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 ​

This season for me began and ended in Nevada. I started off strong with a 3rd place finish in the Wheelers and Dealers race at CrossVegas and capped it all off with my very first CX Nationals in Reno. In between and along the way I made my way up to Sacramento where I got my first taste of gnarly NorCal racing, raced my heart out, got on some podiums with super strong Elite Women A racers in our SoCalCross Series, but also shed many tears of disappointment. This season did not go as I had envisioned. I came in strong and somewhere along the way as the season continued, my fitness began to fade. After training my butt off for months and months, to see my season spiral downward was a huge blow to me. I knew I just needed to focus on having fun and continue to work on improving my skills at each race. To me, racing is only one aspect of the season, the other is the time spent with friends. This season was amazing and my heart is happy from the camping trips, costumes, sitting on the grass drinking beers, cheering on friends, giant champagne bottle balloons, conquering fears, and racing and experiencing my first Nats with people I love.

​Cheers,
Diana Danger

SoCal Cross Prestige Series packed in 16 races this season. A dusty, sweaty and amazing 3 months of racing, camping, and handups. Each racers best 8 races count towards the overall series podium. All races count towards the team podium. This year SWAT ended up 7th overall in the team standings. We're pretty damn proud about that 7th place, especially as the only WTF team. Diana, Lynn, and Rhea all made the series podiums for their individual categories. Susie placed 7th in SS and 9th in A's. Meg placed 16th in B's and 20th in SS. 

​The season had lots of ups and downs. It was Diana and Susie's first season racing A's and getting their legs ripped off week after week by pros. Lynn was consistently in the top 5 in B's and single speed winning a number of races and getting her Cat 3 upgrade. Rhea dealt with a hip injury all season and powered through it staying competitive in the B and SS fields. Meg got her first taste of racing B's in a stacked field.  Arin played dirt foo race Mom and perfected her heckling and handup game. Ana even came out for a few races and had a blast getting dirty. 

We had so much fun this year we decided we didn't want the series finale to be the end of our season. With CX Nats being only 8 hours away in Reno our Cat 3 Killers decided to take a road trip and end our season in January in the biggest little city. More on that next time... 

Photos By
@the_hoff_
@letsgoarin
Graphics
@susielowbrow
​@bicikyla

Racing comes easy for some people, I am not one of those people. A few years ago I broke my pelvis badly as the result of a crash on a group ride. I was on bed rest for 2 weeks and crutches for 3 months. I missed the entire CX season that year and basically had to relearn to ride a bike.

Since then riding in a pack has been more of a mental challenge for me. I used to be fearless and now I’m cautious. Gaining the courage just to get back out there and go on large group rides was a struggle. I raced track last year, but my main goal was to not die. Most races I’d hang out on a wheel I trusted and just aim to survive. I came back this season to face my fear and become stronger both physically and mentally on the track.

For the first season ever our team had sponsorship and the funding to pay for 100% of racing and training thanks to Thomas Forsyth, Wabi Cycles, and team fundraisers. The whole team went to Encino’s race school in March and attended as many weekly training sessions and clinics as we could. Having the team out there training together kept the energy up. We improved together and learned to race with each other instead of against each other. ​

Monday night sessions with Stefan taught me so much about riding and racing the track safely as well as kicking my ass on a weekly basis. I started to feel noticeably stronger every week. By the time spring racing started at Encino in April I was more confident on the track than I had ever been. I was ready to race not just sit in. I started instigating attacks not just responding to them. For the first time I was actually having fun out there racing. ​

12 omniums later I’m a much smarter, stronger, and braver racer. I even surprised myself with a few individual race wins (wtf how did I win a Keirin?! ) and my first Omnium win. I honestly never thought I’d stand on that top step ever at the track. I still have a ton to learn, but this season was a great start.

The womxns field at Encino 

And these Skinsuits 

My true love is still Cyclocross but track has a special place in my heart now that I never thought it would. ​

By Lynn 

​This season of the SoCal Fixed Series, was the best season I have had racing the series. I was able to accomplish my race goals of placing in the top 3 overall of the series and Win the final race. I was also able to overcome mental blocks, work on improving my weaknesses, and learned how to communicate and work with my teammate.

Most of the season I was racing with self-doubt. I would see who I was racing against and automatically box myself into "I am not going to place well today because these other racers are stronger than me." I also would psych myself out by getting nervous about the things I knew I was not good at. 

Towards the last few races I was sick of not doing as well as I wanted to. I started pushing myself harder mentally and physically in the races and started to see an improvement. Then I decided to practice on skills that I was not as strong in. We naturally want to stick with things we are good at. It is often scary to work on things we are not confident in. The only way to get better is to work on improving the things that make us uncomfortable. 

​Last but not least I want to thank my teammate Ana. In the last race Ana helped me get 1st place. I know if she did not race that day I could not have done it without her.  #fuckyeahwomenracebikes 

​Looking forward to Sundays Crit! 

Photos by Julio Hernandez

​Designed by SWAT. Made in California by Voler. Available in womens, mens, youth, club and race  cuts.  http://www.voler.com/custom/ordering/li/16851