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NMBS #1 |
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Written by Andrew Freye
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Tuesday, 10 April 2007 |
 The National series kicked off way early in the year in Fountain Hills, Arizona, just west of Phoenix. Prior to arriving to the race site I heard a lot of negative opinions about the race when I was out in California. Thankfully all the rumors about the race course were false in my opinion. The course was amazing, fast flowing single track with lots of rocks and short powerful climbs! After one lap on the course I was loving it!
The racing kicked off on Friday afternoon with the time trial, a short 6 mile lap. The weather was semi bearable with temperatures in the low 80’s. This time trial would be my first ever mountain bike time trial. For my warm up I made the 15 mile ride from my hotel to the race course on a three lane road. The time trial was really short, about the length of one lap on a regular race course! I wasn’t used to this short effort. ¾ into the lap the guy starting behind me (Kelly) caught up to me. I found it a lot faster to follow someone’s wheel through the tight twisty single track than going it alone. Plus this was also a motivator to actually go hard! I would finish the short track right behind Kelly with a semi respectable 44th finish. The only down side was that I hardly felt like I had put in a hard effort. I guess next time I will have to just remember how short the time trial is and just go harder!
Saturday would be a great day. The day would be spent lounging around the hotel and doing a couple easy laps on the 10 mile race course. After my ride on Saturday I was feeling really confident about the race. I was able to stomach the heat (temps now in the mid 80’s) and the legs were feeling really good. Saturday night John Burns and Brad Perley headed downtown to race in the short track. I decided it would be best to stay in the hotel and kick up the legs and relax for the big event on Sunday.
Sunday- Race day! Sunday was the worst day for having a 40 mile race with temperatures in the low 90’s. On top of that the pro men raced at 3:30 in the afternoon, the hottest time of the day. The start went surprisingly well. I soon found myself in the top twenties shortly into the race. Because of the heat and the length of the race I wanted to keep the pace more on the easy side for the first lap. About half way through the first lap I took a corner too tight resulting with about 40-60 cactus thorns in my left hand. This caused me to stumble to the side of the trail and try to pick out the cactus in my hand so I could grab onto the handle bar with only slight discomfort. About 2 miles later I would puncture my rear tire. Thankfully the Stan’s No-Tubes went to work sealing the puncture. This meant I only had to put some C02 into the rear wheels, preventing any dents in the rim. When I approached the tech and feed zone I went into the tech zone where John Burns switched out the rear wheel. Then T.J. a mechanic from the USA cycling Team and Jeff Hall's father started pulling out cactus thorns from my arm. After a couple of minutes of painful surgery I was ready to go.
During the second lap I was able to pass about ten guys. Also during the second lap I noticed my left arm going num. I started to find it very hard to hold on to the handle bars. The third and fourth lap didn’t go over that well. Arm was num, stomach was on the verge of coming out of my mouth, and the heat was unbearable. Going into my fourth lap Adam Snyder was about 10 seconds ahead of me and he just stopped at the start finish line. I was assuming that they must be pulling riders. When I made it to the start finish line the official was ringing the bell with one lap to go. Turns out Snyder was dropping out. Who drops out of a race because they are tired? Especially at a national race? The fourth lap wasn’t to eventful, pretty much riding solo and just trying to finish. I ended up finishing in the mid or high 50’s, not exactly the race I was hoping for. A little over 100 riders started the race, and only about 65 finished. So under those circumstances just finishing the race was an accomplishment. Turns out race winner Geoff Kabush finished in a time just under 2:30. I think the race was a little too long. 40 miles and temps in the low 90’s was to much. Thank you all for reading. The web page should be up soon. Stay tuned for details!
A
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