Here is an exciting race recap from Zoe Mae Dunn, NICA student-athlete and varsity girl rider... This past weekend, my team and I raced at McDowell Mountain Regional Park in Fountain Hills, Arizona at the third race of the Arizona High School Cycling League (AHSCL) 2014 season. This is AHSCL’s second year as a league and my second year of high school racing. Here is a quick look at part of the our race! The whir of tires on trainers fills the morning air. The clock hits 7:45am and girls start making their way to the starting gates from the team pits. The excitement level is high and the girls and I are getting our game faces on. A crowd lines the fence on the edge of the course including the boys from each team, our friends, family, coaches and others who came to see what the whole high school mountain bike racing scene is about. They are all there to encourage some of the toughest girls in the state. Of course, we varsity girls don’t sit on the line and let stress fill the air. As always, we sit on our top tubes and talk about the course and the past two weeks since we last saw each other. Most of us have known each other for quite some time so we are more than just competitors. We are friends and always look forward to seeing each other at the races. The officials give us the 10-minute warning and I suddenly realize that I have to use the restroom. Like right now! Unfortunately I don’t have time to run all of the way to the bathroom which is located at the top of the crowded parking lot. I ask one of the girls to hold my bike and I make a run for the bushes. Laughter fills the air behind me as I pick my way through the brush and cacti. I get back before the five minute warning in time to hear a few more stories from the other girls. The official finally calls out “one minute!” and we say our last, “good luck and be safe”, then we go silent. The crowd counts down with the official, “10, 9, 8...” and then we all clip in. Then “7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1” and BAM! We are off sprinting towards the start of the single track. We quickly formed into two groups off the start. The three fastest girls were in the front and had a nice-sized lead on the rest of us; I was in fifth. During the first lap, I passed one girl and moved into fourth while keeping a small gap on her and the sixth place girl. By the start of the second lap, the leader had a two to three minute lead. On the second lap I made more time on the fifth and sixth place girls and lost some time to third place rider. At the start of the third lap, I knew there was no catching third place and was pretty sure that I would finish in fourth. That last lap went by quickly and I soon crossed over the finish line still feeling strong. The heat was harsh that morning, but we worked through it, dumping water on our backs every lap. In about an hour and 40 minutes we had finished the 20-mile, three lap, race sweaty and exhausted. After cooling down we all congratulated each other. In the end, I came in 4th out of the six varsity girls in the race and I am very happy with how it went. This was a hard, exciting race but I gave my best effort and it paid off. I can’t wait until the next time so I can go hang out in the desert and race my bike with the coolest kids in the state!
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 14:16:08 +0000
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