Norba National #7
Snowmass, CO
August 7-8, 2004

It’s always great having a race in Colorado. I get to drive instead of fly and the whole family usually comes. Greg and I loaded up our truck and drove over to Snowmass late Thursday morning. We took the scenic route over Independence Pass. After arriving in Snowmass we unloaded all our stuff and then went for an easy one hour spin.

On Friday we did one lap of the cross-country course. It is a classic mountain bike course. Right from the start it goes uphill, and quite steeply. For almost forty minutes the course climbs on a mix of dirt roads and singletrack. After topping out at the top of the chair lift the course turns into almost all singletrack and meanders up and down while traversing across the mountain. The trails were super fun and super fast. Some of the best descents I’ve ridden all year. Challenging in places but nothing scary or dangerous. Just pure high speed fun. Each lap was almost an hour long so we were anticipating only two laps on race day. This was the kind of course that all mountain bike racers dream of, and all spectators despise.

On Saturday we didn’t race until 2:30pm. When you race that late you have to wake up early enough to eat breakfast and then some kind of early lunch. There isn’t really time to go anywhere and you shouldn’t really walk around the venue before the race. Gotta keep the legs fresh. So you spend a lot of time hanging out in the condo.

Luckily the weather held and we had a partly cloudy but dry day for racing. I got to start in the front row this time, which always makes things easier. Jimena set the pace right from the start and quickly dropped everyone on the first steep climb. She was by far the strongest rider today and no one could touch her. My teammate Shonny Vanlandingham fought hard and kept Jimena to within 30seconds but could never close the gap. I had a better day than last week and moved into 5th place by the top of the big climb. I chose to ride my full suspension today because of the rough terrain. I can’t think of the last time I had so much fun on my bike in a race going downhill. I was grinning from ear to ear. Usually the descents in races are so slippery, muddy and filled with roots that I rarely enjoy them. But not today. It was pure bliss!

I wish that wonderful feeling could have carried me up the next climb, but unfortunately it disappeared once the trail started heading uphill. The second time up the big climb was a bit more painful. Gretchan Reeves was closing in on me from behind and got to within 30 seconds by the top of the hill. I had caught Dara Marks on the downhill but she dropped me on the climb. But lucky for me I had my super fast Blur and added another 30 seconds to my lead on Gretchan Reeves. And I passed Dara as she stopped to fix a flat. I had another great ride down the mountain and finished the race in 4th place. Very satisfying. Much better weekend. The legs are starting to come back. Yeah!

The short track was at 1pm on Sunday. After a leisurely morning of sleeping in and then breakfast while watching Ghostbusters, I headed down to the venue around 11:30am. Did a short warm-up on the trainer and then did 4-5 laps on the course. The short track started with a long middle chain ring climb, followed by a technical descent. Lots of loose tight turns, a series of five large “speed bumps” (mounds of dirt about two feet high), and then an off-camber section followed by a high speed sweeping left hand turn into a tight U-turn and then the finish. It was going to be a hard day.

My immediate family was there along with cousins, lots of small kids, friends with kids, and my coach. I couldn’t disappoint. I got the whole-shot off the start line and led the field up the first climb. Fine with me because that meant I was first down the descent. That’s a huge advantage because you can avoid the chaos and crashes that always happen further back. On the third lap Kerry Barnholt took a strong pull up the hill and then rode quite aggressively down the descent. I was second down the hill and when we came through the start/finish I noticed we had a gap over the rest of the riders. I decided to take advantage of the situation and put in a hard attack up the hill. I quickly established a large gap and rode alone for the next two laps. My teammates were able to get away from the field and bridge up to me. So we had a Luna train for the next three laps. Jimena Florit recovered from her bad start (I’m told she couldn’t get into her pedal and ended up in 20th after the first lap) and was charging hard. She was starting to get dangerously close to our Luna train. So I went to the front and took a huge pull, trying to keep the gap to Jimena from getting any smaller. It worked for me but my teammates couldn’t hang on to my wheel. I ended up riding the last two laps alone. Jimena passed both my teammates but didn’t get any closer and I cruised in for the victory. Yippee! I finally felt really strong today. I was able to push the bigger gear that I couldn’t push last weekend. And it’s always great to win when the family is watching. I love all of the support and doing well is my way of showing how much I appreciate them being there.

The best part of the day was yet to come. Greg and I quickly finished packing the car, ate a quick lunch, went to the podium ceremony, and then met two of our friends for a ride on the Government Trail. It’s a famous ride that starts at the top of Snowmass Mountain and then traverses the various Aspen ski areas, ending at Maroon Creek. It is some of the best singletrack I’ve ridden. Absolutely gorgeous! We had planned on taking the shuttle from Aspen back up to Snowmass. Unfortunately we didn’t know that it cost $3 and none of us had any money. So our wonderful ride became not so wonderful when we realized we were going to have to ride the long grueling climb back up to Snowmass village. Made for a 3 1/2hr ride. After the short track race and then the Government Trail I was exhausted. And except for the last hour of the ride, the day’s riding was a huge success!

We have three weeks until the Norba finals in Durango. Should be another great weekend of altitude racing. And then the series is finished and it’s off to the World Championships in France.

Happy trails!
Alison