Epic Racing around the World

Last weekend Bryan Alders and Sue Butler packed (did they ever unpack?) their bags and headed ‘back East for a little warm up at the NMBS event in upstate New York.

Going to the East for those of us that live west of the Mississippi is a return our roots on some level…and typically it involves the same things each year - sweating, some rain, bug bites, jet lag, and nasaly accents. That rather sounds like any random night in ‘Vegas, but back to the trip…and racing.

The Windham Mountain resort was a new course for the national circuit and from most accounts…was fun. An old pro once told me there’s no room for fun in mountain bike racing…but things seem to be changing.

Typically racing at a ski resort involves A) riding up steep gravel roads B) blowing up and going into oxygen debt (bonus points for any ski resort below 6000′)  and C) putting your race back together.

Sue and Bryan both found the going rough in their respective XC events. Sue gets a pass on her dead legs as a quick scan of the results sheet for both the men and women’s races shows that anyone who did the BC Bike race and followed it up with the Windham event suffered with tired legs. I’d say Sue’s 15th place was pretty good for doing a 30hour training (racing) block the week before to be pretty dang good. Alders…well 27th is better than finishing 57th, and both made progress in the following day’s STXC - 8th for Sue and 15th for Bryan…who was the last guy to get pulled. There’s little worse than being pulled…all that suffering and riding in circles in the dirt and dust only to not be allowed to ride three more laps under said circumstances…only to never catch the guy just ahead.

Looks like I was working with some bad information here. Alders got waxed and finished 22nd.

This week Alders and Sue have been joined by Mitchell Peterson and Blake Harlan, who will be racing in the U23 event on Thursday. Pro XC for the men and women is on Saturday.  On the Oregon front, I’ll (sager) will be racing the Gorge Games in Hood River, OR…STXC on Friday, XC on Mt Hood’s Ski Bowl is Sunday. In between we’ll be checking out the skatboard, kiteboard, and windsurfing events. I’m thinking wind power might be something to suggest to the Cannondale R&D department.

Rip it!