With all this flying around the universe racing bikes going on lately, I’d been looking forward to a good old-fashioned road trip for a while now. The back-to-back weekends of US National Championships in Sun Valley, Idaho and Pro XCT Finals in Missoula, Montana appeared to provide just this opportunity, right in the middle of the season when a bit of a change was in order.
The prospect of driving around the Sawtooth and Bitteroot mountain ranges was a good carrot at the end of a long block of racing east of the Mississippi. We got back to Bend in time to do laundry, logisticate a bit, load up and head east. But not before the Women of Giant pulled off a 1-2 in the Blitz to the Barrel Ladies’ Night with Kelli and Lizzy taking top honors and a bunch of cash. So, they’d be buying gas for the trip, then… It’s a good thing Carl couldn’t pull off renting a 2011 Mustang for the 10 days. That would’ve cost Kelli a bit more cash at the pump. At least in the manner it would have been driven across the desert of eastern Oregon… Lizzy and I successfully crossed said desert without getting arrested thanks to my Valentine V1 Radar Detector, which identified the location of an Oregon State Policemen hidden in the bushes in the middle of nowhere. Thanks, little beeping buddy.
The drive to Sun Valley was still completed in reasonable time and we rolled into Scott and Susan Robinson’s yard with plenty of daylight. The Robinsons were kind enough to put us up on the random host housing program for the weekend after Lizzy and I made such a good impression on a quick ski tour with Scott and Gabe this winter. I never got Scott’s last name then, turns out he’s the same awesome guy and now we go way back… There was plenty of daylight for a Super D practice run with NW Shimano rep and Shred Team buddy Nick Gibson so we did just that. Taking the Gondola up Baldy for a sunset cruise. Which obviously turned into pinning it down fun trail. Read and run.
Friday was the standard “oh, we’ll just ride a lap and relax a bunch, it’ll be so pleasant” idealistic, and unrealistic, approach to race prep. It was somehow a busy day, like always, rolling right into Saturday’s race start. Sort of, we didn’t go off until 3pm, which meant the afternoon clouds had a chance to build up by the time I was really starting to feel the burn with two laps to go. Todd Wells and Sam Schultz were dangling in front of me on a course that just wouldn’t give even a second to gather oneself. It was old-school ski area stuff with a twist. Straight up a fireroad climb for about 5 min of barely moving, then into a new-era singletrack descent, about 1,000,000 switchbacks dropped us the 500’ we’d climbed in about 6-7 min. That translates to a lot of sprinting out of turns down flowy straights that weren’t quite steep enough to just coast and have a rest. Constant effort. Even with the cloud-cover, I couldn’t re-gather myself on the last two laps enough to pull the two leaders back. Sam made a solid effort to bring Todd back on the last lap, which I could watch from 1 minute (about 150 yards on this climb) back, almost able to touch them yet sooooo far away. Todd Won. I got 3rd. Oh well, I guess Rabobank isn’t going to have to make me a US Cross Country Champ kit this year, but I’m pretty sure I’ll be faster next time around…
Brit buddy Chipps Chippendale of Singletrack mag was in town to learn about 29ers. He learned that it's the perfect wheel size for snagging cash whilst racing.
Sunday’s Super D started at 8am. Brutal. We finished the XC race, podium and Doping Control about 12 hours prior to the Super D start. Which happened to be up a 4-5 minute dirt road climb. I can assure you that climb hurt more than the previous day’s XC race. Probably as a direct result of though… Starting mid-pack in the time-trial format race, even with my new Smith Goggles courtesy of Gabe Schroeder, I knew dust would be a problem, so was relieved to pass two guys on the climb, leaving Spencer Paxson in front of me, but with a 1:30 gap. Plenty of real estate. I dropped in and used the memory of the previous evening’s practice runs to roast the top singletrack “no brakes challenge” section. The stoke of that rally kept me clean and fast down the rest of the run, even on the lower XC course switchback descent, which was way less annoying to do once on my Trance X with the proto Fox Panty Dropper (pretty fun even) than half a dozen times on my hardtail with a serious oxygen debt. Fun. I crossed the line in 19:37, 15 seconds up on former leader and 2010 Champ Mike West. Perfect. Rider after rider came down without breaking 20 minutes but I knew Carl was up there on his Anthem X 29, slaying it. Turns out he should’ve slayed it about 1.5 seconds harder. Sucker. The top three remained the same as the final pros came down the hill. Maybe Rabobank will make me a Super D National Champ kit? Doubtful…
Check the chain tension while trying super duper hard. Shadow + is legit!
