, but it doesn’t seem like substantive changes will be happening. Definitely something to keep an eye on for the future.

Overall, I am so thankful, happy and proud that I took on this challenge. Racing cyclocross is so far out of my comfort zone - it was a great experience to put myself out there, learn new bike skills, and make a lot of new friends in the process. I’d like to think I’ll be back on the starting line next year but probably still in the Beginner Women’s category.

Bike Tour in Canada, Eh?

It’s been a while since I went on an extended bike tour. Most of my trips last summer were a single night, and the one longer trip I had planned was cancelled because of wildfire smoke. So when my friend Gabby proposed the idea of a trip over the 4th of July holiday weekend to Canada, I jumped at it.

Matchy matchy on the Kinsol Tressel

Our rough plan (emphasis on rough, as we’ll get back to that) was to do a 3 or 4 day loop around Vancouver Island, starting on Wednesday and returning on Saturday or Sunday. Our planning parameters for the trip:

• Fairly mellow in terms of both mileage and elevation gain

• Include the Kinsol Trestle

• Take advantage of the awesome trail network in British Columbia

Turns out, you can’t really google routes using those search terms. We found a few loops on RidewithGPS that looked promising, got some intel from friends who had ridden up here before, and came up with a draft plan for our trip. We knew there were multiple camping options and plenty of food and water supply opportunities throughout the ride, so we didn’t plan any of those in advance.

Here’s the route we ended up doing, which ended up being 124ish miles and around 4500 feet of climbing. I 100% recommend this route - the roads, trails and ferries were absolutely lovely and I would totally ride it again.

I would NOT recommend any of the places we slept at. I’ll explain more later and provide some alternative camping ideas, but they were all a little bit off in one way or another.

Day 0: Seattle to Port Angeles

No bikes were ridden on this day. Our original plan was to take the Bainbridge ferry from Seattle, drive to Port Angeles and catch the Blackball Ferry to Victoria. But traffic the day before July 4th sucks, so we got a later start than we wanted and didn’t get to Port Angeles until almost 9pm. Thanks to a friendly Warm Showers host just off the Olympic Discovery Trail, we had a cute cabin to sleep in before our 8am ferry to Canada. (Feel free to message me for the Warm Showers details.)

Day 1: Victoria to Salt Springs

We took the early ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria, BC. This was my first time on this ferry and it’s really easy with a bike! Roll it on to the front of the boat, tie it up to the rack and voila, you’re done! Lots of other folks had the same idea - we met families on bike, other bike tourers, and casual riders going for a day ride in Canada.

The bike racks on the Black Ball Ferry to Victoria

Once in Victoria, our first stop was Broad Street Cycles. We needed to figure out a more solid plan for our tour. I met these guys a few years ago at Single Speed Cyclocross Worlds, hosted in Victoria and remember how friendly and welcoming they were. Turns out they remember me too! We bought a map, got a recommendation for breakfast and by noon were on our way…to breakfast.

After fueling up, we finally started pedaling, riding out of town on the Lochside Regional Trail. This flat, rail trail led us out of Victoria through beautiful, rolling wetlands, across bridges and into farmland where we shared the trail with horses and tractors.

The Lochside Regional Trail

We followed the trail all the way through Saanich and Sidney to the ferry terminal in Swartz Bay, where we just barely caught the ferry to Salt Spring Island. (p.s. Thank you to the kind soul who slowed down his own ride to guide us to the correct route, even turning around to make sure we made the right turn. Friendly Canadian encounter #1 of the trip.)

BC Ferries! Just like ours but no indoor space.

We were warned on the ferry to Salt Spring that the island was hilly and that proved to be true. But honestly, I didn’t find it to be overwhelmingly so. It felt a bit like Vashon or Bainbridge - a few big hills, but mostly rolling, rural farmland. Riding on Salt Spring was lovely - all the cars that passed us gave us plenty of space.

We enjoyed a short break at Cider Works before making our way to Ganges (the largest village on Salt Spring), where we found dinner and attempted to scout a place to camp. We were given some advice from some locals about a beach that is “great to camp on”, so feeling adventurous, we decided to camp there. Since this particular camping spot may or may not have been 100% legal, we spent the evening at the community theater production’s Shakespeare in the Park and eventually made our way towards the beach.

On our way to the beach, we realized we needed to fill up water bottles so we stopped at a pub. One thing led to another and soon it was way past dark. And we still didn’t have a place to sleep. All sorts of wise decision making happening at this point, but hey, at least there were 3 of us together.

We soldiered on with our plan to camp on the beach, riding another few kilometers from the pub to the spot we were told about. You can see on RidewithGPS the spur to Long Harbour. When we arrived, it was dark and I thought it looked promising. The spot seemed to be in the woods and looked safe enough to camp. My buddies had different ideas and wanted to leave, but it was nearly midnight and we made the decision to camp at the street end park. Not on the beach because the tide was up, and probably not a legal place to camp. When the sun rose, we realized there were houses about 100 yards from our campsite. Oops.

