The first of the California Enduro Series was a blast! It was up in Reno, NV on Peavine mountain and it had more rocks than one could ever hope for! Brian, Dillon and I got up there the day before so we could pre-ride. We were only going to do a few stages but with the help of our good friend Jon Wilson, he shuttled us up a couple of times so we ended up riding the whole course. When we were on stage 5 Brian and Dillon showed me a line through the rocks that I hadn’t seen before so I practiced it a couple of times and knew that it would be the fastest as long as I didn’t mess it up!!

  Wilson

Once we were done riding we headed over to Great Basin Bikes to get our bikes dialed by our favorite mechanic, Steven Lewis! We hung out there for a while talking and working on bikes…wait I just hung out with my Boo Bear and we went upstairs to roll…we don’t work on bikes!! 🙂

Race day was quickly upon us and we were excited to get the day started. We had my whole family out there supporting us in their Marin/Rabobank jerseys, it was AWESOME! Not only was my teammate Evan Geankoplis there, but my other Marin teammates Kyle Warner and Jake and Nye Yackle were there as well. It was great to have all of us out there on our Attack Trails!

Dillon and I

The Team! (Mom, Malvin, Dad, Me, Evan, Anker and Cappie)

The race starts with about an hour plus or minus climb up to stage 1. I took my time as Brian and Dillon charged up ahead (I later found out they were the first two to the top of the mountain!) and when I looked back I had about 70 riders behind me! No pressure!! I kept telling myself not to goof up on anything so I didn’t bog up all of the riders behind me…I might of thought about it once or twice just for fun!!

Brian and I starting off together!

At the top of Stage 1, I was lined up with Lauren Gregg, Katerina Nash and Caroline Dezendorf. We were all trying to figure out ways to slow Katerina down so that we were all on a level playing field seeing how she is a Four-Time Olympian, 3X UCI World Cup Cyclocross winner & UCI XC World Cup winner in 2013!!! We figured taking air out of her tires, putting her in flats and locking out her suspension would help us out a bit. 🙂 It was pretty cold at the top with the wind blowing so we were all trying to jump around and stay warm. Needless to say my legs were screwed on that first segment, I just couldn’t get them to move!! I figured it must have been the same for everyone so we were all in the same boat. I was smooth, but not the fastest, but that was okay because I didn’t blow a turn that I have blown a thousand times!!

Me on stage 2

Next we rode up to stage two, I knew on this stage I needed to be smooth up top and pedal my brains out at the end…so that is exactly what I did. When I got to the bottom of stage 2 I saw Lauren who said she had a flat and tried to pump it up during the stage. That was going to be the case for a lot of people that day, there were just so many sharp rocks everywhere! I got some more water and just as I was about to transition up to Stage 3 I saw Brian and Dillon already at the top of Stage 4!! Holy cow, they were ripping!! When we were up the top of Stage 3 we were all heckling everyone going through the first few tight switchbacks you could see everyone failing at. It was pretty much inevitable for everyone to screw up, I mean the pressure!! HAHA! Katerina was in front of me again at this stage and she told me not to make fun of her too much. 🙂 She is a funny gal! Stage 3 is pretty twisty at the beginning and then fast off camber near the end, so again I was smooth and slower at the top and then pedaled as fast as I could without clipping any rocks on stage 3!

We then headed up to Stage 4, one of the longest pedaling sections with a pretty descent little up hill in the middle of it. Last year I blew up trying to get through that hill and then I had nothing left at the end when I really needed it so my plan was different this year. I hit the climb at a descent pace, but tried not to expend too much energy. Then as it went down hill for a bit I tried to save some energy for the big push at the end. As soon as I hit the pedaling section I was off! I pedaled pretty hard, again trying not to hit any rocks and I just hoped nobody was coming down stage 5 because I pedaled super hard at the end and I wasn’t stopping!

