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Mt Snow, Norba
National Round 2, 6/23/2000
Mt St Anne, World Cup Round 6, 7/2/2000 Written by Chris Eatough |
I just returned from an exciting road trip up to Mt Snow, Vermont, and Mt St Anne, Quebec. The racing was awesome; challenging east coast style tracks with roots, rocks and mud, and world class competition. My form has been coming on, and I felt strong the entire trip. At Mt Snow, a broken chain on lap 2 of the XC knocked me back into around 70th place, but I managed to fix it and rode hard to finish 30th. In the Short Track XC the next day, I felt great, and was riding inspired by teammate Sue Haywood's incredible 4th place just minutes before my race. Moving through the pack in the early going, I tangled with Tinker Juarez and we both went down. We jumped back up quickly, and spent the rest of the race chasing and moving through the pack together. We almost made it back to the main, elite group by the finish. My final placing was 24th. I had mixed feelings about my weekends performances; happy that I was riding strong and had good form, but a bit disappointed at the setbacks that came at the wrong time.
The next day, I loaded up the team VW Eurovan and headed north across the border into Canada. I had good memories from my last trip to Mt St Anne when I watched my father race in the World Championships downhill and cross country in 1998. Arriving on Monday, I had some time to kill before Sunday's XC race. This allowed for some good training, as well as some fun and relaxation, including Go-Cart Grand Prix, and a hike to the waterfall with Kenton and Scott from Hayes Brakes. On Sunday, I was ready to go, and managed to move up into the top 30 places on the start loop. This was the best start for me at a world cup, and it made negotiating traffic much easier. The race was long and tough. Lots of climbing, with technical descending. I raced in the mid 30s for most of the time, trading places with Steve Larsen and Jimi Killen, and made it up to 32nd by the finish - my best world cup result yet!
Now I have a few weeks at home, before heading out west for rounds 3 and 4 of the Norba National Series, and the Mercury Tour in Colorado. I'm looking forward to these races, and more opportunities for top level competition.