Date: May 19, 2000
Event: Chevy Trucks NORBA NCS#1 - Big Bear
Class: OPEN
Category: Semi-Pro
Length: 25 mi
Time: 1:40:46
Bike: Litespeed Tellico '95 (one of the first six ever made - sent to Mountain Bike Magazine to be tested and then I got it)
Tires: Continental Front: Twister-pro Rear: Double-fighter

Did you do anything special to prepare for this race?

We took a nice, leisurely drive out there..... left on Thursday the week before the event. We B-lined it to New Mexico, had breakfast there and then rolled up to Flagstaff, Az and hung out for a day and a half or so there. We did a few bike rides on the way out to Big Bear, but my preparation was basically all of the races I have done leading into this race. The reason we took our time going out is because we knew we would have to be back in a hurry for our Cane Creek Cup at Beach Mountain, NC...... in fact we drove back from Big Bear in 46 hours. I wasn't real focused on that race. I was there to do my job and of course racing is part of what I do, but as far as that being a focused race for me....... it was not something I was trying to peak for. I was using Big Bear for a training race towards the 24 hours of Snow Shoe. A friend of mine and I are going to do the Pro duo team there and that's going to be really hard. I didn't know what category I was going to race in until a couple days before when I got to look at the schedule. I decided to race semi-pro instead of the masters category because semi-pros would start at the front and that way we would have the course all to ourselves. It was a 25 mile single loop. I started out way out front like in 5th and then the altitude kind of zapped me and I faded pretty hard on this climb and I probably dropped back to about 25th and then I recovered and started rolling. I got up to around 14th and then I endo-ed, got up and got back to where I was before I fell.... and then fell again..... so I ended up 18th. There was about 125 in our class so I did OK. I rode well once I got going, but I made a couple of mistakes in those two falls.

What was your position at the start line?

I was sitting about the second or third row back. They call up a number of guys according to how they were ranked from previous years. Some of them that were ranked last year moved on to pro. I actually went to the start an hour early just so I would get a good position on the line because I knew that was going to be a key factor.

Does the rush of a big event like this make you stronger during the race?

I think it affects people in different ways. For me because I have been racing motorcycles since I was nine years old..... having butterflies and being nervous for a long time....... eventually I learned to calm myself at the start of a race and not let all of those anxieties and pressures from it being a "big event" bother me. I just look at it as any other race. I go to the starting line and just try to stay as calm as possible. That way you are conserving energy. Sometimes that adrenaline can be good if you can release it properly but if you get carried away early on in the race and go out too hard...... and get caught up in that big rush at the start, then you'll end up using too much energy too soon in the race and end up fading.

Were you strong from start to finish?

I felt pretty strong early on but once the meat of the climb came....... rolling through the single-track I'm really comfortable.... but once you get out on an open section of climbing (like steep single-track climbing) I was pretty comfortable. Once we got off of that and got onto this other section of the climb (which was an open gravel road)..... power climbing...... not so steep as it is being able to roll along in a fairly big gear..... that's where I just didn't have the legs whereas earlier when I first got there and I pre-rode the course,

I felt super strong on all of that stuff. Usually when you are not acclimated (to altitude), the first day you are there at altitude you are going to be plenty strong, you'll be fine but then you will go on a steady decline in performance until you bottom out and then you start to rebound. It takes most people about three weeks to really acclimate to altitude. Big Bear is up there enough to where it is an altitude race.

When did you put the hammer down?

Once I got over that first long initial climb (it's a pretty long one... it takes you all the way to the top of the mountain) I was able to recover a little bit ......... then I definitely was putting the hammer down because I faded pretty far back and I knew I had to get going if I wanted to pick up some positions. I passed a bunch of bikes once I got rolling there. I finished real strong even though I had those two falls..... I was up to 14th when I fell the first time and I'm just about positive I would have made it into the top ten..... but those two mistakes cost me. I was a little disappointed in myself. To be making mistakes like that is not like me normally but it happens, and that's racing. You just have to go on to the next one.

Did you have any unusual problems with the race?

No unusual problems. Everything for the most part was pretty smooth. Just crashing (laughs).

How do you rate the course?

I like that course, it's a course that I raced on a long time ago and did well on. I finished fourth I think in 1995 as an Expert on that same course. So it was a good course. I like single loop courses like that. Some people don't particularly like them but I think ...... a lot of the races in Virginia and West Virginia are like that.... point to point races. You start, and you go out and you come in then you finish and there are no laps or anything like that.... just one big one. That's true mountain biking to me. Cross-country mountain biking has never been a great spectator sport anyway.... and if you want to keep the riders coming back, then I think you need to have races like that. That's mountain biking in my mind.

Yeah, things went well there. They do a good job out there. Team Big Bear, they've been doing it a long time. They also put on the one in Park City as well.

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

Try real hard not to crash.

Anything you'd like to add?

Basically, it was a good trip. We hadn't been to Big Bear in three years. We used to go, years ago and then we quit going because it's always set on the schedule a number of weeks ahead of the next race... a lot of times (like this year) the next race is in Vermont. All the way back to the East coast. It's never really been worth it for us from a business standpoint to come out there and do our tech expo with me being the only rider. Now that we have the pro women riders on our team, we went to support them mainly. We were really pleased. Everything went really well. Gretchen Reeves that rides for our team ended up 6th Pro Women. Lanie Mason was 15th and she just got back from racing a World Cup on Tuesday of that week. She was kind of tired and she still pulled off a 15th and Willow Koerber was right behind her. Willow had some stomach problems during the week and wasn't feeling too well and she still pulled off 16th! We were really pleased with that and Beth Frye had her very first big pro race....... first time to California....... she was all amped up but ended up getting a flat tire..... so it was a little disappointing for her.