App State Race Recap

Three weeks into the Collegiate Cycling season and Ill start by saying I couldn't realistically be much happier with the way our first year two man team is preforming. I began this season with a few goals in mind. First, dont embarrass ourselves as races and look like we actually have a reason to be a collegiate cycling race; Two represent Campbell Cycling and let everyone know that we are a committed member of ACCC and not just a show up occasionally kind of team. First, to date neither of us has finished last with me usually mid to 3/4 of the way back in the pack but not among those few stragglers at the tail end and Marshall having a good showing in the gravity scene(including this past weekend). Secondly, people have come to expect us there (we even received a call to see if we wanted to shack up with another team this weekend) and look at us for opinions in the conference meetings. I guess what im getting at is that I feel that Campbell cycling is legit and can become one of the usual crowd as time goes on not an outcast standing to the side and watching the real action.

Now back to the racing. This week we were at App State in Boone, NC for the race weekend. The schedule was both of us racing dual slolemn first thing Saturday morning and me racing short track Saturday evening; then Sunday I would race XC.

We got to the course early saturday morning because iv never even seen a slolem course in real life let alone rode one; So I felt we could use the practice. All the racing action on saturday was to be held at Hawks Nest Ski Resort. When we got to the slope we were the first one there. There was not another sole there for over an hour so I tried to get in as many runs as I could to try and get a feel for things. The course was short and lacking in the flow department because it had been built in less than a week. Out of the gate about ten feet was a rock ledge drop followed by a left hand berm, back to a right turn over a single roller, then to a series of three rollers (some people tried to gap them without much success) and them over two more roller and two berms to the finishing straight. The initial rock ledge was giving me problems; the problem was I couldnt hardly get cliped in in time to bunny hop off it and if you didnt it was over the handlebars. So I decided to switch to a set of flats that Marshall had. On the first run though I slipped off the pedal and the spikes dug into my leg harder than Iv ever experienced. One peg ripped a chunk of meat out and the others left some nasty gashes. Good way to start the day.

(You can see the very top of the wound in this pic, not the real gnar though)

As time for qualifying arrived everyone showed up at one time. I felt ok about my run but i just dont have downhill in my blood. As we lined up to qualify they threw a wrench in things. In the grassy slope off the end of the slope they added 4 gates that had to be hit or .5 second penalty for each one missed. Everyone was nervous about trying to hit them before either runs and as i started down the course that was the main thing on my mind. As I got to the start of the gates I had to come to a stop to make the first gate and I knew that it killed my time. Marshall made a good clean fast run and qualified first while my performance earned me the last spot. When the races started we watched the A's tear it up and then as the C's turn came Marshall was first to go becasue he got a by run for qualifying first. As he started down the course out of the gate with everyone watching he went over the rock drop and then proceeded to go over his bars and roll down the couse into the first berm. Of course everyone laughed and one person said "is that the kid who got the by run??". After that I was up and I hoped I would be faster with someone right beside me to push me to keep up. As we started we were neck and neck into the three rollers and then I saw out of my periphrials a bike go vertical and then the rider slam into the next roller. As I coasted to the win I waited up and asked the rider if he was ok. He replied yeah, is my tongue bleeding?? as he stuck it out. All I could say was "yeah". The format was best out of two with the best combined time winning. So going into the second run I had a 1.5 second lead on him as that was the max you could receive. I knew all I had to do was finish close and so as we went down the course we stayed neck and neck but then after the three rollers he began to pull away. I pushed it and closed the gap as we entered the grass gates and pulled side by side with him. The finish line was single lane as the lanes came together so I backed off to play it safe, and let him win and I coasted in on his wheel receiving only fractions of a second gap and moving on to the second round.

Soon I learned I would be facing marshall in the second round which was not an ideal situation to say the least. I knew he was fast enough to win the whole thing so I told him to take it easy and id let him advance. I felt this was in the best interest of the team and so thats what we did. As he moved on the the semi's he faced a guy riding a 29er and had an easy victory waiting on him. He won the first run easily. I watched him start the second and he had a 1 sec gap on the rider and then as he entered the grass gates I wtched him wipe out. It was ok though there would be a third and final run to see who moved on. I ran down beside the track to watch him and as he was entering the grass he had a second, i yelled to the top of my lungs "you got it, you got it" trying to let him know he could slow up a bit and play it safe. No more had the words come out of my mouth than he slapped the ground for the second time in a row and lost the match. We were both disappointed because it was there for the taking he was the fastest rider and he couldn't take advantage of it. He went on to run for third and won the race but honestly it wasnt much of a consolation prize. I finished 8th however out of 15 which was more than i could have hoped for.

