Well, it looks like this contest was decided before it even started. Mostly because, to look back on it, the outcomes of the last two World Cup Cross Country races seemed to be determined about 1 second after the gun went off. For me at least…
For whatever reason I just don’t have the physical fire for the start of these races right now. This lack of superb sprinting ability is compounded by my overly gentlemanly approach to racing. Starting mid-pack in a European field means there are dozens and dozens of guys fired up to sprint and fill that hole you leave open for even a split-second. This approach will see a rider shuffled pretty quickly from the 50’s or 60’s to the 100’s within the first kilometer or two. That rider was me the last two weeks in Dalby Forest and Offenburg. Lame.
In Dalby my body was evidently pissed off enough about the Trans-Atlantic travel that it never came around after the 100th place first lap. The body did a great job of convincing the brain that this was the way it was going to be, and the brain was strangely accepting, maybe a bit too accepting, of the defeat. I just kind of rode around with some other slow souls, unable to find my normal groove of passing through the field. Fortunately, one of them was Britain’s own ageless Nick Craig, so everyone was going bonkers for “CRAIGEE!” I doubt anyone noticed the duality of their cheering, but I kind of appreciated it. So much so that I never left his little group. We eventually rolled across the line in 81st and 82nd spot. After the finish Nick chastised me for not passing him for “The Points”. I informed him that since he’d last raced a World Cup a few years back they’d taken points down to the top 60 and we were in no danger of getting up to that level of suck on that particular day…
One of the fun fast bits on the Dalby track. Pretty fun riding. Just out of the frame is where Brian Lopes and I got to watch and encourage a shoving match between two skinny euros amidst the first lap mayhem. They didn't fight. Sissies.
Nor was I able to get up to that level of slightly worthwhile sucking the next week in Offenburg, regardless of how perfectly idyllic my week spent in Kirchzarten, Germany with the US under-23 National team was. Man, that was a nice week. Sleeping a ton, which my body seems to sorely need even though it gets it pretty much all the time, riding awesome terrain in perfect weather, eating fresh meat and produce from the farm our apartment was on and having a good time hanging out with Gully, Kerry, Jack, Stephen, Amy, Chloe and D. Wayne the hilarious mechanic. It was just the environment that us fun-loving Americans should prosper in. And they are. Ettinger was 10th and 6th in Dalby and Offenburg and the rest of the crew was out there battling tooth and nail, taking names and turning heads.
On the way to the Feldberg, the highest point in the Black Forest. Used my sweet white grips to sniff out and shred singletrack all the way home. Nice midweek R&R...
Somehow I missed the prosper boat as it sailed up to Offenburg, captained by the local US Team Physio, Julia. I rested well, warmed up well and when the gun went off, nothing. Dudes roosting by left and right for the first lap, which ended with 126 next to my name on the live timing board. Impressive slide from an already pathetic 67th call-up. Once the dust and standing around at the technical bits settled out on the second lap I kind of started to feel reasonable. Which I should, goddamn it, since training has been going decently well and it’s almost friggin’ June. Waiting for “racing season” is over. It IS and HAS been racing season for a while now. So I gritted my teeth and started passing guys. Figuring 10 per lap for the six remaining laps and I might sneak into the points. “Almost made it.” 62nd. Which officially proved that I could have just stayed home for the last two weekends. Far from ideal.
This may seem like self-serving timing, but this topic has come up a lot in the last two weeks. “The Modern World Cup.” Shorter laps, shorter races, more sterile courses, all in the name of enhanced media coverage and spectator involvement, the pinnacle of which is the upcoming 2012 London Olympics. At our ridiculously, unnecessarily nice Hotel Ritter Durbach (****) I had breakfast with Wolfram Kurschat of all people. He’s probably the fastest guy in the World Cup uphill. Down hill, not so much. Even he was bemoaning the modern format, saying the courses had gotten too “conga-line” esque and were difficult to really feel like you were mountain biking and being creatively challenged by the terrain on.
Henk and Nils were challenged by Worry Gill in Dalby Forest… Not Spencer Paxson though, he rides that stuff in his Northwesterner sleep!
Most of the probable 2012 Mountain Bike Olympians had a chance to preview the Hadleigh Farm Olympic MTB venue on Monday after the Dalby World Cup. (Another opportunity for the Rabobank Team to exercise large group travel dynamics with little foresight or consideration for effectiveness.) The course is on a beautiful hillside overlooking the Thames River Estuary on the South End of London. While quite scenic, the hill is about 100’ tall and there aren’t many trees. Great place for a picnic. The London 2012 crew has spent a whole lot of time and money building a MTB course in the Modern standard on this little chunk of land. On one hand, it’s great fun to ride and over half of the course is visible from most vantage points. On the other, it’s a holeshot race with little opportunity for overtaking (F1 anyone?) within the very one (good) line circuit. Again, it’s super fun to shred perfect bermed turns broken up by short climbs and “technical” features on your lunchbreak, but to decide the Olympic MTB Champ on this type of circuit is a bit of a stretch.
