EVENT RECAP CONTINUED (for part 1 please visit: http://ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2954320#post2954320)
Earlier in the day the Super-D field was treated to what amounted to three different courses all in one run. Early practices were struggling to find safe lines over rock gardens rimed with frost. Mud bogs halfway down the course claimed more than one rider and rear mech before finally giving way to the super-tack hero dirt of the bottom half. By the time racing got underway at 10 the line of demarcation between good and bad had edged its way almost to the top and the frost had left the building. Racers shot through the finish corral covered head to toe in slime, many just completely blown out of their gourds. We had thrown a bit more climbing in than last year and the gravity guys were feeling it. Our pals from California were also feeling the altitude, but from the white teeth poking about behind grizzled mud-covered faces I’d guess that almost everyone had fun.
The Super-D did raise a few questions on our end though. In year’s past we’ve edged more and more towards a DH-lite style course. Our true SD guys pointed this out and in deference to the fact that we had so much going on for the gravity crowd this weekend we auto-corrected and threw in a bit more climbing. Some grumbled, some were happy about the changes and almost all strapped up and made their way to the line. The questions we were left with were these: what do you guys want from a super-d? Is the standard acceptable or should we go our own way? Does it makes sense to run a standard SD and what basically amounts to a LeMans-style start DH-lite SD? What do you guys think? There’s a Super-D forum on www.racemsc.com – feel free to throw your .02 in.
Sunday’s XC was brutal. No other way to put it…and that’s with sunshiney skies and warm weather. While course conditions were as good as they ever get (more and more wet sections were turning into blue-groove hero lines), the course at Angel Fire is just plain hard. The chicane section at the bottom of both loops claimed more than one rider and one pro had the serious misfortune to actually get clotheslined by the tape. What we later found out was that there was an exaggerated optical illusion effect with multiple layers of tape advancing and receding in the minds of riders who’d all just descended close to 3 miles. We’ll look for a better solution for next year’s race – maybe even heading off to the peak across the drainage. Katie Compton and Jay Henry won their respective Pro fields, with Jennifer Smith and Ross Schnell coming across in second.
Coupla things to mention about the XC. A few riders and managers asked us to consider going with the old World Cup loop (the 6-miler) and running a multiple lap format. We’re open to that idea, but would like to get a better sense of what the majority would like. In principal we’re opposed to the basic premise of resort-style straight up and straight back down model, but AFR’s terrain is so epic we’ve looked past our objection and gone big loop there. We’re curious about how you guys feel. Sound off on the forums if you get a chance.
The other issue is litter on the XC course. Over 200 gel packets were picked up. You folks that dropped them? Words cannot describe my disappointment in you. I thought we were past this. You’ve all heard me preach on the subject of litter for years. You’ve heard me via the MSC, you’ve heard me via The Firecracker and The Fall Classic. It is simply unacceptable. It is unconscionable. It is offensive. I/we think less of you as human beings. And we’re justified in that. If you must litter please come see me and I’ll refund your money and remove you from the results. I’ll also ask you to go race somewhere else...forever. It’s just lame. And now I’m ranting.
Here’s the deal, I’ll make it simple: it’s against the rules. It’s against the MSC rules and the rules of the basic social contract that we’ve all implicitly signed as members of the outdoor community. Get caught littering in one of our races and face immediate disqualification from the event and from the series. I’ll also publish your name in the post-event recap as someone who felt themselves above the rules and was summarily asked to leave our community. It’s a friggin’ gel pack. Don’t suck. Put it in your pocket.
Getting off soapbox...
Sunday night brought 4X National Championships for Pro Men and Women. In retrospect (and we did put considerable thought into the scheduling of this), if we were asked to do it again we’d run the comp immediately after the UCI/MSC 4X event. We felt that it was a bit lackluster in comparison the 4X from the day before, mostly because it forced riders and fans to redirect and refocus their energy. Melissa Buhl once again proved that she’s riding on another level and Yeti/Fox rider Rich Houseman played the old bull routine to perfection and pimped the other riders in his final moto as they got balled up in the first corner. Big House took the inside line from the 4th position and never looked back as he rolled to his first ever 4X National Championship title.
