Date: May 7, 2000
Event: Fairmount Classic AMBC 2000
Class: OPEN
Category: Pro
Length: 16+
Time: 1:18:08
Conditions: Sunny & Hot - 90+ degrees
Bike: Sugar full suspension bike Outfitted with Shimano XTR
Tires: Hutchinson Python tires, front and rear

Did you do anything special to prepare for this race?

No

In the last two months how many hours per week have you trained on average?

That's not really an easy question...
I think training usually follows patterns. Maybe on a hard week, about 20 to 22 hours and on an easy work week, maybe 12 hours.... then you've got variances in between that.... so it's quite a big difference.

During the spring series where we were racing the world cups and traveling in between.... it's really difficult and demanding to put in more than 15 hours a week. When I'm at home training and not traveling and doing stuff like that it's easier to put in a good heavy week.

Were you strong from start to finish?

Yes, I think so..... I had a good start. Sue and I kind of battled for the single-track and I led into the single-track and just tried to stay steady and strong. It was considerably hot, it was very, very hot.... about 31 degrees Celsius (low 90s) and very, very humid so I think everyone was a little bit wary about that. No one had raced in that kind of weather yet. I know my plan was to drink a lot and to stay steady.

When did you put the hammer down?

I just went strong the whole race.... tried to do a good steady race with equal lap times. They started the women behind all of the Expert Vet, Masters and Junior Women.... so it was kind of bad in that we had to.... after one lap we were already catching guys..... so I was just trying to keep it steady passing the guys and keeping good lines so as not to lose too much time.

Too fast for the camera!

Did you have any unusual problems?

No, none. Physically it was fine and the bike worked great.... I rode the Sugar and it was really good for that course.

How would you rate the course?

Good course.... some really good, fun, fast hard-packed single-track intermixed with some double-track which was good for passing. It was kind of rolling, a fairly short course (only a four mile lap) so it was a fairly fast race. It was good.

Were you happy with the way the race was run?

Yeah, really good organization, everything seemed fairly organized, not only did they do all of the cross countries, but they also did short track that day... so they were really on it and they had some really good sponsors there and a great expo area plus a good amount of spectators.... I was really impressed.

If you could do the race again would you do anything differently?

I think every race you have to access the situation and you have to consider the weather conditions as well so I'd have to wait till next year.....

Is there anything you would like to add?

Everyone there was really supportive. I had good help from Gary Fisher / SAAB who were there helping me out.

It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed my weekend in Philadelphia. I had never been there before.