That’s just it though, the best man is going to win either way, much like the perfectly groomed, perfect conditions courses we raced on the last two weekends. Jarslav Kulhavy (on a full-suspension 29er!!! Holy crap! Go get one NOW!) rode an impressively perfect race from the front in Dalby to win over Absalon, who then turned the tables in Offenburg seven days later to win his fifth straight on that, essentially his home, circuit. Both of these tracks put a smile on my face every lap I ride around them, great flow, spectators making the rounds, they’re great. But they’re also pretty darn sterile and difficult to have dynamic racing on. What’s the solution? Who knows. Maybe the direction of the sport is healthy and the UCI knows what it’s doing, they can’t cater to whiny, struggling pack-fill like me all the time… The old school “tape it wide and raw and let them figure it out” still appeals to me though, just like it did at my first World Cup in Bromont 13 years ago. Maybe that’s it though, for me the allure of mountain biking in the “mountains” grows stronger every year. And the opportunities to do that competitively grow stronger as well… My brain is pretty scrambled lately, we’ll see where it all goes.
See for yourself with this little video we made of a lap around the track. Think you could roost it?
All this bike racing business aside, being underdogs and getting our hands dirty in the Rally Car still puts smiles on Carl and I’s faces. It always will. We had the scheduling good fortune to race the Oregon Trail Rally a couple weeks ago and had a pretty fantastic weekend in the Portland and Hood River areas. The car was ready way before sunset on the way the event and we didn’t break anything (major) during the three days of racing. Recce went smooth and we did a couple solid training rides over the course of the weekend, even making it home before dark on Sunday. Unprecedented. And what’s expected when two dudes who have gradually figured out what they’re doing get together for a weekend of action. Having always been a bit perplexed by Carl’s lack of desire to court sponsors and “progress” for his Rallying exploits, this weekend of free-wheeling, fun-loving, independant racing, compared with the follwing two weeks of large “sponsored” team dynamics finally shone the light on Carl’s wisdom. Don’t mix business and pleasure.
The first order of business on a Rally weekend is Recce. We drive all the stages and make sure this little book makes sense. It usually does...
And a pleasure it was. Friday afternoon’s super sweet (HARD) ride around the De Ronde loop in Portland’s west hills warmed us up for an evening of racing at Portland International Raceway. Cool mixed surface stages as the sun set and thousands of people showed up to check out the spectacle. A lot of whom were familiar faces from the bike racing world.
Saturday morning we slept till a reasonable hour and headed out to The Dalles to get ready for a full day of rallying. And meet up with our chase plane pilot, Jake Ruhl. He’s got a little Cessna 172 and isn’t afraid of flying it close to the ground. Loves it actually! With a stall speed of around 30 knots, he could follow us low and close with a cameraman hanging out the door. Rad. But before that happened we flatted four miles into a fourteen-mile stage. And thunderstorms moved in. Fast. We changed the flat and Jake figured out how to deal with 80mph gusts, downdrafts and lightning to get a few shots of us on the Ketchum stage before he tucked tail and flew below the storms back to Bend. Thanks for trying!
This is what driving ten miles as fast as possible on a flat does. Not that bad considering. It was pretty good on the straights...
The thunderstorms turned the Dufur area farm road stages into comically muddy tests. We loved it. Then they cancelled the last two stages. Something about not being able to get emergency vehicles on-stage. Fair enough. We were bummed to miss out on juvenile mud-running but happily got back to the Henderson compound before dark and had a good dinner and night’s sleep. Rallying when you’re not totally strung out is way more fun!
Sunday dawned rainy and cold. Northwest springtime… We had fallen out of the top-10 overall with the flat tire incident, but were still leading the Regional rally overall. Carl checked the times between grooving tires for the mud and hypothesized that five stages would be enough to re-claim our usual, rightful, 7th overall position. Some stages were shortened on account of mud, making this goal a bit difficult for us scrappers, but all of them ended up being perfect in some respect or another. Perfectly muddy, perfectly hilarious, perfectly tacky and FAAAAAST. We worked together well and totally caught up to 7th overall for the weekend. High five for sticking to our rightful spot… Carl gave me a hall pass and loaded up the car with Tina so I could make it back to Bend in time for a bike ride. There were World Cups coming up after all, and I was stoked to be feeling ready… Hmm.
Carl claims three hours of editing time per minute of rally recap video. I'd say it was worth it. Too bad about the t-storms...
For some reason winning the Regional event overall didn't get us in on the champagne spray. Maybe next time we can park closer...
