IL State CX Champs at Montrose

Congrats to Scott on winning the IL State Champs race and the overall series! This is his second year in a row as the IL State Champ.

The Cat 1/2's race was super exciting, thanks to these guys! Kevin K. and Scott battled it out here, with James LaLonde behind them in the photo. Luca and Mike S. were also strong contenders in the battle. Congrats to Kevin on a strong second place and a great season!

Congrats to Devon of the Pony Shop on being the IL State Champ in Women's Cat 1/2/3! Devon usually races with the Cat 3 men, but for this race she decided to do the Women's Cat 1/2/3 race. (there's Naz in the background, approaching the sand hill) Lou and his Pony Shop team were out in force in every race all season and had great results all year, in addition to Devon's win.

Above is Holly (Killjoy) coming in second in the IL State Champs race. She rode a great race, finishing well before the other women she's been racing with all season. Congrats, Holly!

Tim B's Verdigris team was rocking it in most of the categories. They are a contender in any race they enter. Many of my old Whole Foods/Active Endeavors mt. bike teammates (Tim, Chris, June) are now on Verdigris. I believe, but am not sure, that June won the series in Cat 1/2/3 women, Tim B. won Master's 40+, Wayne won Masters 50+ (Wayne had a stellar YEAR all around!!!), and I'm guessing Chris L. won the state championship and the Masters 30+ series? Correct me if I am wrong... I wasn't able to access the overall standings on the web site.

Chris L., who rocked the 30+ as State Champ and Series Champ AND often raced the 1/2's as well! This pic is from the Cat 1/2/3 race yesterday.

A big congrats to all the IL State Champions in the various races, as well as the overall series winners. Congrats to ALL of you who rode your hearts out all season long. (I can think of lots of people not mentioned in this post) Whether you got 2nd place, or 10th, or 35th, you worked hard, improved, and hopefully had a lot of fun and made a lot of friends in the process!! For fun, friendship, and a sense of accomplishment, cross is the best!!

I know just from watching my friends that there were some incredible seasons out there. Congrats you guys!

Hopefully next year I will be back out there again, too.

One wonderful thing about cross is the consistent enthusiasm of the fans and the encouragement of fellow racers. The Half Acre Team, (an awesome new team themselves), decided to give the Awesomeness Award to the team that most embodied Awesomeness to them at the Cross Series this year. The only way to properly reward this was to make an awesome cross specific trophy! Julie, Ben and Audrey got their creative heads together and created just such a thing. It was awarded with much noise and fanfare by the Half Acre Team, after the Cat 1/2/3 men's race. See below for some pics of the "awards ceremony". You will have to add your own soundtrack. Imagine a small, very loud cacophonous (in a good way) mob migrating towards the Cuttin' Crew bus, and you will get the idea....







Pics are up. In the severe cold, I feel fortunate that my camera worked. It was slow and I missed alot of shots when it took forever to cycle, but I still was able to get some pics! Others had more trouble, it seems. Maybe it's because my camera is fairly new, hence the battery is newer? I've never had it in such cold conditions before. Now I have an idea of what to expect at Nats. I also had a lot of trouble with icicle hands (given that my gloves were off most of the time) and with my big fuzzy warm hat getting in the way! I switched the hat before the last races, whew, I could see again! (BTW, hand warmer and toe warmer packets rule!!)

Cat 4 men's set

Cat 1/2/3 men's and the Awesomeness Award at the end

Cat 4 women and juniors

Cat 1/2/3 women, Cat 3 and 50+ men

I'm sorry, I didn't get there early enough for the first race!

What's up with our weather that we can get a nice sunny day but it doesn't stay that way past the early afternoon, lately?