NORBA National #1
Big Bear, CA
May 8-12, 2002

Hi everyone,
I'm a little late with my next adventure. Our schedule has been hectic. I'm in Europe now getting ready for our second world cup. A week and a half ago we competed in the first Norba National at Big Bear, CA. Big Bear is a ski resort town at about 6500 feet above San Bernadino. Our condo was straight out of the 1970's. Dark red shag carpet, wood panelling, and the TV was just like the one my mom used to have when I was in grade school. California claims to be on the cutting edge of fashion and culture, yet all the ski resorts I've raced at in California are a scary flashback to almost thirty years ago. Yikes.

The cross country race was on Friday. They changed the course this year by running it backwards and shortening it somewhat. Basically it was still the same kind of racing as last year; lots of road climbs and then fun single track descending over loose and rocky terrain.

All the favorites were at the start line except Alison Sydor, who happened to be in Europe getting ready for the world cups. The race started off hard but not ballistic. Mary Grigson set tempo for the first section of single track. When we hit the first climb Jimena Florit charged to the front. She upped the pace and soon it was just the two of us. Everyone else had been dropped. I even came off somewhat when the front of my saddle began to tilt upwards. The bolts that attach the saddle to the seatpost weren't tight enough and the seat was starting to slip. Not good. At the top of a painful hike-a-bike section I decided to stop and fix the problem. I was luckily carrying the right sized tool and was able to tighten the bolts. I unfortunately lost contact with Jimena. By the time I went through the start/finish after lap one I was four minutes down. Ouch. I spent the rest of the race trying t! o close the gap to all the riders that had passed me earlier. I eventually made it back to second place. Never was able to catch Jimena. She held on to win. I stayed in second and Mary Grigson was third. It was a good race even though I wanted to win. I finished ahead of Mary and she is going to be the toughest competition for the overall title.

The next day was the short track race at 3pm. Before our event I helped start the Junior Olympic races at 2pm. It was an exciting happening because the Junior Olympic mtn bike series is being changed to the Alison Dunlap Junior Olympic Mtn Bike Series. I approached USA Cycling a month ago about branding the series with my name. The JO series on the road is named after Lance Armstrong and the JO series for the track is named after Marty Nothstein. The mtn bike series has no name. I thought it would be good for mtn biking and young cyclists to give my name to the series. So we launched the new series with the races at Big Bear. I rode one lap of the short track course with the 10-12 year olds and then quickly ducked out to my Luna truck to finish my warm-up.

Our short track race started out fast as always. They shortened the course from last year so our lap times were about a minute. Needless to say, most of the women ended up getting lapped. I felt good and was out for a little revenge. After only ten minutes it was down to Jimena Florit and myself. I could tell she was tired from her solo venture yesterday so I attacked the heck out of her. She quickly cracked and I was alone off the front. Yeah! I rode the last ten minutes alone to victory. It was exciting to have such a strong showing in front of all the Clif Bar and Santa Cruz people. Good for the sponsors.

I spent the afternoon signing a few autographs, posing for pictures with young kids and eating chips and salsa in the Clif Bar booth. We left the next day for the airport. It was a fun weekend and a great start to the Norba National series. Now it is on to Europe for our first two world cups.

See you in Madrid!

Cheers!
Alison