Sunday morning, after the sun came up thankfully this week, I headed up to Fort Yargo State Park in Winder, GA for another race in the Georgia Cross series. I had never been to the park before, but from the bits I saw, it was quite beautiful and would probably be worth the hour trip back up there just to visit some time! After last week’s debacle with the weather (and by debacle, I mean the fact that I’m an idiot and had no layers and was riding in a jersey and shorts) I came fully prepared with some nice merino wool base layers, and I was quite warm and toasty!

Before we get to the race report, I wanted to first say that today’s race was my first race wearing clipless shoes and pedals! I got them attached last Sunday after the race, and gave them 30 minutes of practice on Thursday evening at CX practice – enough practice for me ;) I wasn’t able to fluidly clip in for every remount, but I was able to manage. The pedals caused 0 wrecks I’m proud to say! Editors Note: I’m not saying I didn’t fall. I did once. The first time I rode the sand trap I took a bad line and fell. This would have happened with or without pedals. I’m glad to say the next 2 laps I rode through without falling!. It was a fun experience and I definitely could tell the pedals helped with powering up some of the hills – I was definitely glad to have them on today. Hopefully with each race they’ll become more natural and I won’t have to think about clipping in and out as much! Now, onto the report……

Another week, another cyclocross race! I sure will be sad when the season is over. This week, we traveled to Rome to get our cross on. Unfortunately, this was only an hour drive to Rome, GA – not the day plane ride it would take to get to Rome, Italy. But can you imagine a cyclocross race in downtown Rome? Start at the top of the Colosseum, run/ride down the stairs, out through the street, shoot through the Forum…that would be insane! Anyway, the Georgia Cross series had never been to Rome before, and it was quite a course they had set up for us!

This past weekend saw the Georgia Cross series descend on the Conyers International Horse Park (in Conyers, GA). The course was quite challenging, and long, with each lap coming in at approximately 2.1 miles. This course was a PR for me, in the fact this was the first race I did not get lapped in!