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North Carolina NMBS #5 |
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Written by Adam Craig
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Tuesday, 31 July 2007 |
To the casual observer, it may seem like we just jet-set around the world, getting paid to race bikes and hang out in cool places. For the most part, this is true. Sometimes, however, our gracious sponsors call on us to actually earn our keep in different ways. This was one of those weeks. Cleverly avoiding the ‘post nationals party at unit #5” by leaving glorious Mount Snow on Sunday night for an 8:30am flight from Albany on Monday was necessary to make our first engagement of the week. The local Giant rep had set up an appearance at the recently completed US National Whitewater Center in Charlotte, NC.
This $40 million facility was constructed on land previously occupied by singletrack. Once the project was complete, they reopened and began maintaining the remaining trails. Good thing, since they’re sweet, endless red clay ripping and rolling through the rhododendron along the banks of the Catawba River. Fortunately, we were also able to sample the fruits of $3600 per day’s worth of water getting pumped through two artificial river channels. Kelli and Elke were fired up to try the whole “whitewater rafting” thing out, despite my general disdain for the activity. I made an about face when we discovered the prospect of taking a “Mini-me” 10 foot raft out to some serious action. Our guide assumed we were all experienced rafters since we exuded confidence… Fortunately, between he and I we could put the little craft wherever we wanted it, which was usually right in the middle of the biggest holes we could find. This approach ensured that Kelli and Elke (along with the two of us) got to work on both their whitewater swimming technique and climbing back into a raft in rapids skills… Nice way to cool off after a sweet bike ride. I , of course, borrowed a kayak and some gear for a sunset paddle as well on the novel man-made river.
Our next “work” came at the end of a cool, rainy week in the High Country of NC. Magic Cycles in the college town of Boone hosted us for an evening of eating pizza and chatting with their local clientele. Nice folks who had some good stories to tell and good info on where we should have been riding all week had it not been a quagmire. Good scene in Boone for sure, and a good way for us to get a bit of insight into it, along with getting rid of a of those pesky autographed posters…
With all the “work” happening this week, the racing was going to be a cakewalk. Although it would turn out to be a cake made of the thickest, chunkiest clay/grass/root/rock mixture you can imagine. This made the XC course a bit more demoralizing than it already was. You see, they have some kind of timewarp at Sugar Mountain. You somehow go uphill for about 30 minutes before going downhill for about 4 minutes. Not sure how they pull that off, but hey, it’s mountain biking and you do it anywhere, although preferably not pavement, which there was a fair amount of… Kelli got lucky and raced at 11am, before the inevitable afternoon showers started. She took advantage of decent conditions and decent legs to finish up in 10th place after a couple minor pilot errors…
The men’s cross country race was preceded by the usual afternoon showers. While warmish, they were definitely wet… I tend to get a little excited in the wet, regardless of the time warp demoralization, so I led things out for a lap, establishing a small gap by the end of the burliest descent we’ve had in an XC in quite some time. Unfortunately, I forgot that we were racing around 5,000 feet and had to settle into reality of a tired and over-extended body, sliding into second, then third place as the laps wound down. At least I got a few attempts at high-fiving Carl as he ripped down the two-way ski slope section of the course, riding in what ended up being 8th place on the day.
Sunday dawned cloudy but not rainy, although we assumed it would get wet at some point, ultimately resulting in airport security personnel having to sift through disgusting muddy skinsuits in order to identify that suspicious stench… Somehow it held off until the women’s short track, then the mens, and all the way through the Super D finish and final podium ceremony. (in which Team Giant had 6 appearances over the weekend) Other than the Short Track, Downhill and Super D races being contested on Sunday, there was a behind the scenes race happening. That was the battle to see who could have the most Super D practice runs between Amiel Cavalier, our resident DH youngster (who finished 4th in the noontime DH race) and us XC bandits, who already had a half dozen laps on the SD, which went exactly down the XC descent. Amiel hitched rides, took the lift, basically did whatever it took to catch up. Which he obviously did, racing on his full on Glory DH bike, he sprinted across the lind in 5:25, besting my time laid town on Carl’s Trance Advanced by a measly two seconds. An impressive ride on a course that was mostly straight down nasty rough trail but still had about 45 seconds of pedaling up small rises. I was thinking durning my whole run (which was mistake-free) “man, I bet Amiel is hauling ass right now.” Fortunately, our friendly competition gave us a comfortable 1-2, while Carl used my super sweet Reign X to preserve his Super D National series lead in 10th place or so. Kelli roosted the course in smooth, no crashing style to finish in 3rd position, forcing some clever sharing of our one and only Michelin Podium hat…
Oh yeah, the short track. I’ve got a confession to make. I’m tired of hearing the phrase “nice ride Adam, way to come from behind”. This means I’ve once again blown it at the start and had to burn a bunch of matches riding back into the front of the race. Welp, I did it again. Catching the leaders, including Carl with 4 laps to go, I was feeling strong and had the last couple corners wired so I liked my chances. But, when it came down to the super sweet inside pass on the last lap it was only to squeak by Todd Wells for 2nd place… I had another hairpin opportunity to stuff JHK for the win, but it was gravel over pavement lined with metal fencing. No thanks, we’ve all got some more racing to do this year… Decker ended up tailing off the group in the frenzy and coming across 6th. Lamenting his second short track podium near miss in two weeks I reminded him that he had a Tomato Juice infused Bud Light Calamat thingy to drink after losing the team Giant Super D challenge… It didn’t help… |
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