Season Re-Cap
By Hillary
A glimpse into this spring’s world of downhill and dual slalom racing. Or at least mine. This year is one of the first years to mark the shift of racing from west to east coast.
So, I went to Sea Otter. Holy mud! I think next year they should hold a mud wrestling festival instead. If any of you have ever been there, you have seen the XC style Dh course they have. I rode that, as well as the slalom on my 6 inch Prophet. Many shoes were lost that weekend. Races went ok for me. Our strip mall style motel had a celing light mounted on the wall that looked like a giant illuminated boob. At least there was a kickin dinner across the street, and some good industry parties.
Massanutten was next. There was actually another pro women there! Lisa Myklak, who I’ve seen drop a 20 footer and usually makes podium, was there with team Moorewood. Before practice on the first day I got my gear on, stepped out of the team trailer, and onto a small round rock which rolled by body off of my ancle. After spending some QT with my foot in a friends cooler of ice, I wraped it up and it continued to swell through practice. I was walking, which hurt much more then riding, like I had a peg leg. On race day…I got a flat at the top! I pulled over, let the next pro women go by, and realized I still had enough air to ride. At least enough not to destroy the rims on my already sold and awaiting shipping as soon as my new bike comes in bike. I got back on and closed the gap between the next rider. If only I hadn’t stoped, I might have gotten 2nd instead ot 3rd. Oh well, still the hardtail class. Probly not so good for the cankle, but I wasn’t about to miss it. I had a good start, but then guess what! Flat! I walked back to the lift and that was that. My ankle is still not recovered.
Then there was the US Open. Huge race, tons of pros and top amatures from around the country. It rained, the course was very rocky and steep. I was riding ok, but my bike kept dropping the chain. It had been doing this for a few weeks, and the fix required some major rearrangement. Not something I wanted to do to a bike that just needed to last till my new Cannondale Judge came in. In my race run I dropped my chain half way down and had to pump it out the rest of the run. Oh well. Still had a great time riding some of the other killer trails and seeing some friends from out west. Plus there was a sweet pool at the condo the team got. Although once in it I realized it was doubling as a bath for some dudes.
NORBA National at Sugar Mtn NC. My new ride had just come in from Cannondale and it was ridin nice. The kind of bike that makes you giddy to get out and tear it up. I needed a new bike bad. The course was scarry hard. I had never been down to the Smokey Mtns before, they’re so beautiful and jungleous. Rooty and rocky. It rained. Hard. The roots were slippery. Two of the pro women didn’t race. It acctually dried enough to be really fun by race day, and I was feeling good even after 3 day of practice and slalom. I crashed in my race run in a steep shoot that ended in a slow turn. The crash pinched my front brake line so it locked up. No front brake. I took it slow and made it through. Bummer. Tracey Hannah, Mick Hannah’s little sister who RIPS, finally turned 18 and Pro. She took the win by beating reigning world champion Sabrina Jonier, as well as a few other world champs in her first Pro race. For me on the other hand, slalom went great! Although I couldn’t manage to wipe the sand out and hit the double on the course, I still took 6th place!
That brings us finally to Whitetail. I feel like I should just start talking nonsence and cursing cause there’s no way anyone is still reading this. Anyway. As you know from my previous longwinded post about Whitetail, I had ridden the course for a few weekends and was having a blast on it and on the new Cannondale. Just what you want before a race. Come race weekend though, I just wasn’t feeling it. I guess we all have those days. It poured on race day and the lifts had to shut down. This ment I didn’t get any pre-race practice. I kept crashing in my race run, so I decided to just make it down safe. Slalom was another story though. There was one other pro women there, thats one more then usual. I had been getting her in most of the runs, and the final race was just going to be one run. We were given the choice to do two out of three though, and I took it. I was worried I would regret this, but one run just left too much to chance. The first round went well, I got her out of the gate and held the lead till the end. Wishing I settled for one round, we loaded in the gate for two. We were neck and neck out of the gate and through the first series of poles. I was feeling the heat and went down hard. It knocked the wind out of me and I hit my head hard. For a moment I lay there in fear that I might be hurt and unable to finish. I got up after a minute and was able to ride out the course. At the bottom we loaded our bikes onto the Mule and were back at the top for round three. We were back to square one, except now I was sore, tired and my confidence was a little shaken. In the gate I tried to focus and stay calm. I had a good gate and was out in front, maintaining speed through the poles, but she was close. Through the whole round she was close, but I managed to keep ahead. My first legitimate win in pro dual slalom. On the podium I got a big huge check! No really, one of the big cardboard ones. All in all I came home with $700 for first and second!
Racing Updates…
A couple of quick DC mountain bike racing notes…
- No Meeting on Monday - Since the first monday of the month is right before July 4th and a lot of people will be away, the monthly meeting is being pushed back to the 10th.
- Cranky Monkey - Race 1 of the Cranky Monkey was cancelled this weekend due to the torrential rain. It’s being moved to July 30th, and the 2nd race (formerly scheduled for the 30th) moves to August 6.
