West dover VT
July 19th 2008
Pro xc and st
For this race I was staying with fellow Bikeman riders john burns, Sean Daley and Andrew Freye. The accommodations were very nice (thank you Andrew for setting it up). killed time with movies , chess, trivia pursuit, working on bikes, making and eating food
the awesome place
I was shocked to see the course had been changed this year. It has been a while since they changed it. It was less technical and there was a lot of newly cut sections with fresh roots .Still a lot of steep climbing and descending.
The roots weren’t a problem as long as it stayed dry. it did rain the night before so there were a few hairy root sections that were not nearly as difficult during my pre ride when everything was bone dry.
Despite my complaining about slippery roots it was still all and all easier than last year as far as the course goes. The pace of the race was just as unforgiving as it always is in these national races. My tactic during these races is to ride at my own pace and picking off riders that started too strong and exploded or those unfortunate souls that have mechanicals.
I think there were about 60 starters of that about 50 finished. I came in 42nd. Not very good but I honestly I don’t think I could do much better, so I was happy. It was nice to fished the race after last weekends double flat and dnf.
I found out I was sighed up for short track too. I didn’t try to sign up for it but I must have sighed up for a package deal or something by accident. I am not sure if I was charged or not (probably was) so I felt obligated to race. I did pretty crappy. 2nd to last.
Andrew with geeky helmet cam
more pics to come!!
