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Mt. Snow Sport Race |
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Team Bikeman -
Race Reports
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Written by Steve Morse
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Sunday, 18 June 2006 |
Mount Snow NORBA NCS #3
Sport Men 35-39
West Dover, VT
 So, you may have heard about this course up at Mt. Snow. Yeah, it's really nasty, but it's difficult to even try and explain how hard. You just can't know unless you've actually raced it. "Multiple laps though hell" might be an apt description. I'm sure someone else will cover the actual course description in their race report, so I'll just tell you about how my race went.
 Matt D. and I headed up a day early, so we could get settled in our condo, and pre-ride the course. After unloading the car, we headed down to the venue and starting pre-riding the course, just as a short track race was finishing up. To my chagrin, my pre-race ride turned into something more. Just getting around the course slowly turned out to be quite a workout - more than I wanted to do the night before the hardest race of my life. I also took a nice digger when I miscalculated a dip on a fast downhill - luckily landed on a bed of soft grass. Luckily, no harm to bike or body.
That aside, it was good to see the course, and I was a bit more mentally prepared knowing in advance what I was in for the next day. After talking to a few other Sport riders, the word on the street was that we would be doing 2 laps. I thought this sounded reasonable. I could probably just about last 2 laps.
Fast forward to the next morning. On the start line, we were informed that Sport riders would be doing 3 laps (same as Expert!) and I immediately wanted to throw up. Luckily there wasn't much time to think about it. The gun went off and I jumped on the front, probably in about 4th place or so. I think I went out a bit too hard, because I was in the lead by the feed zone (with a decent gap). After the main part of the climb up the mountain, it was time to come back down, and it turned to nasty singletrack descent. This is where I obviously wasn't as strong, and a few guys came past me. I rode in 3rd and 4th for most of the 2nd lap.
 That 2nd lap was the worst for me, and is where my race started falling apart. I crashed hard on a rooty part of the descent when, due to lack of upper body fitness, I lost control and my handle bars and hit a tree, sending me flying onto some rocks. Bent a brake lever and smashed my knee, but the adreneline kept me going and I jumped back on. On some of the climbs on this lap, my HR was in the 210-215 range (my max is 187!) and this was when I was only spinning up on the granny gear, that's how blown up I was getting! I started getting heat exhaustion and my sides started cramping a little and I had chills and goosebumps. Luckily it subsided after I reached the top the 2nd time. I think drinking the Hammer HEED was my saving grace and was stopping the heat cramps, and the Hammer Gel was keeping things turning over.
I caught the guy in 3rd on the last lap, as he started to fade. I actually started feeling a lot better and could actually control the bike again on the downhills. When I was on the last few descents, I started looking back, and couldn't see anyone for a long ways. I rolled it in safe and (not exactly) sound for 3rd place.
Naturally, you can guess I was pretty excited to climb up on that big wooden podium and pick up my bronze medal and "Winner's Circle" pint glass at a NORBA National. Also, hats off to all the other BIKEMAN riders that represented this weekend.
Steve
Photos by: Amy Sook Foster
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