Grillz Memorial, NECS Finals - CycleOther

I always start at the back of the pack. There were 8 women which is a lot for a mtb race. Many of them looked thin, fit, and fast. I do get intimidated by that. I have done this race before so I know that when we get to the first technical uphill, some young buck will wipe out and then there will be a traffic jam. So there is no point to sprinting out at the start unless you can get ahead of all the guys. That ain't gonna happen, so I just hang back and take it easy until it thins out.

My strategy was to try to stay with T. She is a new to our series this year. I beat her earlier in the year, but since then I have been riding support for my daughter so I figured T. would be much faster now. She did not pre-ride the course, and she started to fall back on the technical stuff. Some of it is unrideable so you just have to get off the bike and run it. She was churning up a lot energy on mucky, rooty stuff for no gain.

I passed her on the first lap in the pipeline section. I dropped her after that. I couldn't see anyone ahead of me, but I thought at least 4 women were ahead of me. I was surprised when I finished and found I was the 2nd women, and only 3 minutes behind the winner. I don't know when I passed the other women, but it must have been early on. I must have thought they were men. It is hard to tell when you are hammering through technical stuff and you can't take your eyes off the trail to look at the other riders.

The Maine Series considers women "ageless" meaning we are all lumped together so I got 2 out of 8. EFTA has age categories so I was 1 out of 1 in the Novice Master female class.

We thought Team Crum, our MTB team could take the overall team trophy this year, but alas, it was not meant to be. We thought we were close, but there was a mistake in the points calculations from the earlier races. We were some 800 points behind.

Oh, since I was only 3 minutes behind, there were plenty of opportunities where I could have pushed harder or stayed on the bike through technical sections. I wish they gave us lap times. I would be curious to see which lap was faster. I improved my time by 8 minutes over last year. The only difference is that I lost some weight - it does make a big difference!

I have no idea how many men were in the race.

hang out and eat!


Not knowing how close I was to the leader.


This was the final race in the Maine AND EFTA series which is why there is a better turnout. I didn't have enough races to qualify for a season championship. T. won it but I beat her both times I raced her, so I think I could have won the series this year.

My daughter did well as a junior racer. Again, she is the only one in her category. An expert female rider rode with my daughter and was very complimentary towards daughter.