a day at the races

later on i will show you pictures and tell you more about it, but yesterday i saw some amazing pro racing and today i'm on my way out the door to go tot he second day of the catamount classic.

i did not get to see much of the pros out in the cool parts of the course because i had second clipboard on the timing line, but that gave me really super views of the starts and finishes and a good view of what it's like at the officials' table.

so it's cool either way.

the most exciting thing of the day was the women's pro race.

i know, right? usually women's anything takes a back seat to the men's race, with second billing and second class payouts.

at this race, for the first time in mountain bike history, the pro women's payout was bigger than the men's and the women's race was run as the top billed race.

the top billed race is the last of the day, and someone has to have that second slot but it's nearly always assumed that the women's race just isn't that important.

well, this race organization for a lot of reasons decided to put their money and energy behind the women's race and there were no disappointments.

to be sure, both the men's and women's national champions were there, and some champions of other nations and a world champion or two, but the crowd was mostly there to see lea davison, who is FROM HERE, racing in her brand new national champion jersey for the first time.

the crowd was carrying signs and wearing goofy newspaper hats ( i have one) and the little bellas, a girls mountain bike mentoring group that sabra and lea davison started, were all there to yell and cheer for heroes as only little girls do.

i had second clibpoard in the timing line (a position of no importance when all the race technology works, but a critical thing in an emergency), so i had an excellent view of the start and finish and was able to set up my camera to shoot some video while i was standing at the fence.

highlights of my day: the UCI officials let me ring the bell for the women's race to signal bell lap.

and i was there to see lea take up the vermont flag and cross the finish line a full two minutes ahead of the field.




i gotta go; it's time for me to go back to the venue for the second day. it will be amateur racing on the long course and pro racing in the afternoon on the short course, plus a children's race in the morning.