So a small crew of us UVM boys (myself, Kyle Hickey, Dave Smutok, and Cyrus House and a few xc kids) went out for the mountain bike Collegiate Nationals last week at Angel Fire Resort in New Mexico. It was my first time out of the northeast to ride and it was epic. the courses were unreal. Both the DH and the MTNX were the same courses from the world cup 2 years ago.
The MTNX course was HUGE. never ridden anything like it before in my whole life. it was almost a minute long too. it sorta switchbacked down the mountain with a bunch of berms, rollers, tables doubles, step ups, step downs, and other features. finished up huge with three 30+ foot gap jumps at the bottom. probably only 5 guys out of the 200 riders cleared all 3 in practice, but no one did it in the race. smutok from uvm was able to clean them once or twice, but come race tiem the wind picked up worse then it already was and prevented anyone from jumping them.
The downhill course. i am sitting here stumbling over words that i could use to describe it. there are thousands, but somewhere along the lines stupid fast and rugged. the course was about 5:30, one of the longer courses i have ridden. the top was mostly woods, with nasty, unrelenting rocks and roots. and they were all just oddly enough placed that it really tossed you around. just brutally technical. then the lower half of the course just opened up and kicked in to mach 5. the few woods sections towards the bottom were all super smooth, no rocks, few roots, but became brake bumped from n00bs scared of the high speeeeeed. many of you have seen world cup footage from 2 years ago. you might remember the hip jump.....yea **** that. that thing was HUGE, 12 foot tall launch 30-40 gap to the transition, i dont even know. and the landing was straightup singletrack about 3 feet wide max. but hitting it smaller was still fun. and right after that the course went down about 100yds of ski trail into the woods for a sec and then back out with a stepdown gap over a fireroad right into another flat stepdown launch onto a huge hill and you would come shoooting out at 45mph or more. by far the most fun sequence of features i have ever ridden on my bike.
so now for the pictures.
FIRST STOP: COORS FACTORY!!!
brew kettles
mmmmm, 3 free beers
ok hicks is ready to brew, now onto ANGEL FIRE!
The MTNX Course:
Smutok scoping out the 3 big finishing jumps
Me hittin a jump
Smutok jumpin
Me way short, way nose heavy, slid out of this one luckily
Me racin
Smutok owning.
Cyrus getting taken out by some douche
Smutok was killing the course, qualifed 3rd. unlucky crash in heat 2, finished 9th.
Myself, qualified 8th, same unlucky crash on the same corner as Smutok but in my first heat, finished 17th.
Me hitting a jump after the race.
The Downhill Course:
All down hill from here.
some of the merciless rocks and roots through the woods.
one of the many line choice options. the woods here had thousands of different lines. spending some time checking them out will make a huge difference
a lovely view
scoping out a nasty section below off a tough roller/drop
hiking up, right below the double step down, you can imagine how fast you come flying down that second landing seen up above.
smoooooooth down below
another good view along the course
Kyle was the only one crazy/dumb enough to huck this into a horribley boulderd and flat landing, pic=no justice of course. its actually about 6 feet to flat bolders and holes
me on the stupid corner that took me out in my race. crashed twice, still finished 16th though, i will take my revenge next year.
kyle focused, great race for him, finsihed 6th
Chris Heath of Fort Lewis with a phat ol whip on the first of the double stepdown, he took 1st
Me, Cy, and Hicks taking a break in practice
Smutok, solid run, finished 8th
Hicks on the first gap
Hicks ripping a corner
Me casing the step down in practice
Kyle bolting towards the finish
Shinanigins:
Hicks whippin up some breakfast, priceless pic
A raw egg.....
Whats gonna happen to the egg?!?
It blew up. and no we did not open the door, it was BLOWN open in close proximatey to my face.
Post weekend games at middlebury macky's home in taos
smutok and i trying some picnic tricks as hicks said
cyrus giving some a try
hickey is the picnic trick master
Thats all for now, enjoy the pics!
-Adam-
The MTNX course was HUGE. never ridden anything like it before in my whole life. it was almost a minute long too. it sorta switchbacked down the mountain with a bunch of berms, rollers, tables doubles, step ups, step downs, and other features. finished up huge with three 30+ foot gap jumps at the bottom. probably only 5 guys out of the 200 riders cleared all 3 in practice, but no one did it in the race. smutok from uvm was able to clean them once or twice, but come race tiem the wind picked up worse then it already was and prevented anyone from jumping them.
The downhill course. i am sitting here stumbling over words that i could use to describe it. there are thousands, but somewhere along the lines stupid fast and rugged. the course was about 5:30, one of the longer courses i have ridden. the top was mostly woods, with nasty, unrelenting rocks and roots. and they were all just oddly enough placed that it really tossed you around. just brutally technical. then the lower half of the course just opened up and kicked in to mach 5. the few woods sections towards the bottom were all super smooth, no rocks, few roots, but became brake bumped from n00bs scared of the high speeeeeed. many of you have seen world cup footage from 2 years ago. you might remember the hip jump.....yea **** that. that thing was HUGE, 12 foot tall launch 30-40 gap to the transition, i dont even know. and the landing was straightup singletrack about 3 feet wide max. but hitting it smaller was still fun. and right after that the course went down about 100yds of ski trail into the woods for a sec and then back out with a stepdown gap over a fireroad right into another flat stepdown launch onto a huge hill and you would come shoooting out at 45mph or more. by far the most fun sequence of features i have ever ridden on my bike.
so now for the pictures.
FIRST STOP: COORS FACTORY!!!
brew kettles
mmmmm, 3 free beers
ok hicks is ready to brew, now onto ANGEL FIRE!
The MTNX Course:
Smutok scoping out the 3 big finishing jumps
Me hittin a jump
Smutok jumpin
Me way short, way nose heavy, slid out of this one luckily
Me racin
Smutok owning.
Cyrus getting taken out by some douche
Smutok was killing the course, qualifed 3rd. unlucky crash in heat 2, finished 9th.
Myself, qualified 8th, same unlucky crash on the same corner as Smutok but in my first heat, finished 17th.
Me hitting a jump after the race.
The Downhill Course:
All down hill from here.
some of the merciless rocks and roots through the woods.
one of the many line choice options. the woods here had thousands of different lines. spending some time checking them out will make a huge difference
a lovely view
scoping out a nasty section below off a tough roller/drop
hiking up, right below the double step down, you can imagine how fast you come flying down that second landing seen up above.
smoooooooth down below
another good view along the course
Kyle was the only one crazy/dumb enough to huck this into a horribley boulderd and flat landing, pic=no justice of course. its actually about 6 feet to flat bolders and holes
me on the stupid corner that took me out in my race. crashed twice, still finished 16th though, i will take my revenge next year.
kyle focused, great race for him, finsihed 6th
Chris Heath of Fort Lewis with a phat ol whip on the first of the double stepdown, he took 1st
Me, Cy, and Hicks taking a break in practice
Smutok, solid run, finished 8th
Hicks on the first gap
Hicks ripping a corner
Me casing the step down in practice
Kyle bolting towards the finish
Shinanigins:
Hicks whippin up some breakfast, priceless pic
A raw egg.....
Whats gonna happen to the egg?!?
It blew up. and no we did not open the door, it was BLOWN open in close proximatey to my face.
Post weekend games at middlebury macky's home in taos
smutok and i trying some picnic tricks as hicks said
cyrus giving some a try
hickey is the picnic trick master
Thats all for now, enjoy the pics!
-Adam-
very nice pics.
