By Anna Barensfeld

Cyclocross season is officially underway and LadiesFirst Racing has been happy to finally put rubber to the road. Three races of the Tobacco Valley CX Series kicked off the season in Central MA, with Blunt Park, Monson, and Palmer CX taking place over the past two weeks. LadiesFirst elite and developmental teams have represented well, and people are noticing the team, asking about us what we’re all about! We are here to support the progression of women in the sport, and raise the level of competition in women’s CX racing in New England!

Blunt Park Cyclocross – 8-22-10

Rainy and a bit muddy, this course is technical and is a great reminder of ‘cross skills after a summer training and racing on the road. Chicane, up and down, woods, logs, barriers, this course has it all. Big props to Devon Fitzgerald on completing her first CX race ever!

Andrea Smith 1^st

Ann D’Ambruoso 2^nd

Anna Barensfeld 3^rd

Christina Tamilio 4^th

Allison Snooks 7^th

Devon Fitzgerald 16^th

Monson Cyclocross – 8-28-10

Temps were hot hot hot and the course was bone dry and fast. Plenty of pavement, some very steep run/ride ups and some rocky downhills made for an eventful day. Anna flatted in the front and Ann double-flatted (taking her out of the race), while Christina had a strong race to pull in 3^rd and Devon saw how much ‘cross can vary from course to course!

Christina Tamilio 3^rd

Anna Barensfeld 5^th

Devon Fitzgerald 15^th

Ann D’Ambruoso DNF

Palmer Jungle Cross – 8-29-10

The dry, hot weather kept it up but the Tobacco Valley CX Series crew mixed it up with a much more technical course at Palmer. Fast, rooty woods, triple barriers, and swoopy corners made for a super fun course. Christina continued her impressive season start with a 2^nd place, while Anna fell back into 3^rd and Allison Snooks salvaged a top ten finish after being forced off-course on the first lap by a pileup crash in front of her. Congrats to Melissa Downes on giving her first CX race a go!

Christina Tamilio 2^nd

Anna Barensfeld 3^rd

Allison Snooks 9^th

Melissa Downes DNF

Thanks to the race organizers for two weekends of phenomenal grassroots racing, and Mark for the super neutral support!

Photos below: Palmer Cyclocross, credit to Rob Bauer doublehop.blogspot.com

By Christina Tamilio

Allison, Andrea, Anna, Ann, Christina and Devon represented Ladies First at the first cross race of the 2010 season; Blunt Park. As always, the folks running the show for the Tobacco Valley Cyclocross Series (previously the Accelerated Cure Project) put on a fantastic, grass-roots race. The course was technical and included a few necessary dismounts. Also, I always appreciate the absence of a run-up! Lucky for us, it rained over night and continued to shower throughout the day. This made for a slick, muddy course and a perfect start to the New England cross season!

Right from the start, Ladies First dominated the race. Andrea, Ann, Anna and Christina finished 1^st through 4^th respectively while Allison was close behind in 7^th place. Devon rocked her first cyclocross race ever, placing 16^th!

Overall, a great start to the cross season for Ladies First!

By Crystal Anthony

“If it’s a reward you’re after, you’ll have to wait longer and perhaps do something else to win it; benefits are less tangible at this time.”

Interestingly, this was my horoscope from Sunday, the day I raced Timberman 70.3.  It was perfect.  A typical race blog I guess is about paces or tactical strategies or key race moments but the fact is there was nothing very spectacular about my race.  And that is not a good sign, at all.  The flatness itself said: it’s time to call it a season.

After some quick success my first season of racing triathlons last year, I hit some bumps on the road to taking racing to the next level.  The problem with racing is that benefits are pretty much always measured tangibly – did you earn the podium or the check or the time you were going for?  And I had to leave Gilford, NH knowing that the answer to all of those was no.  So I read the above quote and thought, yes, there are so many things I have learned this year that are making me a better athlete and person but they are internal in nature and they are the kind of things that take time to produce results.  I have to tell myself this because the racer in me is frustrated!

