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Mount Snow Report |
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Written by Andrew Freye
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Thursday, 22 June 2006 |
 Wednesday: When I ride the course at Mount Snow it reminds me of how much I love to mountain bike. On Wednesday I arrived in West Dover, Vermont in the afternoon and checked into the house that my coach Beau Lambert rented. After checking into the house and meeting up with fellow Athlete Development Group members Brad and Kirk the three of us went out to ride a couple laps on the course. The course was in great shape. The down hills were mostly dry allowing you go crazy fast down the mountain.
 | | Brian might have been with out dinner Wed, but that didn’t keep him down for too long. |
Since I was the oldest person at the house I was in charge of dinner for Wednesday night. Cooking for 4 people requires a lot more food than one, especially when you forget about the 4th person and only plan on 3 people. Because Brian didn’t go for a ride with Brad, Kirk and myself; I forgot he was eating dinner with us. This caused a slight problem when Brian showed up half way through dinner and there wasn’t any food left. Beau showed up shortly after dinner with the entire family, wife, 3 kids (all under the age of 4), and the family dog. That night Beau took me out grocery shopping to teach me a lesson in preparing food.  | | Beau loved his job of cooking and playing daddy to everyone in the house. |
Shopping with Beau was kind of like the scene in Animal House where Otter takes some of the pledges grocery shopping. The pledges follow Otter while he randomly throws food at them to put into the shopping cart. Two carts completely full and almost $400 later we were set for a couple of days.
 | | Occasionally I would play some games with Beau’s kids. |
Thursday: Thursday was a pretty relaxed day. I did some easy laps on the course with Beau. Thankfully Beau brought his video camera and took some clips of me riding through some of the technical sections. This would help me pick the fastest lines on the course and help me ride smoother and faster. The rest of the afternoon consisted of bumming around the house relaxing and watching some movies.
 | | More bumming around, relaxing and getting ready for the big races. |
Friday: Another pretty relaxed day. It is really nice when the only thing you have scheduled in your day is a bike ride. I made it out to the course in the afternoon to do a final ride before my race on Saturday. That night Beau cooked up a huge Italian dinner. There must have been 20 people over for dinner including Adam Craig and Carl Decker from Giant Bicycles. It was a great time eating and sharing stories with everyone at dinner. Beau’s wife Megan even cooked up some brownies from scratch for everyone. Thank you Meg! After the meal was finished everyone hung around the table talking. This was definitely one of the highlights of my trip.
 Saturday, Race Day: I felt great Saturday morning, body, legs, mind, everything. After gearing up and getting in a good warm up I was ready for the big day. As the National Anthem was playing I could feel some rain drops on my head. (I was the only one who could feel this because I guess I am the only person out of a field of 80+ riders who has enough respect to take off their helmet for our national anthem.) This gave me a huge smile on my face because the weather forecast called for sunny skies and temps around 85. I was so happy and excited I forgot how aggressive  I needed to be when the gun went off. About 20 feet from the start I got taken advantage off and pushed into the boards causing me to go head over handlebars. After getting a mouth full of dirt and banging up my left knee I found myself in dead last. This put me into panic mode and I took off racing like an idiot. I gunned it so hard on the first lap I made up too much time too quick. I was in the high 20’s after lap one. The next three laps I was trying my hardest to just hold my position and not bonk. My eyes were crossed eyed on the down hills slowing me down and my stomach was running on empty. I would finish 34th or 35th and I believe 5th for US U-23. My best result this year, but not what I was looking for. After the race I did a good cool down back to the house, took a nice long ice bath, and prepared for my first national short track on Sunday.
 Sunday: Since my race wasn’t until 3 in the afternoon my morning was pretty relaxed consisting of more bumming around and drinking lots of water. The weather was not your ideal race weather with sunny skies and temps pushing 90 degrees. You were sweating just lying around. Because of the hot temp I decided to keep my warm up on the short side. Within the first 50 yards of the short track there were two different crashes that I was caught behind. Thankfully I was not part of these crashes. My legs were feeling surprisingly good. Every lap I was passing 4 or 5 guys and moving my way up.  After lap two Ryan Trebon took off and put a huge gap on the rest of the field. I guess when you only race one lap the day before your legs are stronger then everyone else. Because of Trebon’s crazy speed the NORBA officials pulled the entire 2nd half of the field when Trebon was more then half a lap from lapping us. So to sum things up my first national short track lasted approximately 7 minutes and I have no clue where I finished. However, I am very pleased with my result because of how good I felt. This is a good sign that my fitness is coming around and I am over my illness from earlier in the month. Things are looking food for Mount Sainte Anne!
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; "Brian might have been with out dinner Wed, but that didn’t keep him down for too long.")
; "Beau loved his job of cooking and playing daddy to everyone in the house.")
; "Occasionally I would play some games with Beau’s kids.")
; "More bumming around, relaxing and getting ready for the big races.")
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; "Image")
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