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USA Cycling MTB Nationals |
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Written by Andrew Freye
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Tuesday, 14 August 2007 |
 USA Cycling National Mountain Bike Championships
Mount Snow, Vermont
July 17-22, 2007
Pro Men
Quite possibly the worst race of my life. What more is there to say? Ok here is how it unfolded. Two weeks prior to the big race teammate John Burns and me made the trek over to Mount Snow and camped out for a night. The course was bone dry and we got in a couple of laps the first day.
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I was able to ride my brand new Salsa Mamasita! The bike was amazing! There was no weird feeling like wow I am on a 29’er this is so different. The transition was great. Only problem was the shell on my brand new saddle cracked less than 45 min into the ride, and after 3 hours of riding my brand new fork shit the bed. Great. The next day I busted out my El Santo and road that. Suprisingly I found myself more confident on the descents with the Mamasita than the full suspension 26in wheel bike.
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A couple days prior to the big race it rained, and it rained a lot. The course was no longer dry and was more like a big 4 mile long mud pit. I was able to get a lap in on Wednesday riding the El Santo and felt alright. On Thursday the Mamasita was up and running again, so I decided to put in a super easy lap. After riding both bikes in the mud I decided the 29’er was the way to go. Friday, a couple more laps on the big wheels, did the whole pre race ritual etc…
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Race Day: everything was going as planned as far as pre meal, warm up etc… I was able to get some feedback from experts who raced the course early that morning and the news was that the climbs were drying up. The skies had cleared and there was a light breeze which was drying up the course. However, the down hill was still slick and muddy. I took this as good news since I am from Maine and can handle a bike better in the mud than most west coast folks. This news made me happy and moral was high. I was thinking this was going to be a great day!
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The call ups are based on last years results at nationals, thus leaving me with out a result since I was racing U-23 last year. On top of that I have only made it to one other US national race this year, so I was far in the back. I have said this before, but I will say it again, it is depressing standing in the back of a field of 60 riders or so when our National Anthem is being played and only seeing maybe three other riders have enough courtesy to stand up, shut up, and take off there helmets. Not even our past or current national champions have the respect to do this, yet they wear the stars and stripes with pride?
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Anyways after two laps I was in the low 30’s and doing well until the 3rd lap. I hit the wall and bonked big time. I took my bottle of coke and some extra gels going through the feed zone, but they had no effect on me. Somehow I made it up the mountain with my Jell-o like legs. I could barely ride in a straight line going uphill and thought to myself what the down hill was going to be like.  | | click to enlarge |
Well the down hill wasn’t to much better, I was swerving and not taking the lines I had spent so much time practicing. I was sliding off the trail and having to put my foot down too often. While I was trying to survive Adam Craig was killing the rest of the field.  | | click to enlarge |
As I rode towards the start/finish area an official told me to get off the trail and that I was being pulled since Adam Craig was flying towards his finish. I listened to the official and ended my race early. When I got off the course I completely collapsed and laid down in the wet/muddy grass for a while and didn’t move.  | | click to enlarge |
I was completely wiped out. Well it turns out the official didn’t know what she was talking about and never called in me being pulled. So it turns out I was marked down as a DNF, and not placed like other pulled riders, and since my nap in the grass lasted for a while I missed the protest period and I am stuck with the result. This is the same official that wouldn’t listen to me at the Auburn road race and made me race the cat 5’s. I am not too happy about the DNF result, but hey there is nothing I can do, it is what it is.
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The good note is that there seemed to be more racers this year than last year in Sonoma. It was nice to see restaurant parking lots filled in West Dover, and hotels actually filling beds. The past couple of years it has been pretty dead in Dover, Vermont when the NMBS came to town.  | | click to enlarge |
The mountain is still charging spectators to park which is rediculus, $25 to watch a weekend of racers is crazy! On top of that it was $70 to race the xc and another $70 to race a 20min short track. I am not rich and don’t have $70 to drop on a race where they pull riders way too early and at best would only last 15 minutes. So I opted out of sticking around the mountain till 6pm Sunday night to race and went home early afternoon on Sunday.
A
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