It just keeps getting better and better. I had another dream come true this past weekend at the World Cup in Windham, New York. I stepped onto my first world cup podium. This is a goal I've been going after for years and it feels great for it to finally come true. I've been close in a handful of other world cups and it was looking like Windham was shaking out to be the same. I started a bit slower than I wanted to and resolved to pick off girls one by one on the long climb. I rounded the first of five laps in ninth position and then moved up to sixth position on the next lap. I felt fantastic. I stayed in sixth position for the rest of the race trying to close on one of my favorite fellow racers, Marie Helen Premont. Beginning the last lap, I felt like I was totally capable of closing the gap and I was going for it. Then, I was knocked off track by a mis-shift and my chain dropped. I had to stop briefly and run up a short single track section. This erased any time that I had put towards getting onto the podium and I crested the last lap climb solidly in sixth. But, this world cup, more so than any other race I've ever seen, is proof of the fact that the race isn't over until you cross the finish line. Anything can happen. More than halfway down the last decent with about five minutes to go, a spectator yelled, "She has a flat. You can catch her".

I went absolutely ballistic and caught fourth place struggling down the descent with a front flat. I was so incredibly amped that I crashed with about two hundred meters to go in the race. I've never gotten up so quickly from a crash and I sprinted in to clench my first world cup podium.

Luckily, Ashley Chase from WCAX was there to record the entire weekend on camera for the local news. She did a fantastic job of capturing the excitement. Please see the two part series below!

I feel like my fitness is exactly where it should be and I'm even more excited for the Olympics (if that's even possible). I'm off to National Championships in Sun Valley, Idaho. Send some good energy my way.

Part 1

Part 2