Racing well is both a science and an art. By using science – principles of nutrition, training, and recovery – improving is easy at first and being the unknown who comes and beats people who’ve been doing it for a long time is a great ego boost.  I won’t lie.  Perfecting the art is much harder.  Finding a way to fit training and racing into real life, knowing just how much to push yourself and when, and pulling it all together on race day are messy things to learn.

Everyone’s body is different and no matter how much advice I seek out, ultimately, I have to know myself.  Coaches have helped me to see my potential, and to push me to new levels.  They have kept things interesting with challenging, creative workouts.  My greatest strides have come when I believed this for myself and decided to go for it.  I worked harder than I imagined I could, and achieved more too.  At the same time, I spent this past spring recovering from being so overtaxed that my adrenals and immune system all but shut down!

To compete at a high level, I have to be right at that line between enough challenge and too much.  I have to take care of the little things like sleep, nutrition, strength training, flexibility, yoga, massage, balance – but not at the expense of losing my enjoyment of the sport!  Ultimately, I compete because I love it!  There is nothing like it.  I have always been drawn to competition since I was a kid and it is something that is with me for life.

When it comes down to it, I use whatever is out there – rivals, money, time standards, podium spots – as motivation to drive me.  However, true satisfaction for me is in discovering just what I am capable of doing.  When I ran a 2:47:16 at the Houston Marathon, honestly the overwhelming emotion I felt was, “Holy s#@* how did I run that fast?”  Missing the Olympic Trials Marathon by 16 seconds, well, that was a bummer but paled in comparison to having just reaped the benefits of so much hard work and dedication.  None of that would have been possible without the teammates by my side the whole way.  Somehow, working together with like-minded people makes you all capable of that much more.

I like results.  I like winning.  What I am learning as time goes on is how much I like the training and the camaraderie along the way too.  End results take patience, patience, and more patience.  There, I said it!  So wait longer, do something differently, say the stars… Don’t worry, I will.  I know I can get the results eventually!

By Crystal Anthony

By far my favorite races are hometown ones, and with all the training I do in the Gloucester area and the friends and family participating and spectating, Gloucester feels like a hometown race.  Of course, I also love good competition, so couple the familiarity with the incredible talent the event attracts, and I was very excited to race.

Preparation began a few weeks out when I incorporated the new bike course into several of my training rides.  It was helpful to have trained and raced on these roads before, but I wanted to really know the turns and hills.  In such a short bike course, I didn’t want to be losing time to mismanaging curves or attacking a hill in the wrong gear.  Also I am terrified of downhills so I like to practice them to know how they feel and what comes at the bottom!  Each time I try using the brakes a little bit less.  I didn’t recon the run or swim since I had done the race last year.

On Friday, I got my bike in order with brother Jesse’s help, including putting a disc cover on my rear wheel.   That way I could still have use of my powertap while also having an aero wheel.  Saturday I went up to register and did a course recon of the bike, run and swim.   That night, the one and only Anna Milton came to stay over – what an up-and-coming triathlete at 15!  We had an early dinner of brown rice pasta, spinach and ground turkey and then relaxed.  Anna’s gutsy enthusiasm to come up by herself for the adventure was inspiring – great positive energy before the race.

Race morning, I awoke to some sprinkles, but by the time I arrived at GHS, the precipitation had abated.  However, when I unloaded my bike, I discovered my rear tire was flat.  Immediately, I pulled a Schleck and looked around for my team car… of course I didn’t have one but I did happen to see  my friend Scott and I hurried over to get his help .  Yes, I can change a tire but being so anxious I didn’t trust myself.  Once checked into transition, I headed out for a warm-up run in lieu of a bike warm-up because I didn’t want to risk another flat.  Then, I set up my gear and got ready for the swim.  As a precaution, I double-checked my rear tire before heading down to the water.  It was flat again!  Now I was in an all-out panic, since I had used my spare tube and clearly something was wrong with the wheel if it was flatting like that.  Fortunately, my dad, friend Dawn, and Christina were spectating nearby and they were kind enough to run the wheel down to the Seaside tent while I went to swim.

