Not for long...
It's crazy how he eats up steep terrain but lives in GA
Ya know, I did not even know strobel was here till race day...maybe he wasnt wearing that kit in practice?....
Think really really hard and it might just come to you
Yeah yeah, they're worried about him announcing in his tighty whiteys that he raced Snowmass in.
Thanks for the props! I had a pretty decent run, with a mechanical (I didn't check my stem bolts and my stem had about a 1/4 inch of play at the bottom. Pretty sketch hitting a 40 foot double with a loose bar!). I took it easier than I should have in some spots that I figured would be blown out Should of, would of, could of, I guess! Pedalling at elevation was killer though!
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Splitting it might not be a bad idea. The bias towards XC was obvious, and if we could shove those guys off onto some sort of perfectly smooth course (like they seem to ask for), then DH can have more practice time as well as the full attention of race announcers.The rumor is that Nationals location has not been decided for next year. It sounded like USA cycling wanted to split the gravity and XC disciplines into different venues (dumb IMO), but maybe it's what is needed to bring the nationals gravity race back to a more world cup style track (Port Angeles anyone
-KT
Whiteface is a great venue if only for it's location. It's far from major airports, but it's also the site of the 19somethingsomething winter olympics...tons of places to stay and tons of infrastructure for major events. Plus the trails offer a good mix of technical northern coastal riding, WFO ski trails, and loamy pine forest stuff. I think given the overall vertical of the mountain, you'd really see the best riders come forward.
Thanks for the props! I had a pretty decent run, with a mechanical (I didn't check my stem bolts and my stem had about a 1/4 inch of play at the bottom. Pretty sketch hitting a 40 foot double with a loose bar!). I took it easier than I should have in some spots that I figured would be blown out Should of, would of, could of, I guess! Pedalling at elevation was killer though!
Back on topic,
I think a lot of the difference has to do with the type of trails. In the PNW, we don't ride dry dusty flat trails. We ride steep, rooty, and wet stuff (most of the time) As the race series travels around the country, it's interesting to see how riders perform at different races and how they don't do as well at others. Guys from dry climates seem to do well in those conditions, but tend to not do as well when it gets wet and vice versa (please note, this is a VERY large generalization and there are numerous exceptions at any given race)
I know that little things like tempurature can play a huge part in a race result. At the Tahoe GRT a few weeks ago, it was nearly 100 degrees. when we left seattle, it was 60 outside. a 40 degree increase in temperature really takes it's effect on the human body. All of the guys I was with, myself included, really felt like we had no energy at all and it showed in the race results. I didn't crash, I didn't have a mechanical, I just couldn't get my body to pedal at that tempurature. It's the same thing with elevation. It takes a while to adjust to the different geographic locations, time zones, elevation etc and that effect is amplifed when trying to perform a physical task.
We had an interesting discussion this weekend about the course. While I thought it was one of the most fun courses I've ever ridden, the point was made that it doesn't do a good job of determining which of the riders in the US will do well at worlds (or world cups). The general consenus was that we need more world cup style tracks for big races in the US. We have the tracks, we just need to have the big races on them to really help prepare US riders for the world cups. Sol Vista was probally a great track to determine who to send to worlds last year. This year is probally not as indicitive of who will do well (with the exception of Gwin). Not to take anything away from any of the guys on the podium as they all killed it and deserve to be on the worlds team.
The rumor is that Nationals location has not been decided for next year. It sounded like USA cycling wanted to split the gravity and XC disciplines into different venues (dumb IMO), but maybe it's what is needed to bring the nationals gravity race back to a more world cup style track (Port Angeles anyone
As a whole though, it was awesome to see the level of talent that the US is producing. If DH can continue with the current level of progression, there is no reason that we can't have more riders like Gwin/Strobel/Riffle out doing well on the WC.
-KT
