Norba National
Snowmass, CO
July 23-24, 2005

I always love when the big races come to Colorado. For one thing my whole family usually comes to watch and the other thing is I don’t have to jump on a plane to get there. I drove to Snowmass Thursday morning so I could ride a lap of the course before dark. The drive up was beautiful, especially going over Independence Pass. I got to the venue around 4:30 pm, just after a heavy rainstorm. Lucky for me the sky cleared and the weather looked good for an early evening ride. Just as I rolled out of the venue on my bike someone yelled “watch out for the bears”. I guess there were some bears in the area two days earlier. Just what I wanted to hear before riding an hour and a half on the course, all alone.

The course was very similar to last year; one very long painful climb followed by a super fun rocky descent. Most of the climbing was on fire roads. Not nearly as exciting as singletrack. The descent was a mix of rocks, roots, stream crossings, and dirt roads. Really fun and quite challenging at high speed. There were great views on top. You have to take in the beauty of the flowers, trees, clouds, view etc. during training because you sure as heck don’t see any of that during the race.

Our start was once again at 3:15pm. Another long morning of doing nothing. My mom came up Friday night and left her border collie Giddeon in our condo for the night. So at 6:30am I could hear him whimpering to go outside. I grudgingly got out of bed and took him for a walk. Once I got back I figured I may as well stay up and watch the individual time trial in the Tour de France. Mom came over for breakfast and we hung out with my husband and teammates.

After lots of doing nothing it was time to race. The weather was ok, but the afternoon storms were starting to build. The start of our race was on a steep paved climb out of the venue past all the condos. Fast and painful. Once we hit the dirt road up the ski slope I was in 4 th place. Much better start than last week. I couldn’t hang with my teammate Shonny Vanlandingham. She took off into the lead and we never saw her again. I rode steady in the top five for the first lap. The descent went well but I rode cautiously. At the bottom Sue Haywood had caught up with me. Not what I wanted so once we hit the start of the second lap I upped the intensity and dropped her.

I rode alone the rest of the climb. The legs got better and I started to make up time on Willow Korber, the rider in front of me. At the top I noticed how dark the clouds were getting and I prayed for them to hold their water for another twenty minutes so I could get off the mountain and under shelter. I didn’t want Sue to catch me on the descent so I kept my hands off the brakes and let the bike fly. It was super fun and I held my own. At the very bottom I saw my coach and husband both yelling at me that Willow Korber had flatted and was pushing her bike. I could see her not more than a few hundred feet up the hill. I punched it and rode harder than I thought possible after a two hour race. We were so close to the finish that I figured I didn’t have enough time to catch Willow. But the last bit was on pavement and because it had started raining it was really slick on a flat tire. Not slick for me as I flew past her thirty feet before the finish line. I was 3 rd, my best finish in months! Sometimes you feel a little guilty passing a rider that has a mechanical, but then you think of the times that you lost a race because of a mechanical, and then you don’t feel so bad. Everyone has bad luck and everyone has a little good luck as well in this crazy sport.

Almost as soon as I got back to the truck the skies opened up and I witnessed one of the worst storms imaginable. The thunder and lightning was everywhere. And the amount of rain that came down was unreal. There was a river right through the middle of our Luna tent. It rained so hard that the awning leaked everywhere. The only dry place was inside the truck and my whole family was hunkered down trying to stay dry and warm. Scott Willoughby, a reporter from the Denver Post, also joined us.

Forty-five minutes later it was still pouring. We were all getting hungry so my cousin John Rugh braved the elements to flag down the condo shuttle. After a mad dash to the van we were up the hill and back in our condos. Finally! Found out later that the condos had been struck by lightning. Crazy!

That night I celebrated my 36 th birthday with my family. Fresh Colorado corn on the cob, hamburgers, and the coolest cake I’ve ever seen. It was delicious!

Sunday’s short track was on a new course. It started part way up the hill at the bottom of the downhill course. Again we raced late in the afternoon. The course started on a fast wide open dirt road climb followed by a short bumpy rock garden, a fast off camber descent, another rough rock garden and then a sharp downhill U-turn back onto the same dirt road we started on. Looked painful enough.

The race went as most of the other short tracks have gone for me. I had a great first few laps and then the legs fell apart and I got dropped from the lead group again. I was so maxed out there wasn’t anything I could do but try and hang on. I was disappointed because I wanted to impress my ever so large cheering section. I definitely had the most fans, thanks to my family. I finished in 8 th. Another not so good race. Oh well.

After our race was over they ran the kids race. It was a big day because my two little cousins were racing for the first time on their bikes with training wheels. The larger group of older kids went first and did two laps. Then the little kids went. There were only four of them. The other two happened to be Waldek’s two boys. So it was going to be exciting. We did one lap. I pushed Kristen (3yrs) the entire lap and Michelle (5yrs) and Michael tied. It was the most fun I’d had all day. Everyone got a medal and a bottle of Gatorade.

The podium was right after the men’s race. And it didn’t rain. Yeah! Everyone in my family but my mom and Greg took off for home once the festivities were over. We all stayed an extra night and went hiking the next day. Had a leisurely morning and then drove over Independence Pass and went hiking up towards La Plata Peak. It was a lot of fun but my legs only lasted two hours. I’m not a very good hiker during my bike season.

Next weekend we’ll be at home. Yippee! It’s been a long stretch of mountain bike races. Lots of fun but I’m ready for a break. Our next race is in Brian Head, UT. Until then....

Alison