This year, for the annual Tennessee National event at Windrock Bike Park, in Oliver Springs, Tennessee, I opted to race three separate events over the two weekends: Enduro, XCC (Short Track), and XCO (Cross-Country Olympic). Though I didn’t originally intend for these to be the first races of the season, that’s how it worked out.

I went into the enduro weekend honestly a little terrified. I had never ridden at Windrock before, and the rumors scared me with phrases like “steep,” “scary,” and “gnarly” coming from friends I knew to be better riders than myself. After it stormed all Thursday night, I mentally prepared myself for experiencing Windrock muddy: focusing and re-focusing on the cue words taped to the top tube of my bike–“Process over Outcome,” “Palm Pressure,” “Land Centered,” etc.

For the enduro weekend, I stayed with the “Appalachian Rocky Mountain Enduro Team,” aka, several of my friends from West Virginia who also ride & race Rocky Mountains, as well as Remi Gauvin, of the Rocky Mountain Gravity team. One of my favorite parts of racing enduro is the opportunity to pre-ride and race with my friends in a much more supportive and collaborative environment than is possible in XC racing. This weekend was no different. We shuttled and pedaled to the top of each stage together, dropped in, then regrouped at the bottom. At the end of the day, we gathered around GoPro footage, analyzing lines, laughing at any crashes, and looking forward to the next day’s riding.

After posting a reel on Instagram this winter where I panicked coming into a drop while training with the downhill team, I have gotten something like 1500 comments from random internet trolls telling me that women shouldn’t ride bikes, I should take up knitting, and that elite riders don’t get scared (among other things). Simply put: this weekend was a comforting reminder that the trolls are wrong. More than once, while riding or watching GoPro, the other elite riders noted that various aspects of the trails scared them. I was not alone in that at all! Though riding at Windrock certainly pushed me into that “scared” zone a few times, I was proud of being able to manage that fear and ride every stage with relative confidence (even if I took several of the “B” lines to avoid the bigger features). Riding mountain bikes is fun because it is a sport with constant opportunity for progression: there is always room to improve skill, develop confidence, and ride faster/smoother!

On race day, I committed to focusing simply on the process during each stage: smooth cornering, targeted braking (I may have failed on this one, as evidenced by my ROACHED brake rotors! haha), and looking down the trail. Though I know I left some speed out there, I finished the day with only one crash and pretty stoked with how I rode. I finished in 6th place, less than a minute off of the Pro/Elite podium (and a full 7 minutes faster than the winning Sport time, confirming that even with less than a year of racing enduro, I’m competing in the right field).

A week later, I drove back to Windrock, this time to join some of the Roanoke Star Cycling juniors. The Downhill and Cross-Country events were running concurrently, which created a cool opportunity for the two wings of our junior team to come together, cheer each other on, and compete at the same venue. It was both fun and exciting to see racers push themselves, learn, and see results–Sorin ended with a 2nd place in DH, Troy got 2nd in DH, and Lila got 2nd in XCO–and everyone else rode incredibly well in their respective disciplines!

My only goal for the XC weekend was to attempt to get a few UCI points (and to get some hard “training” efforts in to help build that top-end fitness before XCM season kicks off next month). The cold weather left me feeling a bit dull, but I managed to survive XCC (short track) in 15th place, and then squeezed into the UCI points with a 10th place finish in XCO on Sunday afternoon.

Ironically, I started feeling “good” with just one lap to go in the XCO race–which is both unfortunate for my XCO career and a good sign that my XCM fitness is probably right where it should be! Regardless, I accomplished my goal–and had a blast hanging out with the junior team all weekend!