The team was very excited to check out a new (for most of us) race weekend up in Falmouth at the Really Rad Festival of Cross. I was so excited that I flew across the country to join! While we endured a Saturday night tornado (seriously), the course, competition, and hangs did not disappoint. If you’re considering a trip to Really Rad, here are 10 reasons to make it happen.

1. Cape Cod is freaking gorgeous. Even in almost winter, we enjoyed gorgeous foliage on the way up (not that I wouldn’t mind the race being moved up maybe two weekends for maximum foliage & fall weather!), and the setting near the beach is really nice. We’d like to engineer a full week in New England next time, doing Noho the weekend before and staying up in Massachusetts for Really Rad the following weekend.

2. Highly professional race organization. Really nicely set up venue, good announcing, on time races, etc., etc.

3. Our pals from New England get to come to the race and hang out! We were so excited to see our teammie Clark, who’s absconded to Boston, as well as a number of friends we hadn’t seen since pre-COVID.

4. Fresh apple cider donuts at the food tent. No picture evidence remains because these were eaten immediately, as they were warm and delightful. After my race on Saturday, one was immediately shared with me, and it was gone in about 30 seconds.

5. Seeing our super cool coach from the TBD Ladies MTB Weekend, Erica Zaveta! Erica is one of the best coaches we know, and one of the nicest humans.

6. A very challenging highest barriers ever seen followed by a pinch point, followed by a long sand section. This would be a good one to practice several times in pre-ride, and to have a plan to go into the sections, which I did not do and should have!

7. Fun, twisty woods sections that made us wonder if a mountain bike would have been more fun…

8. A very fun and challenging little Belgian Steps section that we practiced a LOT. Some of us rode it flawlessly (hi Lucia, Alvaro!); some of us tried to ride it with disastrous results and practiced more the next day (the author of this blog); and some of us ran it in spite of much teasing.

9. Racing hard against our friends who happen to be on other teams. The Really Rad course is great for seeing how far ahead our competitors were…

10. Great UCI fields (our women’s UCI field on Saturday was almost 50!) with amazing races we could watch.

Overall, we highly recommend making the trip up to Really Rad. We look forward to seeing you there in 2022! In the meantime, I’ll be practicing my Belgian steps.