Monday saw over 600 DH’ers toe the line. As the last day of the event we’d gotten over the hump and almost the entire crew was busy breaking down everything not DH…with the exception of Nate. This was his moment. With Cawley at the top we began firing riders downhill in 30-second intervals for almost 7 hours. By the time we got to the pros the lower chicane had been pretty dialed and the big boys were applying the scorched earth treatment to the whole course. Local hero Kain Leonard unseated BetterRide Hot Seat sitter Brad Benedict who’d been up there for most of the day. With 2 riders left to go it looked like Kain’s time might hold, but the very next rider down, Kieran Bennett bested him by .02 seconds to take the top spot. Newcomer and #1 seed Aaron Gwinn was the last rider on course and in due course was mathematically eliminated. Bennett took the win and the fat paycheck. Kain put his point on the floor and earned serious consideration from the folks at USAC for their World’s squad that’ll be headed to Italy later this summer to contest the rainbow jersey (no, not that one, the other one.)
On the women’s side Melissa Buhl once again roasted the field with a margin of victory of just under 47 seconds. That makes it a triple for the Buhlinator for the weekend. Ho-hum. She just makes it look so easy – we like her chances at Worlds. On a sidenote we’re all pulling for Lisa Myklak who we later found out was nursing a bad ankle throughout the weekend. A visibly distraught Myklak strung together a solid run that was good enough for second and hopefully strong consideration for the World’s Team.
Man, that’s a long recap. Angel Fire went well, the courses were sick and the weather was ultimately pretty good. All in all a pretty epic weekend. The Dale’s Pale Ale party hounds brought their usual vibe, we gave a ton of product away at both video premiers and the clunker crit looks like it’s here to stay. Special thanks go out to everyone at Angel Fire Resort (but especially Andy whose patience and good humor continue to amaze me), Cath and John from CJ Timing and all of our sponsors who’ve supported our program year in and year out. Santa Cruz, Dale’s, Fox, Toyota FJ, Shimano…and the kickass number plates from Static – they get cooler every year. Thanks also to all of our other patrons – you guys make it happen in the Rockies. We couldn’t do it without you. Thanks. And lastly, thanks to all of you who made the trip. It’s always hard to get to Angel Fire, but you guys rolled out in force from all corners of the Rockies and at least half the states in the union. We were blown away. We had a great time and we hope you did too.
See you in CB (where magical things are happening as I write). This year’s event’s going to be better than ever. Look for another newsletter in a week or so with all the juicy details.
MM
Earlier in the day the Super-D field was treated to what amounted to three different courses all in one run. Early practices were struggling to find safe lines over rock gardens rimed with frost. Mud bogs halfway down the course claimed more than one rider and rear mech before finally giving way to the super-tack hero dirt of the bottom half. By the time racing got underway at 10 the line of demarcation between good and bad had edged its way almost to the top and the frost had left the building. Racers shot through the finish corral covered head to toe in slime, many just completely blown out of their gourds. We had thrown a bit more climbing in than last year and the gravity guys were feeling it. Our pals from California were also feeling the altitude, but from the white teeth poking about behind grizzled mud-covered faces I’d guess that almost everyone had fun.
The Super-D did raise a few questions on our end though. In year’s past we’ve edged more and more towards a DH-lite style course. Our true SD guys pointed this out and in deference to the fact that we had so much going on for the gravity crowd this weekend we auto-corrected and threw in a bit more climbing. Some grumbled, some were happy about the changes and almost all strapped up and made their way to the line. The questions we were left with were these: what do you guys want from a super-d? Is the standard acceptable or should we go our own way? Does it makes sense to run a standard SD and what basically amounts to a LeMans-style start DH-lite SD? What do you guys think? There’s a Super-D forum on www.racemsc.com – feel free to throw your .02 in.
Sunday’s XC was brutal. No other way to put it…and that’s with sunshiney skies and warm weather. While course conditions were as good as they ever get (more and more wet sections were turning into blue-groove hero lines), the course at Angel Fire is just plain hard. The chicane section at the bottom of both loops claimed more than one rider and one pro had the serious misfortune to actually get clotheslined by the tape. What we later found out was that there was an exaggerated optical illusion effect with multiple layers of tape advancing and receding in the minds of riders who’d all just descended close to 3 miles. We’ll look for a better solution for next year’s race – maybe even heading off to the peak across the drainage. Katie Compton and Jay Henry won their respective Pro fields, with Jennifer Smith and Ross Schnell coming across in second.