- Wakefield - The 2nd Race of the Wednesdays at Wakefield series has been postponed to July 12th due to the rain. The course is reported to be in very bad shape and will need a good amount of work to get into racing condition. Since the 12th would have been the 3rd race in the series, it looks like everything is now pushed back a week, but there’s been no annoucement yet on when the 4th race will be held.
gary’s images from WAW #1
photos by gary
gary’s wakefield images
wakefield results
City Bikes Capital Cup at Whitetail - DH #2
Location: WHITETAIL, PA
Date: June 23-25
Events: DH, Dual
The Inaugural Capital Cup at Whitetail is part of the Mid-Atlantic Cup Downhill and Dual Slalom Series. The Mid-Atlantic Cup is the NORBA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship series. The series consists of four individual Championship races. Each race is also a qualifier for the U.S. Nationals at Mammoth, Ca. at the end of the year.
Event Website: http://www.racersedgeonline.com/events.html
City Bikes Capital Cup at Whitetail - DH #1/DS
Location: WHITETAIL, PA
Date: June 23-25
Events: DH, Dual
The Inaugural Capital Cup at Whitetail is part of the Mid-Atlantic Cup Downhill and Dual Slalom Series. The Mid-Atlantic Cup is the NORBA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship series. The series consists of four individual Championship races. Each race is also a qualifier for the U.S. Nationals at Mammoth, Ca. at the end of the year.
Event Website: http://www.racersedgeonline.com/events.html
Wednesdays At Wakefield Race 1
The annual Wednesdays at Wakefield series kicked off this week and the City Bikes Mountain Bike Team were out in force. Joel destroyed the rest of the clydesdale class on his singlespeed Karate Monkey, and Evan and Ricky took 3rd & 5th places respectively in the Singlespeed class. Brian raced masters 35 and took 11th and Dave raced singlespeed and took 20th. Coming up this weekend we’ve got the City Bikes Capital Cup at Whitetail (DH & DS) and the first race of The Cranky Monkey at Wakefield (XC).
City Bikes Capital Cup at Whitetail - DH/DS Practice
Location: WHITETAIL, PA
Date: June 23-25
Events: DH, Dual
The Inaugural Capital Cup at Whitetail is part of the Mid-Atlantic Cup Downhill and Dual Slalom Series. The Mid-Atlantic Cup is the NORBA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship series. The series consists of four individual Championship races. Each race is also a qualifier for the U.S. Nationals at Mammoth, Ca. at the end of the year.
Event Website: http://www.racersedgeonline.com/events.html
Wednesdays at Wakefield - Race 1
The DC area’s classic mountain bike race series.
You’ve got to deal with Beltway rush hour traffic to get there, but it’s always so fun once you’re there. short and fast laps and tight singletrack mean no recovery, no rest, no respite from the competition. 1 to 4 laps of a ~3 mile course. Expect to see City Bikes riders in the mix in the singlespeed, masters, sport, and expert races.
Dates: June 21, June 28, July 12, July 19
Time: Singlespeed, Beginner, Masters, and Juniors start at 6; Sport & Expert at 6:55
Location: Wakefield Park, Annadale, VA
Website: http://www.potomacvelo.com/2006waw.htm
24 Minutes of Big Bear
The 24 Minutes of Big Bear 2006
Here is an image of Mountain Bike Hall of Famer, Laird Knight, giving my older son Dean a high five after he finished 4th in the 6 and under category. Laird brought the same amount of energy and focus to the kids race as he does to the main event. His contribution to the sport of mountain biking changed mountain biking and my life for ever. The 24 Hours of Big Bear ROCKED! I loved every minute of it… putting the event for next year on my mental calendar.
RACE REPORT: 24 Hours of Big Bear
Race Report: 24 Hours of Big Bear 2006
by Joel Gwadz
A week ago at this time I was loading up the Honda Element so that I could head west through Maryland and onto West Virginia for Granny Gear’s 24 Hours of Big Bear. I was loading the car while I should have been driving the car. But gathering all the gear for a 24 hour race and the camping that surrounds it can be a great task…. especially when there is the comfort of my wife and children involved in the packing process. There was lots to remember on the mental check list, there were lots of things to assemble… third tray on the Element, drinks and ice in the coolers, lights, chargers, walkie talkies (that never got used), power inverter (which never got used), bug spray and citronelle candles and torches (which never got used) There were a number of things that I felt I must have… much of this stuff never got used.
Once packed I drove out of town solo planning on intersecting with fellow DCMTB/City Bikes/Metro Gutter team mates Kent Baake and my brother Marc Gwadz. Once on Interstate 270 I made the call… they were just 15 minutes ahead of me on the road. We established that we would meet in Hagerstown for a late lunch.
The drive was moderately uneventful. There was the fast moving bumper to bumper traffic and the intermident rain. The rain did bother me a tad, but I did not think that the weather paterns of western Maryland would really be a good indicator of what would be happening miles ahead in mountains of West Virginia. Yet,the thought of rain and mud was not something to get enthusied about even if rain and mud have been a trademark of the Granny Gear events in West Virginia in years prior at Snowshoe and at Caanan. Some may have thought that mountain bike hall of fame member and 24 hour mountain bike event creator, Laird Knight, was cursed.
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