Mt Snow Vermont - National MTB Championships

This year marked my 2nd year qualifying for Nationals...wasn't as fun as last years "Mud Fest"...:) Just the opposite....hot and humid....this year I moved up from Beginner to Sport Class and from the young guys group of 40-49 to now in the 50+. We had 17 start in our group and one DNF'd. A number of the guys were from the Northeast (ie NH, MA, VT, RI) and there were two from FLA (placing 2nd and 4th), one ea. from (CA, WI, PA, TX) three from VA and then me the only Marylander...I finished in 8th with a time of 1:26:53, the leader had a 1:16, then 2nd finished with a 1:20...considerably better than last year where I finished in 10th and yet off the leader by over 35 minutes (of course we all know that Scott Tedro from Sho-Air is a sand bagger).
The course was switched up a little from last year...from the start the prolog section consisted of the same steep start, but then it continued up and just stopped at a gravel road then turned and came back down...really missed the woods that it dumped us into last year...the wood section last year really separated many...then it was back to the start finish area to continue up the 2.5+ mile climb!!!!
Lets not forget that on the down hill coming back into the start/finish area the "BUMP" was still on the hill from last year... it would "kick" your rear end up if you weren't ready for it and some would take a tremendous endo if not careful...well we named that section the "Kill Phil Hill Bump"...after our buddy Phil Erlinger, he bit it good there last year!
On the "monster" climb they kept you out in the open on the gravel roads much more than last year too...really would have preferred to be in the woods more...I did hear that the course is just so worn out after all the years of abuse. The hill climb is where it really separates the pack...ultimately determines the winner...on my second lap it was very cool to hear a rider coming up from behind me asking..."is that you Cableguy?" to my surprise it was RJ2 from the bay area in CA...he raced beginner in the CCCX series I was in while back in CA this past winter...of course he passed me up...I kept him in site for most of the climb, then on the DH figured I could catch him (he wasn't in my group but still a target to focus on)...we were half way down the DH...I was getting within a few bike lengths of him when we came up on a REALLY slow rider (was going over the rocks like he had never seen a DH, probably from Nebraska)RJ2 yelled out and then squirted to his left, I was going to follow suit when he turned into that line...I steered right quickly and folded my front on a rock sending me right over the top...funny after all the falls I have taken while riding and the "scuffs" getting a little blood...I never figured I'd get blood where I did...ON MY EAR...when I went down I hit the upper right corner of my helmet and MY RIGHT EAR on a rock...strange...well my right foot stayed clipped in and twisted along with the bike right around my back and to the left....needless to say my calf and quad locked up good....I let out a scream and the guy that cut me off was SO APOLOGETIC...thinking I got hurt he was saying how sorry he was...I jumped back up as fast as I could and got back on it...told the guy that cut me off "thanks"..he just waited till I went by...I didn't catch RJ2, but got close 7 seconds behind him!!! Great time seeing ya RJ2!!!
For the Sport class they cut our laps by one...we were suppose to race for three laps, never did find out the exact reason why they cut ours and a few other classes I understand they cut too...I think I could have done three, would have been very hard, but it really would have separated our group big time...all in all it was a blast!!!
On Sunday morning they had the Super D race...it is a mass LeMans style start, throw in a couple short uphill sections to separate the XC from the DH'ers and then a ton of fast ripping DH's and you have a Super D...I told everybody for 2 days that I would not do it...I always go beyond my skill level trying to push it DH and wind up breaking something on ME (not my bike)...well the kids finally got to me, (thanks Gunnar)...he talked me into it Sat afternoon, so I registered. The pre-run we got in right before the race had me a little worried, there were a lot of places where I could see myself getting out of control trying to push it, and could get very hurt...so during the race I took it easier than maybe I should have but hey, I finished without getting hurt and had a blast...there is something to be said about going DH fast with no peddaling...very FUN...finished 11th out of 16 with one DNF...had a time of 10:33:27, the leader of our group did it in 8:44:10...maybe next year I'll take a different bike and all the body "armour", then let it all fly!
Had such a great time this year staying in the hotel by the lake/mountain...did a lot of swimming and hot tubbing, met a bunch of great people...funny how I still had a few come up to me that knew who I was (I was told it's cause I'm all over the internet, and that I should use that time to train instead, I'd probably be expert class buy now...NOT!)
Well look forward to next year, thanks to everyone, would love to name you all but there are so many to say hi, thanks, miss ya...major thanks though goes out to all my team mates that were in attendance...made some great new friends that I hope will continue to grow and we can have fun together...now off to the next race!!