I came into this season with no game. I'd taken a job out of town in August and didn’t get back until mid November, causing me to miss the first half of the season. In the first few months on the road I got in some weekend MTB rides and even a race (hell yeah wild west CX!) but it was impossible to ride during the week. I got back on a Friday and showed up to race that weekend. It happened to be our LA UCI race. I sat out the A race and decided to just race single speed. In my head I thought even though I wasn’t in race shape my handling skills could still keep me in the race. I had a good start but could only hang with the lead group for half a lap. Slowly I got passed by the rest of the pack over the next 3 laps until I was DFL. So that was humbling AF. ​

I worked my ass off the whole month of December even after the series ended trying to get my fitness back for Nationals. ​ ​Then over new years, just when I was feeling good about racing I crashed my mountain bike. Nothing serious but a very bruised lower back and tail bone that made it really painful to ride my bike. Nationals were two weeks away. The universe was telling me not to go, but thankfully I decided to ignore it.  CX Nats went above and beyond any expectations.  It was such an amazing and inspiring experience. I raced my age category Friday and single speed Saturday getting my legs ripped off by shredders from all over the country. The crowd at the sandpit was out of control giving me all the extra watts I needed to get through it every lap and up the next hill. 10 out of 10 would do the whole suffer season again just to experience that.  

So much stoke. So many memories. Lesson learned, never quit. DFL is always more dope than DNF.

Meeting and watching CX Queens Katie Compton and Ellen Noble battle it out was also dope AF

​​​This past cross season I felt really strong coming right into the season from racing track and fixed crits. The entire season racing the SoCalCross series I was placing in the top 5 consistently in both womens B and womens single speed categories both on my single speed cx bike. I ended up 2nd overall in womens B and 3rd overall in womens single speed even missing a few races in the series.

​Going to CX National Championships for the first time was quite the experience. Never have I been so nervous. Before my masters race I felt so nervous at the start line that I felt like I was going to cry. (that has never happened to me before) My field was of 13 women. I was on my single speed because that is all I have to race on. I ended up placing DFL and was pretty bummed about it. 

​The next day was the single speed race. The womens single speed race was the largest womens field at Nationals consisting of 42 women. This race started off fast and much more aggressively with women putting their elbows out and cutting each other off to get a better starting position. My adrenaline was high and I had a smile from all the chaos and fun from the start line. This race I wanted to do better in to make up for not doing so well in my masters race. The course was full of false flats. During the entire race I felt like my lungs were going to explode. There was a double climb that became steep where I had to unclip towards the top headed into a drop-in off camber section with a sharp right turn into more off camber.

 I was making the drop-in fine and running the rest of the section until the last lap... I flew over my handlebars and slid on my chest. The announcer even called out my crash mentioning my first and last name and team name as the leader of the race, Meredith Miller, was passing me while I was on the ground. It made it on the live feed of the race. I was a little embarrassed, but was assured by spectators that my crash was epic and badass. I ended up getting up and finishing the race. I met my goal of doing faster lap times by 1min than in my masters race. In the end I placed 29th out of 42 racers and was stoked about it!

​Aside from racing it was super rad to travel road trip style with my friends/teammates. There is something special about spending 8hrs together in a van. Also we made sure to party extra hard after we were done racing. Our team is totally about racing hard and partying hard. Already looking forward to next season and hope that we have the opportunity to go to nationals again and do even better. 

​Lynn

CX Nats Race Photos by Jason Shanney ​