Home  Team BIKEMAN National MTB(?) Championships
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National MTB(?) Championships |
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Written by Andrew Freye
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Friday, 14 July 2006 |
 Long before I got ready to head out west to Sonoma California for the National Mountain Bike Championships I was having dinner with Carl Decker (Giant Bicycles). I asked Carl what Sonoma was like and he described it in one sentence. Carl said “Let me just say the most technical section at Sonoma in 2004 were the switch backs going up the handicap ramp into the raceway.” With that being said I got a pretty good understanding that this race was going to be lame. So I called up the folks from Salsa to see if they could hook me up with a hard tail frame for this race. Since the crew at Salsa is super friendly and are very willing to do what ever they can to help support me they dug around and came up with a Moto Rapido. This was a huge help!
 | | These two wild dogs came with the place! |
My parents and I arrived in Sacramento California on Wednesday where we met my older brother. From there it was cramming the bike box and luggage into the back of our rental S.U.V. (note a Jeep Laredo is much smaller then a Ford Explorer.) When my family and I arrived at the cottage we were renting two dogs greeted us as we got out of the car. We aren’t really sure where the dogs came from, but they never seemed to leave and they always wanted to come inside the house. One of the dogs actually spent a night inside after we got tired of listening to it cry outside for a couple of hours. After getting some dinner at a nice local restaurant in Sonoma I met up with Bikeman teammate John Burns and the two of us spun out our legs on some nice back country roads in wine country.
 Thursday morning I was up at the crack of dawn (about 7:30, I usually don’t get up until 9) and got ready to go check out the course. The plan was to meet up with fellow Mainer Brad Perley and John Burns, but half way to the race I realized I left my shoes back at the place. Thankfully the two guys waited around for me. When I finally arrived at the race way 30 minutes late, we headed off to do our pre ride gig. Now if I had the room I would have brought my cross bike. Not even would I have brought the cross bike, I would have done a lap on the cross bike and probably gone as far as racing the cross bike on Friday.  The course was pathetic, tons of pavement, gravel roads, and the single track wasn’t technical at all. The single track consisted of a beaten down cow path through a field. There was one group of 3 trees on the entire 7.7 mile lap, and one root that went at an angle. Mud six inches deep and 20 of those angled roots might have made that section of trail challenging. But I wouldn’t put any money on that. So with out saying much more I was pretty disappointed in the course and NORBA for hosting such a lame race. But one lesson I have learned over the years is that if you go into a race with a bad attitude about the course you are not going to perform as well if you were to have a positive attitude. So I kept saying good things about the race to try and keep myself pumped.
 | | Some of the folks gathered around the table for the pre race pasta dinner. |
If you were from Maine and you were racing cross-country you were at my place Thursday night. My mom made up a big pasta dinner which the Perley family, and the Turner family along with Buddy Jay attended. The food was great and everyone had a great time sitting around telling stories.
 | | The future young riders for America. |
The U-23 field was pretty small with 10-15 riders. I wasn’t to worried about anyone except or the guys on the national team. The start of the race was pretty slow, kind of like a road race. I wasn’t to thrilled about the way things were going to I attacked and the national boys followed closely. The national boys were riding together and there wasn’t much I could do to break things up, so I decided to sit in behind them. I am not sure how, but somehow they got a little gap on me, which was pretty much the end of the race. Drafting, and working in a pace line helped the national team build there lead on me. Laps 2, 3, and 4 I was left with a solo ride.  I couldn’t see anyone behind me and as time passed on I was loosing more time to the leaders. Going into the final lap (4) I was 2 minutes back from the lead pack. I guess somewhere in the last lap I lost motivation because I couldn’t see the leaders on the long sections of road and I couldn’t see anyone behind me and I must have slowed down. I finished the race in 4th place about 4 minutes back from the lead group of 3. 5th and 6th place where more then 2 minutes back from me.
 All and all I was super stoked with my result. I made it on to the podium at the nationals! Sam S. and the rest of the U-23 team did a great job and had an amazing race. At the awards I had a chance to talk with everyone on the national team and they all seem like great guys. I felt great the entire time and had a blast despite the course lacking the “mountain” part of mountain biking.  I feel kind of bad saying this, but I don’t think its right calling anyone the National “Mountain” Bike Champion this year, it’s more like you are just the National Bike Champion. With my result here and my previous results this year I feel confident that this will help get me a spot on the worlds team for the world championships in New Zealand!
 Race notes. The Salsa Moto Rapido was amazing! This frame gave me a big advantage and rode super smooth. It’s been awhile since I have been on a hard tail, but this bike made the transition easy. The frame is super light and is very responsive. The Moto also climbs much better then the El Santo, and I believe the El Santo is a great climbing bike. I am not saying hard tails are the way to go, I am still an overall fan of the full suspension bike, but if you are going to be riding a hard tail this is the bike to have. Thank you Salsa for the frame!
The SRAM drive train performed with out any problems once again. Shifting has been super smooth, brakes are right on, and the fork is as plush as it was when I first installed it back in the spring.
I chose the Panaracer Razer XC tires for the race. The tires were rolling smooth and fast on the pavement and gave me enough traction going through the fields. A perfect match for the course.
A
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Steve Morse,
Pawtucket, RI
Cyclocross B, Road CAT 4
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; "Some of the folks gathered around the table for the pre race pasta dinner.")
; "The future young riders for America.")
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