Day 1 Mileage: 43ish miles, 69 km

Day 2: Salt Spring Island to Chemanis to Duncan

After not a great night of sleep, we woke up and tore down our tents as quickly as possible. Heaven forbid the neighbors come down for the Friday morning walk and discover three bike tourists camping on their street end! (In all seriousness though, this experience gave me a lot more empathy to our unhoused neighbors who don’t have a safe place to sleep. I felt a lot of anxiety not knowing if somebody was going to come down in the middle of the night and harass us for setting up camp where we weren’t supposed to.)

After a quick breakfast of coffee and oatmeal we set off for the ferry back to mainland Vancouver Island, via the Vesuvius Ferry. Our plan for today was to ride to Chemanis, check out the Mural Capital of Canada, then backtrack a bit and setup camp at Bright Angel Regional Park. We all agreed that we wanted to sleep in an authorized campground.

We got off the ferry in Crofton and from there it was a nice 12 km ride into Chemanis. This part of the ride reminded me a lot of the Olympic Peninsula, albeit with much nicer drivers. The entire weekend I only had one close pass from a driver - the rest of the time every car gave us a wide berth and slowed way down when passing, definitely a welcome change from riding in the states.

Chemanis is a super cute historic town with a ton of murals. It definitely earned the name “The Mural Capital of Canada.” I failed and didn’t take any photos of the mural though. Next time.

In Chemanis, we met a local photographer and cyclist who told us about The BC Bike Race, who’s opening ceremonies were happening just down the road from our route. We detoured from our plan to go to Bright Angel park to see the opening ceremonies where a group from the Cowichan Tribe welcomed the race with a ceremonial dance, which was really cool to see.

BC Bike Race!

At this point, we were still about 2 hours of riding from our intended campsite and were getting hangry. Again, prioritizing fun over a beautiful campsite, we pulled out the magical space device (google) and found a closer campsite. Our first attempt was a bust when we were told that no tents were allowed, but got lucky at the Riverside Cabins.

Cabins are a generous term for this property - it was more of a trailer park than a cabin, but it met our needs for the night: Water, bathrooms, a place for our tents. We had some interesting conversations with neighbors and were woken up by the sweet sounds of children playing on motorized hot wheels and drunken yelling (what’s the sarcasm emoji?) There was a lovely river flowing through camp that provided a great spot for a morning meditation and cool off.

Morning meditation by the river

By far the best part of Day 2 was Richards Trail - a backroad between Crofton and Maple Bay. If you go to this part of the world, you need to ride this road.

Richard’s Trail Road

Day 2 Mileage: 32ish miles

Day 3: Duncan to Victoria

One of the themes throughout the trip was overly friendly Canadians insisting they knew what was best for us. A prime example of this was the beginning of Day 3 starting with our aggressively friendly campsite neighbors insisting that we take a “shortcut” over a railroad trestle to get to town. It was clear that none of these people had ever taken a bike on this route, as there were huge, tire-sucking gaps between the railroad ties (with a 30 foot drop underneath) and the route was definitely not rideable. Perhaps when walking it was a shortcut, but it likely added a solid 30 minutes to our start out of town.

Gabby makes the best of the railroad trestle situation

We made the best of the situation and raised our spirits (and cell-phone batteries) with a visit to Tim Horton’s before starting our riding for the day. The plan was to find the Great Trail, ride it to the Kinsol Trestle, bop over to the Mill Bay Ferry and then head into Victoria where we’d hang out for the evening. As with the rest of our trip, it didn’t quite go to plan and everything takes just a bit longer than you expect.

We had a bit of a climb out of Duncan to find the Great Trail, which isn’t fully connected yet. Once we did find it, the riding was excellent. Varying grades of gravel - from chunky rocks to smooth asphalt grade gravel, but overall it was really lovely to ride. I’m really excited to go up and explore it more. So many wildflowers in bloom next to the trail too! Truly a lovely riding experience!

Riding on the Great Trail

The Kinsol Trestle is a must see of this area as well. It looked like there were some trail heads close to the trestle, so you could take a more direct route, but what’s the fun in that?

After the trestle, we took the least hilly route back to Victoria possible. As we understood it, we could have taken the Trans-Canada trail the entire way, however, the trail has some steep sections that we weren’t mentally or physically ready to tackle. Instead, we opted for the Mill Bay ferry into Saanich, and then took the Lochside Trail back into Victoria.

We finished up our tour with a stay in a hostel downtown Victoria and caught the Black Ball back to Port Angeles early Sunday morning.

Day 3 Mileage: 41ish

Overall, the bike riding was excellent and I would recommend our route 100%. I would not recommend any of our sleeping choices, but there are plenty of other camping/hotel options and with a bit more foresight, all of the issues we ran into could easily be avoided.

We did it! Back in Victoria by sunset!