amy alison dombroski

Jen and I flew out from CO, Kathy from UT, Barb from CA, and the eastcoasters - Melody, Melanie, Anna, and Stephanie drove from various parts. Morgan and his family drove from PA to help with bikes and in the pit. His daughter Alicia ripped it up in the junior race!

Dad and his sidekick Dachshund drove from VT!!

Saturday wasn't much of a shock to my typical spoiled Colorado weather. While it was chilly with the humidity, the conditions were dry and the sun was shining a little bit. We had 2 girls in the top 10, and 4 in the top 20!

On Sunday the weather gods decided to test me. We woke to a gloomy, cold, and rainy morning. While it didn't pour, there was a constant bone-chilling rain all day. Fortunately the Clif Bar Devo team was generous and let our team use their trainers, keeping dry under their canopy of Pedros and Clif tents. It was fairly muddy, which definitely made me uncertain. It was my first cross race with real cross weather, and I didn't know how my abilities would compare to the rest of the field. I definitely surprised myself with how much confidence I had in the mud and walked away with SRAM's most aggressive rider award. I got to hold one of those big plastic checks - you know, the kind that are 3 times the size of me?

The course was more of a power course with few technical aspects. There was one looooong sand section, that seemed to never end. It was ride-able, but questionable as to whether riding it or running it was faster. There was a fly-over, similar to the Green Monster in KY, but the mounting section on top was shorter and the drop off was steeper. They made use of some fun off-camber terrain. The course was slightly modified on Sunday, due to muddy conditions. It was a fun course and I really enjoyed the sloppy conditions. Good thing, because I'm expecting Portland to be a sloppy mess.

What else? We had to say bye to Joachim, as he is heading back to Denmark today. He's expressing interest in moving to Boulder though! I finally spent some time with current U23 USGP leader, Jamey Driscoll. He and I both grew up in Jericho, VT, about a mile from another. We ski raced at Smuggler's Notch; but he saw the light before I did, and started riding a bike before knee injuries forced him to.