After the conclusion of the dual slalom race I rode the short track/downhill course. Yeah it was that bad. Iv almost decided that by next season I will be on a full squishy bike with the kind of trails these guys pick out. It was a very fun trail to watch being raced but bottom line I didnt participate in this one.

Sunday Morning I woke up to pouring rain and cold temps in the low 50's. Seems pretty standard for XC races in the mountains by now though. The race was being held in banner elk at the Emerald Mountain trials up above Beech Ski Mountain. When we arrived I walked in to talk with the other guys and found out the race had been shortened from around 9 miles to 6. I wasn't complaining. The trails were around a mile from the parking area so i didn't get much of a warm up other than on the way to the trail to race. As C men lined up I was a little shocked to only see 6 guys; better odds of winning but more importantly less people to potentially finish behind me. All i could figure is that the conditions were so horrible that only a handful of folks racing for points and me were willing to ride.

As we started the front three took off pretty fast and I hung on the wheel of the VT rider i finished about 5 mins ahead of last race all the way up the first climb. As we started the first decent I could see my rim brakes were going to be a problem in the sloppy conditions. It wasnt long till I went over the bars kicking a tree with the shin that I had injured saturday. I got up put my chain back on the front rind and started to ride and my chain feel off again. I looked to see if my derailuer was bent or broke or a cable but nothing. Finally I saw the chain had falled behind the cassette. By this time the last rider had past me and the lead B girl!!! In my frenzy to try to catch up I ended up on the ground two more time sliding on wet rootes or muddy turns. I went by Marshall standing on the side of the trail and he cheered me on and all I could yell back was "Im having a bad time". Later he told me the guy in front of me had about 5 minutes on me. To be honest I settled in and decided to settle in and ride it out to a last place finish and blame it on the rain and my bike. As I rode though I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and give it one last shot to catch up. I stood out of the saddle and pushed as hard as I could. Flying over the wet roots and up the climbs. It wasn't long till I saw the lead B girl and I flew past her on one of the climbs. She jumped on my wheel though and ended up passing me on the next decent. She was flying through the woods and as we rode she was telling me that she raced downhill skiing so she could go down just not up. I did my best to hold her wheel through the woods and soon she brought me to the fifth place c guy. I stayed locked on her wheel and we flew past him. I was feeling good and relieved not to be in last. Cruising over the roots at this fast pace almost seemed to make it easier than trying to be careful. No more had this though came to my mind that I saw the ground meet my face again. As i got up and put my chain back on the guy passed me again. I stayed with him for a minute until my chain dropped for no apparent reason and he rode off. I caught back up to a 10 second gap but was so frustrated by my falling all over the place and bike problems I couldn't seem to get the resolve to pass him. About this time I rode past Marshall for the second time and he said "hes right there go get him" and I thought "ok". So I rode hard again pushing it past the girl and then past the guy. I knew the end was close so I started taking all the risks and hammering the climbs. My the end I had opened up a little over a minute gap on the last place guy rider and over 3 minutes on the winner of the B girls. Although it was only a fifth place finish out of 6 it felt good to keep coming back and pushing myself not to finish last.

Overall another good weekend with no last place finishes and a good showing in dual Solomon. After we got back I started looking at the results and found out I am now 20th overall and Marshall is 22nd overall out of 75 guys in Mens C. Not only that but out team is 4th out of 7 in ACCC Division 2 team standings. So things are shaping up headed into conference championships this weekend. I wish we would have concentrated on points a bit sooner but hopefully we can move up a few spots individually this weekend and defend our spot in the team standings.

As I said this weekend we will be at West Virginia University for the conference championships so look for that report next week.

(sorry for the length...hope you dint having anything you needed to do when you started reading)