Off I went to the last stage. This was the stage I was looking forward to the most, I was so slow on it last year and a fellow friend caught me at the end. I knew I had my lines perfect, all I had to do was carry my speed. I got to the top and Caroline was there waiting. She asked if I wanted to go so I just said ok, let’s do this! When I hit the first rock garden I could hear everyone cheering for me and I heard Brian’s voice right away, dang he was fast!! I stayed focused and took the line I had only just practiced the day before and I totally nailed it, I was feeling fast so I kept going through the other rock waterfalls. Now I just had to pedal super fast down the hillside, well I was pedaling so fast when it came to turning left onto the last twisty section I skidded sideways all the way through the turn…I yelled, “Coming in hot!!” to the poor volunteer there, I’m pretty sure I scared him a little bit! I pedaled pretty hard through the snake turns and near the end I felt a little wobbly, I thought it was because of the sand but it was clear after I pedaled through the finish I now had a flat tire!!!! Holy crap, that was lucky!!!! I tried to pump it up but more air was coming out…so I was looking around the tire and sure enough there was a huge sidewall tear! I was just thanking baby jesus that it happened at the end of my run!!! I ended up walking out about 20 minutes where my friends Allison and Aaron picked me up and took me back to the venue.

Me on Stage 5

I knew I did the best I could, so all we had to do was wait for results. Jake came up to me and asked, “So, are you going to be on the podium today?” and my response was, “Well I had fun, stayed on the bike and did the best I possibly could, so if that lands me a podium spot then that would just be a bonus!” It’s honestly how I felt, of course everyone wants to be on the podium, that’s why we race, but I just want to do my best and be confident in that. Brian and Dillon both said they had clean races and of course, they were the first two done!! With some snafu’s in timing they said they had the results but they were going to cut out Stage 5 because they were having issues pulling the results for that stage. I was devastated!! I knew that was my best stage and that I probably pulled some time out. Well it was off to waiting for another hour for results, but it turns out they were able to get Stage 5 in there!!! Yahoo!! There were so many people around the results board, but I happened to be right in front, so when they promoters finally stepped away, I was looking for the Pro Women’s times…looking looking, WTH, I WAS 2nd place to Katerina!! I had to double check to make sure that was really my name up there!! Sure enough, Stage 5 was my best stage. It was the only stage that Katerina didn’t win, and I won it!! I was so happy!! Next I was trying to find Brian’s name, low and behold, he was right on top of the podium!! As for Dillon, he tied for 2nd with Kyle Warner!! My teammate Evan was right off the podium in 6th place and our Rabobank sponsor Anker was on the top step of his very first race ever!! Woo hoo! We pretty much couldn’t have asked for a better day!!

From left, Amy Morrison (4th), Brianne (2nd), Katerina Nash (1st), Monika Renk (3rd), Lauren Gregg (5th)

Brian’s Podium!

From left, Kyle Warner (3rd), Doug Thayer (1st), Dillon Santos (4th), Marco (not pictured, 2nd)

Anker on the top step!!

I’m so excited for this year and the good things to come. I’m learning new things every day on the bike and I can only go up from here. As my mom puts it, I just need to “Stay on the bike!”. We couldn’t be blessed with more awesome supporters this year with Marin Bikes, Rabobank, Skratch Labs, Burnham Coaching, Cupertino Bikes, G-Form, Twin Six, Fox, Smith, Grifall Chiropractic, Dumonde Tech, Spoke Consulting and Butler Team Carmel! We can’t wait to keep making them proud!! Next on the calendar is the Wildwood Enduro.

Monday morning’s commute to work was a sad one, as I saw race vans and cars with their bikes and bags all packed and headed home after a long, fun, fantastic weekend at the Sea Otter Classic. This year had to be one of my most memorable years at the Sea Donkey compared to all of the years past. It was my first year as a Marin/Rabobank sponsored rider and my first time racing Pro and I got to start the fun off right.

RACE DAY!

