4 Aug 2007
Finally, I have something good to write home about. I have spent the
last week in Sugar Mtn., NC racing at the National series race. My
legs finally decided to make a trip with me and I had a great week
of racing. I got there last Wednesday. It rained on me during the
whole six hour drive. And it continued to rain all night. Thursday
morning I was greeted with sun as I went over to the mountain for
Super D practice. I have really gotten into the Super D because it
suits my racing style. You can let it all hang out for 10 minutes.
It usually rewards the rider with the best combination of skills and
fitness, but this course is mostly downhill so it leans more toward
the skilled riders. The course is the descent used on the XC course,
so I just made a few shuttle runs on the XC bike. I got a new bike
by the way. The team hooked me up with a Titus Racer X to use the
rest of the year. I really love this bike. It seems to climb faster
than my old Superlight, yet descend just as well.
After a few runs I met up with Kiersta Tucker from Bowling Green and
we went out for a lap on the XC course. I have always hated this
course but for some reason I liked it this year even though it was
the same as always. Maybe I have just accepted the fact that
National courses are junk. Anyway, it's a 6.6 mile loop that is
about 5 miles of climbing followed by a nasty, super technical
descent back down. Several spots on the opening climb are near
vertical. Same goes for the descent. You go from needing a road bike
to needing an 8" travel downhill bike. We got off the course just in
time as a big thunderstorm rolled through ending practice for the
rest of the day.
Friday was my XC. I wasn't expecting much out of myself but my goal
was a top 10. Right from the start I was at the front. I knew I was
having a good day when I topped the climb in third the first lap. I
dropped to 9th at one point, but bombed the descent to come back to
4th by the end of the first lap. On lap 2, I closed down to 3rd.
Everything was looking good until I hit a piece of metal stuck in
the ground near the bottom of the descent on the second lap. It put
a 1 inch hole in my sidewall. I stuffed a tube in even though I
didn't think I would ever make it without flatting. I only fell back
to 7th and I still felt good so I started picking my way back up. I
ended up finishing 4th which I am more than happy with, but at the
same time I know what could have been. I was 1:40 behind when I
flatted and I made up 2:10 on the leaders during the last 2 laps. I
just ran out of time.
Saturday was an off day for me. I only had Super D practice in the
afternoon. So, I got to do some spectating and hang around the Tech
Area. You could really tell that gas prices are hurting teams as
several of them didn't even make the trip with their haulers.
Shimano wasn't even there with tech support. I hiked up the mountain
twice to watch the Pro Women's XC and the Pro Men's XC. It was cool
to watch some of the guys you see in the magazines. I also got to
hang out with Ryan Trebon for a while. He's a friend of the team's
so I got to meet him. It started raining again in the afternoon and
I decided to not ride Super D practice. I just walked around and met
some of the media people and hung out at the Maxxis tent.
Sunday was the last day of racing. I had two events. The Short Track
was first, followed by the Super D. I got there early in the morning
to feed our Expert riders as they had their XC bright and early in
the morning at 8am. They did well considering none of them are great
climbers. We had one rider win the Sport race. There was a Super D
practice session just before my short track so I hurried to the top
for one last run. I ended up flatting and bending my rim. I had to
run down the mountain and then spend a half hour searching for tires
and beating the rim out. I almost missed my short track. I got no
warm-up but I still felt good during the race. Only problem was I
didn't have any XC tires left. I had cut everything I brought and
was forced to go with some near slick tires. They didn't go well
with the mud and slick grass. I crashed several times. It was like
riding on ice. I couldn't lean the bike at all. I would lose time in
the turns, then bridge the gap to the leaders on the climb every
lap. Finally, I went down and lost too much time and couldn't catch
back up. I got 6th which is good, but if I had gotten a top 5 I
would have been upgraded to Pro. Still, that is by far the best
short track I have ever ridden. I rode a great Super D that
afternoon to finish 7th in the Pro race. I was just 5 seconds off
the podium. Hopefully I'll get on it in the near future. A guy with
a radar gun clocked me at 38 mph on the grassy turns near the bottom
of the course.
I was hoping to make it to the National Finals in Snowmass, CO next
week, but it looks like I'm gonna be short on funds, so I'll
probably stay here and maybe do a 12 hour race in North Carolina.
I'm gonna try to make it out to the crit. in Nashvegas on Sunday. I
know I won't be at the state road race because my good friend Andy
Reardon is getting married on Saturday. Lets all hope she lets him
keep racing!
Dustin