Best Cross Racer & Best All Around Racer Awards 2008

Saturday we packed up the crew and an extra person to head down to the American Cycling Association Best Cyclocross Racer, Best All Around Racer awards and 2009 Racing Season kick-off ceremony. It was held at the Great Divide Brew Comp. down town. Great Divide was very interesting. They let us explore the entire building. I loved seeing the bottling machine and the Archimedes's screwdevice that loads up the bottles. The party was loud and a bit unorganized, but fun as well. It was great to see friends that we have not seen for nearly two months. This gap between racing season always seems weird. We had pizza, soda and some people enjoyed the free beer. Both Ethan and Ellie were given awards. Ethan won the Junior Men 15-16 Best Cyclocross racer jersey. He also won it for Junior Men 17-18. We thought that was kind of fun because we did not realized that he had won points in that category, too.
Ellie won the same award for her division last year, missing it by two points this year. I feel kind of bad about that since those two points down might have been a result of a bike crash or two and untimely repairs. It is difficult to get some repairs done when the crash happens in the afternoon on Saturday and the next race is less than 12 hours away. Anyway, I digress. This year she won third place in the Junior Women 10-12 Best All Around Racer category. She also got third in the Junior Women 10-14 Best Cyclocross Racer category. Here too, she lost by two points. Mina, the girl who came in first place is also the national champion. Ellie has stiff competition.

Other members on our team won awards, too. Our team won 7 of the division awards. Our team rocks!

As you can see from this photo, the kids have a great time together. I love that the kids can race against each other and be friends after the racing is done.We can't wait for the season to begin again.