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Norba Finals, Mt. Snow VT |
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Written by Adam Craig
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Friday, 02 September 2005 |
 Carl isn’t so keen on it, but I love racing here more than anywhere else. It’s always treated me right in some way or another, from my Expert Dual Slalom victory here in 1996 to this year’s short track. I think even Decker is down after the short track this year, even though it WAS muddy. Unfortuately, the XC was bone dry, making the climbs feel great and the descents FAST, scary fast even.
You could absolutely pin it through the dense woods until the reality of ! your short travel XC bike reared it’s ugly head and fear got the better of valor in the form of brakes… Good times though for sure, good to be racing in New England again, the local crowd never disappoints.
Saturday’s four lap XC kicked off in normal fashion, Kabush up front controlling it. I decided I couldn’t let the local crowd, or myself, down and decided to give ‘er on the steep singletrack climb, I had a sweet line I wanted to use anyway. I was feeling good and soon found myself alone off the front, seemed like a good place to be at that time. Somewhere back down the hill Decker was riding into things after a long weekend last week. I crested with a good gap and extended it down the classic descent to come through with a comfy lead after the first lap. The Canuck chase group of Roland, Kabush and McGrath turned it on and closed a bunch on the second lap. We were together when we started to catch (what seemed like) hundreds of women lappers on the descent. I used my “nice guy” instead of “crazy angry guy” approach to sneak by the girls and keep a small gap on the descent, that would be my last lead of the day. Kabush attacked on lap 3 and took his countrymen with him instead of me, oops. About this time Decker was in a battle for second place Oregon rider with Barry Wicks somewhere around tenth place. (I think Wicks won…) I was unable to close on the lead trio and rolled in fourth, content I’d given it a go, but wondering if I should stop leading things out. I figure it will make me a better person in the long run when I start winning races from start to finish?
Now on to the good (for us) part. The rain came a day late, Sunday dawned with what I thought was men working on the roof, tapping away, really it was the steady drizzle working on our windowsill… Rain makes for sweet cross country races due to the added challenge, short tracks, on the other hand, it just makes messy. This one was no different. At any rate, I like it when it rains and was in a good mood all day on Sunday. We started hard, as if it was a twenty+ minute race, turns out it was. Immediately a group of ten formed, Kabush, Decker and I took strong pulls and whittled it down to us three plus Todd Wells, who promp! tly broke his chain, setting Decker and I up to tag team Geoff, a very desirable situation. Unfortunately, Kabush took a strong pull and gapped Carl, then I took one not realizing he was in trouble and that was that. I tried to slow things up and get the team back together but Kabush didn’t like those odds and drove it away. Carl settled in and easily held off the Kona controlled chase group for third. Geoff and I worked together comfortably, barring a couple attacks by him until the bell lap. I knew he was going to try again so I just sat on his long, proud attack and came around him on the descent while he was coasting. I then used my knowledge that he was on semi-slick tires in the mud and I was on some shiny new Michelin knobbies to rail the last few corners ! and a sweet jump before sprinting across the line victorious. I’ve always wanted to WIN a race in Vermont. Now I’ve gotta sort out the XC sometime. It was sweet to be able to spray Carl with Champagne on the podium before we jumped in the rental and drove straight to Boston Airport to catch a flight to Europe for worlds this weekend in Italy. Good times driving around, someday we’ll have a schedule that allows to head over to worlds early enough to prepare properly instead of surviving.
Thanks for reading and the support.
Adam Craig, Team Giant |