Assured that they would take care of it, I headed down to warm up swimming!  It was time to shut out all the worried thoughts about the bike and to focus, channeling whatever energy I had towards the effort in front of me.   Perhaps I would just attempt the unicycle today.  Freaking out had also gotten my heart rate elevated and my adrenaline pumping, so I focused on how that was good before starting a sprint race.

The swim went well for me.  In fact, at one point I felt this very strange sensation behind me and when I looked during a breath, someone was drafting me!  That was a first for me and I have Craig Lewin to thank for that!  Since swimming is my most challenging discipline, I’ve had to work hardest on it. Craig’s patient instruction, his tough workouts with the morning swim crew, and his open water technique sessions are paying off as I never would have guessed I would like swimming so much or that I would start to feel like a swimmer!  I came out of the water in 8^th, and was behind the leader by 2:30 and that’s the way the race would end.  Thanks to the Seaside crew and my friends and family a functioning wheel was mounted on my bike when I entered transition!  I had a decent bike, and felt strong on the run, passing 3 competitors to finish 5^th.  In the end, I posted the 2^nd fastest bike split and 2^nd fastest run split.

It was good practice in staying mentally in the game when things go awry, and a good reminder that without the friendly faces and gracious helping hands around me, I wouldn’t be out there racing!

On 8/11/10, Crystal raced the Charlie Baker Time Trial averaging 25.42 miles per hour and finishing in 23:01. She holds the second fastest CBTT women’s aero time in history!

Race Report by Allison Snooks

It was an early Sunday morning for the race in Norwell.  Despite growing up in
Massachusetts I had no idea where this place was.  Turns out it’s near Hingham
on the way to the Cape, who knew?  Gear, kit, food and music were all ready to
go bright and early.  The weather was absolutely perfect, slight breeze, not too

warm and sunny.  The usual suspects were there at the start line, Gals from
Portland, Jackie Z (hollah), Dana, and the Cycle loft crew which keep
multiplying like a bad case of warts (no offense meant, it’s a good visual).  2
of our developmental riders were there as well….Devon and Rebecca.
It was a neutral rollout from the town offices to the 2 mile plus course.  We
had 8 laps, 9 nine times up the “hill”.  Finish was at the top of the hill,
remniscient of Sterling but not as steep and a little bit longer.  The course
was closed to traffic and was pristine.  Road was smooth and the trees kept us
shaded the entire race.  I raced with my powertap for kicks to collect some hard

data for my people to interpret.  The pace was brisk and there were a few riders

going off the front to bring up the pace.  Jackie took at least 2 turns off the
front and worked damn hard.  Usually I’ll follow to get my glory off the front
and then proceed to blow up, not such a great tactic.  Today I was content to
sit in, race smart, and win.  That was my only goal, win the race, nothing
else.  Each time up the hill I got a snapshot of the riders…took mental notes
of their climbing style, effort levels etc.  On the second to last lap I pounced

up the hill to test the waters and see if anyone would follow, nobody came.  I
got a 5 second gap on the group and sat up, smart racing remember.  Jackie
pulled alongside and gave the “let’s go”.  2 miles goes by very quickly on the
last lap.  I got near the front, behind the wheels I thought might be
challenging for the win.  Last right turn onto the hill, good gear selection, I
went left between 1 or 2 riders and went.  All I was focused on was the line, so

focused, I threw my wheel over the line just in case (see Norwell results
picture) when the closest rider was 3 seconds behind.  Better safe than sorry?
Some guy near the line was yelling “you got it”  but I didn’t know if that meant

I was alone or slightly ahead and I didn’t dare look back.  Regardless, I gave a

whoot woop a little bit after the line, I had to celebrate at some point!
Cheers to our developmental riders, Devon and Rebecca.  Devon took 7th,
outstanding.  Fist bump to J. Zider…always great to race with and against.
She is demoing my compression sox, hopefully that will not give her the edge the

next race, what was I thinking???!!!!!!
Watch out New England, Ladies First is on the prowl…3 weeks to Blunt Park
Cross race.