I woke up bright and early Thursday morning for Race Day! I was lying in bed facebooking, or bluefacing as my boyfriend, Brian, calls it (because when it’s night time and I’m on Facebook, he says the light makes my face blue). I heard someone walking down the hall and assumed it was our friend and was ABSOLUTELY SURPRISED to see my dad in the doorway!!! Turns out he wanted to surprise me for my first official Pro race at Sea Otter. He drove down the night before and slept in his car in our driveway. It was definitely the highlight of my weekend.

It was time to race and I knew it didn’t matter how I did today, I was so happy to have my biggest fan there to support me! I lined up for the first stage of the Enduro, which was on the Downhill course, and was so excited to see a bunch of ladies that I inspire to be like all lined up ready to race. We had a pretty stacked class with EWS (Enduro World Series) racers, Anneke Beerten, Hannah Barnes – the Enduro Podium winners from last year – Teal Stetson-Lee, Kelli Emmit, Legend Marla Streb, CES (California Enduro Series) shredders Lauren Gregg, Rachel Throop, and DH World Cup racer Micayla Gatto, along with so many other awesome women!

It was so nice to have my Attack Trail for the downhill course. The bike was dialed for the race and my new Rabobank wheels helped me pedal a clean run on this stage – even after only one practice run. I then headed up to stage 2. I knew in this stage I was going to have to be fast, but accurate, there were a lot of sandy corners that could make or break your race. I went as fast as I could, while knowing I had to look out for those turns and ended up catching Hannah Barnes halfway down, she was super nice and pulled over for me to have a clean pass. They had the finish on a slight uphill, right after you got off the singletrack, so I just pedaled as hard as I could standing up! I thought I might fall over when I crossed the line.

Next we headed up to stage 3. I got to ride with Anneke and Hannah for a little bit and asked as many questions as I could. I have to know all their secrets so I can be as fast as them! smile When it was go time on Stage 3, the segment started with quite a bit of pedaling, more than I remembered and I felt a bit blown out from pedaling so hard on stage 2, but I made it through the run clean and unscathed. When I got to the bottom of that run, I started heading back up to the track for the final stage, which was on the Dual Slalom course. On this transfer stage I got to catch up with Marla Streb, this is one of the best things about Enduro! You have time to get to know the other amazing women that you are racing with. There isn’t really any other bike competition where you get to talk in between racing, with Enduro you have a lot of time to talk and learn more about the other racers.

The last stage was the Dual Slalom stage, everyone had to ride it blind. I can’t say I was excited to ride it with no practice on the course, the only thing that made it better was knowing the other ladies had to ride it with the same impediment. It was the first time I had ever gone down a DS course and it was actually REALLY FUN!! If I had had one practice run, I think it would have been even more enjoyable. I might have to add Dual Slalom to my racing next year!

After it was done my dad met me at the bottom and I couldn’t stop telling him how much fun I had out there. I raced my hardest, and I didn’t have any crashes, plus I got to know a lot of amazing ladies all at the same time.

When results time came around, I was SUPER STOKED to see that I earned a solid 6th place! I couldn’t have asked for a better finish with that group of gals. Overall, I was just so excited to share that awesome day with my Papa there! I got to spend the afternoon meeting some of the other Marin athletes and team members that I hadn’t met in person yet, EVERYONE was so nice, I felt like I had known them all for years. Then I got to spend a day with the infamous Little Bellas taking them out for rides, showing them the different components on the bikes, introducing them to pros and getting them excited about being on bikes! Man did they wear me out, in a great way.

Sunday was all fun and games for me, it was the first time I haven’t raced the XC course in years and it was great to be able to support Brian in his race. I dropped my bike off with Gravy in the morning so I didn’t have to carry it around the venue. When I came back I wasn’t sure if he still had my bike… the one I thought was mine was sparkling clean!!!! He said he hoped I didn’t mind, he gave the #BrizzlyBear some love, cleaned her all up and tuned her up. Heck YES! Gravy is the absolute best!!!! Super stoked to be part of such a great team!

Sea Otter 2015 has to be one of the best in the books. It was a little bittersweet seeing all of the bikes leaving this morning, but it just means I have a lot to look forward to next year. Thanks #SeaDonkey, it’s been real.