Mt.
Snow 2002 Race Report by Jonathan Posner - TREK/VW/JBL (click here for more TREK Mt. Snow Reports) |
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Mt. Snow, Vermont, August 15, 11 pm The pro XC events today at Mt Snow were not only the finals in the NORBA NCS Chevy Trucks series, but the National Championships as well, and the competition was fierce. The Trek/VW/JBL East Coast Factory team was set up early in the expo pit area to get things set for the first day of racing. Up at 6 45 and set up by 7 30. Our pit area was a center of attention for spectators, many of whom came by to see the latest offerings from JBL, the new Traffic Pro mobile stereo and super 1600 watt subwoofers as well as the brand new Creature speaker system, an awesome looking mini speaker system for home computers. As racers came down to get ready for their main event team mechanic Chris Pieck seemed to be in three places at once tweaking this and that, wiping bikes down, and adjusting shock and tire pressures. The Trek Fuel bikes received tons of attention and it's success as a bike was evident by the many Fuels we saw non pro racers riding around |
The women's race was slated for an 11 am start and the men's for 2 pm. The weather for the past two days has been hot and humid in the upper nineties, so racers were careful to hydrate well and stay in the shade where they could at least escape direct sun. The women's pro race started right on time, and the pace was driven early by Jimena Florit and Alison Sydor, with several women turning personal bests and Alison Dunlap even finishing seventh with a broken wrist and a cast on her arm. Trek Factory Team racers Petra Ford, Linda Murphy, Rachel Mirvish and the East's own Kristine Oesterling battled it out on the scorching slopes with the big name pros and all had fantastic performances. Results will be sent tomorrow. Erin North, Factory Team media correspondent, and Chris Murphy, Southeast team manager, helped me out in the feed zone handing off water bottles and shouting encouragement. The sun was brutal, and must have been the worst for the racers as they raced up exposed ski slopes and open climbs. The woods offered little relief as riders had to turn all their energy to keeping upright through tough singletrack and mud holes. Jimena ran away with the race as most expected. After the women finished, it was back to the trailer to set up feed bottles for the men and to final checks on all the bikes. The Trek Factory Team program was represented by Mike West from the Rocky Mountain team, Doug Swanson of the Midwest team, and Chris Eatough and Jeremiah Bishop, both on the East Coast team. The start was chaos, with Ryder Hesjdal and Roland Green driving the pace right from the start gun. There was a prologue lap at the beginning of the race, followed by four full laps. This meant basically that the pros started straight up a huge ski slope climb, turned around and came down, and then did the climb a second time straight away as they started their first full lap. This did wonders to string out the group quickly, and avoid traffic jams in the singletrack, but it meant that you had to go max effort for 20 minutes right from the gun just to get a good position in the field going into the rest of the race. After the prologue lap all four Trek/VW/JBL riders had solid position in the pack and they set to the business of suffering and picking off riders one by one. The men's race seemed even hotter then the women's and when, near the end of lap two, some dark clouds moved in front of the sun and provided some much appreciated relief, no one realized what was in store. Cheers welcomed the first drops of cooling rain, but they were soon replaced by the sound of people running for cover and seeking shelter from huge drops of rain that came from bigger clouds that moved in swiftly. Lightning and thunder in the distance warned of an approaching storm cell, but the battle for supremacy on Mt Snow continued. At the end of lap two Chris Eatough was just catching onto the lead chase group and moving up in the top 15 with Jeremiah hot on his tail. But luck did not hold for Chris and he suffered a badly twisted chain that required him to stop twice on the course to perform repairs and cost him over four minutes. Jeremiah, however, found his legs and continued to pick off pros well into the top ten. At the end of the fourth lap he was chasing down Travis Brown for fifth spot, but Travis saw the attack coming and sprinted hard enough at the line to hold Bishop off. Jeremiah posted his best finish ever at a Norba national with sixth place. Chris and Mike West finished in the top twenty, and Doug rode a solid race to finish a little further back. Mike actually had equipment problems of his own in the form of a slow leaking front tire that caused him to crash and become extremely filthy with black Vermont mud and also ripped his shorts enough to expose more than a little cheek. Roland Green won the race with a similar fashion statement, but with the other cheek hanging out of his shorts, with Ryder Hesjdal, Paul Rowney, Jeremy Horgan-Kobalski and Travis Brown rounding out the podium. The day's excitement did not end with the finish of the race though, as Mid Atlantic Super Series promoter Don Morrison was on the scene and his presence could ensure one thing, foul weather ; ) As the last of the top thirty or so pro men crossed the line, Norba officials had already sent marshals onto the course to pull riders halfway through their last laps. The National Weather Service had issued a warning that a severe storm cell was approaching our area, and fast. The warning wasn't necessary though, as all one had to do was turn and look up the mountain at the black mass descending on the race venue. When I say this was a serious storm, I mean when you looked up at what was blowing towards us, you didn't think, "how can the sky be so dark and fast moving?" or anything like that. Instead you thought, " I'd better get the @#%*! out of here!" Within minutes of the men's finish, huge wind gusts were tearing across the mountain resort and driving rains were soaking everyone and everything to the core. There were lightning strikes more often then every 15 seconds and the rains were so severe that they buried the Manitou pit area flooring under a layer of silt. The storm blew through fairly quickly, but a steady lingering rain prevented us from cleaning up much of the mess until later in the evening. Finally the rains let up and things began to get organized again, with Chris and I pulling every banner ,flag, tent top and poster to hang up and dry while we sorted through the mass of bikes and equipment that was left in our care. We finally got things cleaned up and put away, ready to do it all again tomorrow for the pro short track races. Back to the room and showered by 8:30, making for a 13 hour workday, but well worth it. |
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