Coupla things to mention about the XC. A few riders and managers asked us to consider going with the old World Cup loop (the 6-miler) and running a multiple lap format. We’re open to that idea, but would like to get a better sense of what the majority would like. In principal we’re opposed to the basic premise of resort-style straight up and straight back down model, but AFR’s terrain is so epic we’ve looked past our objection and gone big loop there. We’re curious about how you guys feel. Sound off on the forums if you get a chance.
The other issue is litter on the XC course. Over 200 gel packets were picked up. You folks that dropped them? Words cannot describe my disappointment in you. I thought we were past this. You’ve all heard me preach on the subject of litter for years. You’ve heard me via the MSC, you’ve heard me via The Firecracker and The Fall Classic. It is simply unacceptable. It is unconscionable. It is offensive. I/we think less of you as human beings. And we’re justified in that. If you must litter please come see me and I’ll refund your money and remove you from the results. I’ll also ask you to go race somewhere else...forever. It’s just lame. And now I’m ranting.
Here’s the deal, I’ll make it simple: it’s against the rules. It’s against the MSC rules and the rules of the basic social contract that we’ve all implicitly signed as members of the outdoor community. Get caught littering in one of our races and face immediate disqualification from the event and from the series. I’ll also publish your name in the post-event recap as someone who felt themselves above the rules and was summarily asked to leave our community. It’s a friggin’ gel pack. Don’t suck. Put it in your pocket.
Getting off soapbox...
Sunday night brought 4X National Championships for Pro Men and Women. In retrospect (and we did put considerable thought into the scheduling of this), if we were asked to do it again we’d run the comp immediately after the UCI/MSC 4X event. We felt that it was a bit lackluster in comparison the 4X from the day before, mostly because it forced riders and fans to redirect and refocus their energy. Melissa Buhl once again proved that she’s riding on another level and Yeti/Fox rider Rich Houseman played the old bull routine to perfection and pimped the other riders in his final moto as they got balled up in the first corner. Big House took the inside line from the 4th position and never looked back as he rolled to his first ever 4X National Championship title.
Monday saw over 600 DH’ers toe the line. As the last day of the event we’d gotten over the hump and almost the entire crew was busy breaking down everything not DH…with the exception of Nate. This was his moment. With Cawley at the top we began firing riders downhill in 30-second intervals for almost 7 hours. By the time we got to the pros the lower chicane had been pretty dialed and the big boys were applying the scorched earth treatment to the whole course. Local hero Kain Leonard unseated BetterRide Hot Seat sitter Brad Benedict who’d been up there for most of the day. With 2 riders left to go it looked like Kain’s time might hold, but the very next rider down, Kieran Bennett bested him by .02 seconds to take the top spot. Newcomer and #1 seed Aaron Gwinn was the last rider on course and in due course was mathematically eliminated. Bennett took the win and the fat paycheck. Kain put his point on the floor and earned serious consideration from the folks at USAC for their World’s squad that’ll be headed to Italy later this summer to contest the rainbow jersey (no, not that one, the other one.)
On the women’s side Melissa Buhl once again roasted the field with a margin of victory of just under 47 seconds. That makes it a triple for the Buhlinator for the weekend. Ho-hum. She just makes it look so easy – we like her chances at Worlds. On a sidenote we’re all pulling for Lisa Myklak who we later found out was nursing a bad ankle throughout the weekend. A visibly distraught Myklak strung together a solid run that was good enough for second and hopefully strong consideration for the World’s Team.
Man, that’s a long recap. Angel Fire went well, the courses were sick and the weather was ultimately pretty good. All in all a pretty epic weekend. The Dale’s Pale Ale party hounds brought their usual vibe, we gave a ton of product away at both video premiers and the clunker crit looks like it’s here to stay. Special thanks go out to everyone at Angel Fire Resort (but especially Andy whose patience and good humor continue to amaze me), Cath and John from CJ Timing and all of our sponsors who’ve supported our program year in and year out. Santa Cruz, Dale’s, Fox, Toyota FJ, Shimano…and the kickass number plates from Static – they get cooler every year. Thanks also to all of our other patrons – you guys make it happen in the Rockies. We couldn’t do it without you. Thanks. And lastly, thanks to all of you who made the trip. It’s always hard to get to Angel Fire, but you guys rolled out in force from all corners of the Rockies and at least half the states in the union. We were blown away. We had a great time and we hope you did too.
See you in CB (where magical things are happening as I write). This year’s event’s going to be better than ever. Look for another newsletter in a week or so with all the juicy details.
MM