Lizzy and Kelli kept their back-to-back positions from the Blitz, with one exception- Lea Davison woke up early and decided to race, and she won that shit. East Coast heritage makes for fast western racing. Our hearts are still in the woods back there though… After a missed season due to a hip injury, it’s good to see Lea get a national title, regardless of her employment with the Big S...
Short Track. Well, let’s just say after the previous two events I had ZERO left for the ST. Zip. Zilch. A top 5 start meant I was far enough up to not get lapped before the finish, but I sure did get passed by 30 or so dudes. One of whom wrecked promptly. Awesome. Fortunately, Rabobank teammate Katie Compton is in a whole different category when it comes to Short Track, especially a flat fast one like we had here (the rock garden would’ve only helped her cause, had it been included). She recovered from Saturday’s 3rd place XC effort well enough to win by about half a lap, and I’m pretty sure she would’ve beaten me… Well played, KFC.
Monday we took the day off. Well, the morning. It’s so hard not to get sucked in when you’re a kid in a singletrack candy store. Scott and his business partner at First Lite (high end Merino wool hunting clothing), Kenton, joined me for one last lift ride up Baldy and a run down Warm Springs trail, bench cut shred-track from the top to town. Shockingly, we had a great time. Which we did again on Tuesday with a ride from way up the valley back to town via Fox Peak trail and a bunch of others. Impressed. Then, just to make sure no candy went un-eaten, Lizzy and I met Chopper and his ladyfriend somewhere north of Stanley for a bit of a mission on the north side of the Sawtooths. Kirkham ridge probably will get ridden by a couple dozen mountain bikers this year. We’re lucky to be among the first. Ride of the year so far. Easily.
Chopper taking it all in. It was like this all day. Except when we were groveling up pitches too steep for our "bicycles". A moto would be nice. And is welcome on this ribbon, like all of them in this area. Thanks for clearing trail, throttle jockeys...
Sun Valley served it up right with their freshman attempt at putting on the show that is Mountain Bike Natz. Everyone in the town was stoked to have the event and most of them seemed to come out and check things out throughout the weekend. Combine that with smooth organization and EPIC riding in all directions and I’ll be back next year for sure. Although I hope they succeed in breaking up that soul-crusher of a climb… Good thing they’re already working on it!
With the mountain bike-a-palooza that happened in Sun Valley, I was almost ready for something else to do. Good thing we brought kayaks. An afternoon surf session on Brennan’s Wave in downtown Missoula fit the bill perfectly. Lizzy’s dad Toby was planning on racing the Masters class up at Marshall Mountain, a good demonstration of how stoked the locals were to finally have a Pro XCT in their town. He had some questions about the proper way to shred the switchback descents so I figured we’d better go to an evening lap and check things out (plus I kind of wanted to see THE DROP). We sorted him out with the “enter as far uphill as possible and accelerate through” technique after I was peer pressured into riding the fairly large (6-8ft down and out) drop by a couple juniors from the East Coast who fully expected me to. Good thing they were there, that shit’s fun. We finished off Mellow Thursday with some grilling in the backyard at Toby’s place. Being from Montana would be cool. Kind of like being from Maine.
Good ol’ Sam Schultz stole the evening show in front of a banner local crowd on Saturday. I’m proud of him for riding a perfect race and pulling off the win EVERY single person in attendance was hoping for. Probably even third-place Max Plaxton… My tired (totally worth it) legs from the week of making sure no candy was left in The Sawtooths took a lap to get going and by then the lead trio had checked out. I rode around in 4th with Carl keeping me honest. It was his clever idea to ride XTC 29ers with dropper posts, after all. We got to send the drop comfortably and seriously make the steepish switchback descent ours every lap. Wanting/needing to run an adjustable post is the ultimate tip of the hat to a cross-country course. The Missoula crew has a real gem up there at Marshall Mountain.
Lea Davison was able to keep the good juju from Sun Valley going by winning the XC race AND the Pro XCT overall for 2011. Nice. Plaxton won the Men’s series. Must be that new team director, Sean Estes, really making things happen in their camp. We miss you at Giro… I ended up salvaging 5th overall for the spring and summer’s worth of racing, not too bad considering the ups and downs.
Anyway, busy-ness continues but training is on track for the final rounds of the World Cup and a shot at riding like I should at World Champs in Champerey next month. Here’s to a proper summer of Mountain Biking.
Oooh, speaking of Proper MTB riding. I just entered the Pisgah Stage Race in North Carolina. 5 days of riding, if my Sam Koerber-following memory serves me correctly, the best trails in America, sounds like a perfect capstone to the season. Check it out, then come race it! I’ll try not to get beat by the guy on the poster…