Mt Snow, Nationals

when nationals comes to town, you gotta go. pre-4a wake-up and 2+hr drive down, registered, out warming-up by 7-715, cool temps perfect for a race, 3 days of steady rain has finally blown-out, but reminders of it everywhere. 753a, at staging, Harry (and Kay) appear, grab my btls. line-up in the 3rd row half in a puddle, take what you can get. we're off, easing into position, the first little climb is wide and steep shattering the pack and sending us into singletrack barely battling, 2 riders are completely off the front and blow the field to pieces.

find myself right outside the top 5, surprised, seeing the lines just fine, try to settle-down and enjoy the ride, so much floats through my head early in a race - most of it distracting. as the race continues, the chatter subsides equally to how good the legs feel, focus is found, inner peace by concentration and success? when tired or bonking the chatter picks back up, but i digress, back to the race.

off the bike 5-10mins into the race. the technical climb is unridable, ankle-deep mud in places, try to run, make a pass when possible. my head is ringing, "this is a cross race on crack!", continue-on, drums beating-out a rhythm above. for those not familiar w/mt snow, a cpl folks hike-up before each xc and pound-out a steady beat, rain or shine, they are the shit.

grind up the fireroad portion of the climb, super slick in spots, aim for traction, for rocks, the piranha [hutchinson 2.0 ust] on the rear isn't pleased and sulks its way around the course, but manages. as we crest i don't fight too hard for placement into the woods for the long technical descent and begin the long slipe-and-slide down. riding it out, not braking (much), let the bike cut-through wheel-deep mud, rooty, rocky stuff, have to let it flow like water, one mistake leads to another and you're too far off line, i panic, crash directly onto the hip w/stitches, let-out a rediculous cave-man yell. at least i got the fall (i was fearing) out of the way early. pain brings nausea, the chatter in my head gets louder, must focus and get back into the race, on the bike, sliding, little too cautious, slow is bad in these conditions, gotta have enough speed to get the wimpy 80mm forks over the big obstacles, i miss my line, brake too much and slide sideways into the woods. stop. focus. back on the bike in secs, this time letting it roll a bit better, by the btm my hands are numb from too-tight a grip, but the noise in my head is gone and by the fireroad climb of the 2nd lap can see 5-6 riders in front, pass a cpl into the woods, know i need to make my moves on the climb, the descent is a test of survival for me today.

lose a spot to brooke scatchard on the descent (and time to everyone in front), i find myself right behind brooke's 29'er at every race it seems. pound the pedals through the start/finish and up to Harry at the feed zone. there are pretty much NO spectators out for friday's 8am semi-pro mudfest, definitely didn't feel like nationals, am grateful to harry (and kay) for waking-up early and standing in the mud, especially considering harry's race was 9hrs later and i had to bolt for home... L.

catch brooke on the climb, but don't bother trying to squeeze by, i know he can put 30-60secs on me in the descent, so let him go and focus on my race as we wind back down the mtn. as we turn corners on the descent Spotters blow whistles letting spectators know you're coming (even when there are no spectators). the whistles also let racers know how big gaps are. brooke's gap goes out of earshot while a hardy ss'ers grows near. i emerge from the woods w/a 5-10 sec gap on my ss friend and take advantage of my barely functioning gears, pounding on the pedals to the finish, legs screaming. 9th place, a blistering average speed of 7mph! not bad for my first time out (at nationals) as a semi-pro. am stoked. it's been a hard cpl wks, been hammering nails in the sun and getting the rides in, beat-down by sunset, glad to see it come together for this one. would have liked to be 60secs faster on each descent, but still wouldn't have gotten me onto the podium, there's always next yr!

congrats to thom for his podium in the open ss and to mo for winning ANOTHER stars and stripes jersey, this time on her mtbike! harry fought it out in the U23 race, haven't heard his report... thanks for the pics and btls harry, you are the man.

here i am explaining to harry and kay why i'm awesome.

Nationals

been raining lots, looks better down south at mt snow, but still planning for a mudfest - time to bust-out a "big" tire for the front - kinda wish i had a 2.3 laying about... lots going-on, hard to find as much time (to ride) as i'd like, then the whole stitches thing, been taking it easy, riding the road. i'll either be silly rested and have a good one or be completely flat - either way, mt snow's technical descent will be wicked w/all this rain - hoping i remember how to ride my mtbike! looking to use Nats as a spring board for a hard 9-10 day training block, then a 7-day taper for the wilderness 101. sounds simple now, but once life and work gets mixed-in, plans can fall apart pretty quick, as they have the past 2-3wks... but, where there's a negative, there's always a positive - while only getting about 10hrs/wk in, it's been quality - and i'm feeling nice and rested, best way to go into an over-reaching phase... would be even better to go into the phase w/a solid race result tomorrow (8am!) at mt snow. now, should i mount those seracs or roll with a 2.0 bulldog. decisions, decisions... or eff it and go to bed, got to wake-up at 4a for the drive down there. lame!

new brunswick and back

jenn, seneca and i headed to new brunswick to visit her family. 12hr drive through moose country w/a 10month-old strapped to a chair.

somehow, we made it fun. all hail the family car trip.

bronte's nose soon sniffed-out a new treat. hallucinogenic mushrooms, many, many of them. things got pretty freaky.

went looking for the mushrooms (for identification of course), none found. that dog's got jerry garcia's nose. couple days later she was diving for rocks again, albeit totally tripping-out. 4 days later it seemed she'd come-down. she's definitely a little different dog, stared into the light a bit too long i reckon.


back in waitsfield, ready to relax and get a quality ride in after our crazy trip and nominal hours in the saddle. andy agrees to make the 3+hr drive, leaving sunny skies and warm temps on the coast for cool rain in the north country. 5-6hr route planned, we tick-off Appalachian gap w/little difficulty, andy surging on his 3-speed, looking for the right tempo. when the legs feel good it sure is fun to kill it all day. had to skip a bunch of singletrack due to saturation, but our 4-gap route on a mix of dirt and pavement was feeling great. flew-down app gap and made our way through the lowlands to Lincoln Gap, the mtns hidden in quick misty cloud. rocking our bikes from side to side, digging, we crested lincoln and took some food, i warned andy about the decent, the frost heaves, the 180 degree turns at 20 percent. it's been raining all day. i lead. we start to let it fly, hitting 40 on the open sections, then slamming into the tight corners on the disc brakes, w/2 corners to go, i underestimate the curve, it turns back onto its tail, can't hold the line, wheels slide-out and down i go, hip skipping, bike brakes loose, millisecond decisions, try to get feet underneath, protect the skin, cleats touch rough asphalt as the bike skips again sending sparks flying from both, left hand reaches down to stay up while trying to protect a mostly healed broken index finger, hit the gravel, thank luck for a wide shoulder on the turn, land on hip again, grinding grit into the wound, come to a stop and am up immediately, super effin' pissed, don't feel anything but anger at myself, have to laugh it off. best damn ride of the yr and i'm down. foock.

after irrigating w/a water btl and rubbing at dirt w/andy's head gear it looks good to finish the ride - minus a good gash.


can we continue or does the gash need stitches within the magic 6hr window?


stitches is the vote, w/o a good heal, can forget about riding for a while. doc found a good sized rock before sewing it up, the culprit of the wound, never would have healed right with that in there. doc was a good man, put the stitches in so i could begin riding right away!


instead of killing' it on the gaps, andy hung w/seneca while i cleaned things out. good man. next time we'll keep the rubber side down.


this is andy's 3rd trip to hospital w/me - the last one was a year to the day of this accident. freaky. thanks for all the waiting andy. i owe ya' huge.