Safety Helmet Bike: mountain biking

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Mount snow nationals, 2008, mountain biking

Mount snow nationals
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!!

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

NC adventure

This weekend I had the opportunity to go to the Pisgah’s in North Carolina to do some mnt biking and some catching up w/ my friend Anna. I was looking forward to some warmer weather and long rides. My plane was delayed on the way in by the same storm that dumped 5 inches of snow in NC it was pretty cold too, below freezing for most of the time I was there. But these were details that weren’t going to stop hardcore mountain bikers such as Anna and myself. We road anyway and found it wasn’t too bad at first but on the 30 min decent back to the car we both froze. Hands balled up in gloves feet aching. We eventually got back to the car but weren’t feeling quite so hardcore by the time we got there. But instead of giving up on the great views and terrain the Pisgah mtns had to offer we decided to go for trail runs the next two days. running was fun and a lot warmer.

Aside from the outdoor activities we immersed are self’s in the Hendersonville nightlife. Not a big drinker myself I mostly go to bars to play pool or foosball, Anna had similar thoughts. So we found a bar w/ a pool table hoping to play each other in a friendly game. But as it turns out this bar has an ongoing tournament in witch we were required to participate in if we wanted to play. I wasn’t very thrilled about the arrangement but I decided to go along with it and play. This ended up being a good decision we had a lot of fun and we met several friendly southerners in the process.

On the way out of the bar we heard screams coming from the neighboring building. We investigated, and discovered a pro wrestling tournament. We stood at the window looking in for a while a when a gentlemen who was very informed of the local pro wrestling scene convinced us these were matches we couldn't miss. The event was half way over by this time so the ticketing woman was kind enough to let us go in for free. Insults and violence kept us entertained for over an hour. Much more entertaining than I would have imagined. All and all a fun weekend w/ a lot of memorable moments.

mountain biking