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XC:
Thursday morning we start the road trip up to North Star. As we pass by Mammoth, which got dumped on with over 5 ft of powder, I wondered if I?d be shredding through any snow myself the next day. Instead, Friday morning, I find myself pedaling through some viscous mud as I make my way up the first single-track climb which consists of half a dozen switchbacks. Starting the race with a couple thousand feet of climbing at over 7,000 ft, I realized it was going to be a painful battle.
The worst obstacle I had to overcome was, indeed, at the beginning of the race. Although the very beginning of the XC race was quite opposite from what I expected with a non-neutral flat start on pavement through the North Star Resort?s ?village,? once the climbing began I felt like expected, far from acclimated, let alone ?ready,? as we had gotten there late the night before and to the race 30 min?s before the start. However, after gagging up the climb and finally throwing up a couple times. I started feeling fresh again about mid-way through the first climb.
I felt even more invigorated once I started descending the sweet flowie single-track through a forest of pine trees with tight turns, bermed corners, and intermittent rock gardens through out. Although I felt pretty confident riding most of the descent, not riding dirt enough caught up to me towards the bottom, as my calves started to tighten and I did not have enough momentum to ride completely through some of the technical rock/boulder sections towards the bottom that were on flat which some of the girls were flying through. After all, most of my competitors were riding $10,000 bikes, sponsored (ie Luna), attending major not only NORBA nats, but world-class races.
As I came around to my second lap, I was feeling pretty strong on the climbs so I passed some girls and went from being last to somewhere in the middle. I really enjoyed the course, the weather was perfect, sunny blue sky (by the second lap the fog had rolled out and the sun had shed some light on the course, yes, when we started it was still semi-dark). The XC race seemed to have gone by pretty fast and by the end, I was feeling like it seemed shorter (23 miles not enough) than a lot of the NORBA XC races and should have had an additional lap for a total of 4 laps. All in all, it was a super fun course and a very exciting event. I was glad to hear everyone cheering ?go Bruins? as no one really knew any of the other team mascots/what the other schools were. Also, even though I was the only one representing UCLA, it helped having my former Cal teammates up there which were not allowed to race this year, so most of them came as volunteers to work at Nats. They gave me all the support they could.
Short Track
At the start of the whistle, 60 girls pushing pedal to the metal, all at once was quite an experience to say the least. I was towards the front of the pack, but imagined the mayhem that was going on behind. Trying to pass as many girls as possible on the climb, I stayed on the girl?s wheel ahead of me on the tight-cornered single track through the trees that transitioned into a bermed dual but single slalom-type course, which made it impossible to pass. Once you went over the step at the bottom of the descent, which popped you onto a paved bricked pathway with a tight turn that immediately turned back into dirt, it was back to the beginning of the loop. Now, there was no longer a line of girls wheel to wheel, all packed together. By the fourth lap, I was pulled, along with half of the field, now watching the rest of this intense competition. I ended up finishing 30th, same exact place as the XC.
4X
After deciding not to do the 4X, realizing I had no chance and being exhausted, I decided to kill two birds with one stone- work on my down hill skills and my cycling tan lines :-) Hence the last photos in the album.
Hope you enjoy these couple pics. The entire album can be found on FB:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/album.php?aid=10086&id=1837967950
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SDSU [Collegiate MTB]
XC.D - David Gingrich
Saturday morning promised dry and really hot (like 95°+) racing conditions on an 18-mi course beginning with a 1-mi sandy doubletrack, a tough Tuna-like road climb, and awesome singletrack descents, rollers, and climbs with mx-style bermed corners and granite slickrock sections. My appeals to race XC B's, showing a road A's license, were denied without Hanns' presence and I was forced to register in the D's. The fields were dominated by SDSU, followed by UCSB, then UCLA, and USC, as the northern schools were at Chico. We agreed to start all collegiate and NORBA categories in one mass-start launch, after joking of adding a mass Le Mans start. All fields besides the A's and cat 1's rode the same single lap of an 18-mile course, while the A's/1's added an extra loop. Several A's and a 1 drilled it on "go" and I hung on as we instantly broke away in the likes of a World Cup Cyclocross start complete with the sand. Once on the 9-10% road climb I was in the company of 2 A's and the 1 after we dropped a couple of A's. I was happy to deposit time in the bank as I was on a hardtail and was certain to make heavy withdrawals on the descents to full-suspension riders, hard-core mtn bikers, and local Aztecs on trails I hadn't ridden before. At the top of the climb the A's and 1 went right and I went straight, entering immaculate rolling singletrack just as a 2 paced up to me. After the skilled 2 left me, I was alone during the next hour desperate to make time on any ascents and flats while trying to descend as fast as I dared. After that hour, I stopped at an intersection where a marked singletrack crossed the road I was climbing. I couldn't figure out if I should turn left, right, or continue straight since there were none of the previous arrow signs, so I decided to wait for the next rider rather than take the 0.66 odds of taking the wrong way. The next rider to roll up was a strong SDSU D's rider who was also unable to make the race day upgrade. He knew the way and we rode to the top and I said "see ya at the bottom" as we dropped down a long singletrack descent and his FSR fs rig disappeared immediately. It was a little disconcerting how fast even his dust trails dissipated as I dropped further back. So I thought my victory was gone, as we only had a few short miles on road and flat to the finish. But I was surprised to find this SDSU guy stopped at the turn to the last 2k finishing section of dirt since he wasn't certain of the way to go. I let him lead out and followed him til I needed to launch a sprint, shouting words of encouragement to him as I passed and finished well clear. Finish time, 1:40, ahead of all B's, C's, and D's. The sad closing is that a near majority of riders got lost, missing the course markers, and the official declared the race nullified. 380-mile drive and 1:40 suffering for nothing - not victory nor even upgrade value.
SD.D - Peter Felton
After the failed XC race that morning I was motivated to do well in the Super D. It was my first non-XC race I had ever done, so I wasn't expecting too much. It was kinda intimidating because most of the competitors were on big downhill bikes.
The actual race was really fun. The course was mostly twisty singletrack, and even though it was pretty loose ad rocky at some points it was still fast. I felt like I was in my groove, hitting the berms and water bars. One jump though I hit way too fast and went right off the trail into the bushes. I got right back on and kept going, deciding to not take anymore unnecessary risks. There were a few flat/uphill sections where I passed a couple of the downhillers ahead of me. Then before I knew it I came through the last section and finished.
My first downhill race experience was a really good one, I had a lot of fun and apparently I finished 2nd? Cool. Thanks for taking me down David/Anna. Good to meet all you guys, and hopefully I'll be riding a lot with you.
STXC.D - Andrew Axley
Keegan, Jon and I stayed the night and raced the XC short track on
sunday morning. A fast, relatively flat course turned out to be
Keegan's specialty. Racing both the C's and D's (all of UCLA was
riding D's), Keegan pushed hard and came out number one. I came in
4th, and Jon was a little further back. Not bad for UCLA's first MTB
race of the week.
LA Velodrome Racing Assn. Cup #4 [USCF Track]
Omnium.4/5 - Joseph Patterson
I crashed out of the points race (40 laps, sprints every ten laps), but won the tempo (15 laps, point per lap) the scratch (15 laps, only final lap matters) and the omnium. I spent my winnings on Tegaderm to cover up the square foot of skin I lost while sliding around the Siberian pine slip'n'slide. The high price of upgrade points...
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