There was a lot of hype in my category. Kaitie Antonneau had been racing the full cyclocross season this year traveling to all the USGPs. And Kendall Ryan had been racing the full cyclocross season in SoCal. I on the other hand raced a UCI World Cup in Manchester, England and focused a lot of time on the track. When it came down to it had to choose between UCI World Cup in Cali, Colombia and US Cyclocross Nationals in Bend, Oregon.

Since it would be my last year as a junior for cyclocross, I choose to roll my dice at Cyclocross Nationals.

I began my real preparation for cyclocross on the track, building really good fitness. Then as far as equipment goes I got Dugast CDM tires on Zipp 303s to help cope with the mud, snow, and ice in my future cyclocross racing. Then I got blue Vernice Sidi Dragon SRS 2 so I could power away in my races. I had Sixtufit leg balm to keep my legs warms during the most brutal conditions. And most importantly I raced on my 2 Fuji cyclocross steeds with awesome handling.

At the start line, anticipation for the whistle was running through my head. Thanks to Joan Hanscom for grabbing my jackets at the start line as well. When the whistle finally blew, I took the hole shot and was first in the corner. I set a nice tempo. I took a turn too wide that led me to mushy snow and Kaitie then took the lead. A few corners later I tried to fight her for the lead. We were switching at the front a few times. Then when Kaitie was leading she crashed over an icy section and I crashed behind her. I stayed calm and regrouped my thoughts. I patiently waited for a mistake from Kaitie and I capitalized it by taking the lead once again. The gap grew as Kaitie crashed in the next corner. I sprinted up over all 23 stairs and Proman team director, Kristin Armstrong was on the sidelines yelling my time gaps to me. As I kept powering the pedals, my gap grew and grew. Luckily, I had no mechanicals, so my pit-men from www.acecosportgroup.com /K-Edge, Eric Jensen and Kristin Armstrong's husband, Joe Savola didnt not have to worry too much. From then on it was a matter of making the least mistakes as possible and maintain my lead. And I held it to cross in the line in first place to mark my 25th US National Title!








(Photos by Lyne Lamoureux from www.podiuminsight.com)


The combination of hard work, diligent sponsors and supporters who only want the best for me, and my will to win, propelled me to an 18th and 10th place in the Portland USGP and my 25th US National Title.

Honestly, a big THANK YOU has to go out primarily to my parents. They are the ones who have supported me from day 1 and have never supported me any less than the day before. Also to Proman Team Manager, Nicola Cranmer, for basically doing almost everything...from bacon, eggs, and waffles to making sure we have a place to stay at the races. To Eric Jensen, Kristin Armstrong-Savola and Joe Savola for coming out to Bend to support me at Nationals. And to Paul and Laura, my host house in Portland. And to the Mansour family for hosting me in Bend. And to ALL of my sponsors, THANK YOU!!!!




One more race on Sunday, the Elite Women's race...and that marks the end of my racing in 2009.

All for now,
Grasshopper