Snowshoe #2

This weekend was great, the second awesome weekend at Snowshoe. The weekend started on Friday evening with Brian and I doing a quick road ride of 13 miles. It was quite hot and I didn't want to blow myself out before practice on Saturday so we took it easy. Saturday morning at 4:30 we got up, finished packing and drove up to the Resort. We (Sally and I) got there just before 10 and was on the trail by 10:45. I decided to run amateur (expert) this time which meant that I ran a harder course than beginner and Weekend Warrior. The first run BLEW MY MIND! This race course was the hardest I have ever ridden. The mud race at Windham last year was tough but the technical requirements were one after another and RUG-GED. The rock gardens had giant holes that just tried to stop you every 2 feet. Multiple Rock Drops, 35 ft.road gap, steep switchbacks, about 8 rock gardens, muds sections, everthing was stacked- Steep and Deep!!! I love it. I have been bitching that some of these race courses are way too easy and this one was world class. Its the first time that the couse was so hard that I didn't ride it from top to bottom, nonstop, before race run. As Stefan and I started learning lines, and as the course dried out a little, it got easier but the really rough rock gardens also got the big holes filled in by course workers with a bunch of flat rocks. I crashed on the first two runs in the same garden. If the course wasn't so hard I would criticize them for making it easier but this jam was the Real Deal. On the second run I followed the local pro over the 30+ foot road gap and came up just a touch short but after the fourth run I got it dialed in. It was the easiest part of the course. One thing I have noticed with DH vs. MX is that it is more important to nose in on the DH bike for a smooth landing. If you keep the front end high it slaps down too hard. We would do two runs and then take a water break. Another highlight was that it was in the 80's on the hill while it was in the 90's and 100's at home. We ended up doing 8 runs - i think. The course really got run in well (lines were worked in good). Practice ended at 3pm so Sally and I went for a 15 mile road ride with 7 miles of decent and 7 miles of climbing. The first half was fun and the second was ok but there were a lot of flies down there. By the time we set up camp I was beat. It was also the first time it hasn't rained at night and we slept with the fly off the tent. Great night for camping. Sunday was great weather and we were waiting for the trail to open to get two runs in the one hour practice. The first run went good and the second went great. Ready for race run. The Race went on schedule and even though there was only three guys in my class Sean, one of my two competitors, is one fast dude. My race run went pretty good. It was right on the edge, I had my front end wash out twice under braking in high speed sections and my shoe caught on my crank arm which broke my concentration and I almost went off course and lost a couple of seconds in the slow down. Apparently that was a smaller mistake than Sean had- almost going over the bars and I won!! Unbelieveable- specially since Sean is Super Fast. I feel like I could have had a little more speed in a few sections but a I am happy I was able to put it all together. My legs were on fire by the time I got to the end of the rock gardens. Super Duper weekend.