National Championships-part 2

Today was the first day of practice and I am so glad to get it out of the way! I’m not gonna lie I woke up today pretty nervous but very ready. I slept in again ‘til 10:30 then got some breakfast and headed up to the mountain to course walk again then start practice. I am so happy to be right at the bottom of the resort because I can simply come back to the house in about one minute. Yay for not having to drive anywhere!

Practice was from 1:15 until 6 and the course remained pretty busy all day with the top pros showing up in the afternoon. The course ran better then I thought I would, not a terribly long track but a good mix of flowy and tech. The top section remained really greasy all day and ended up just feeling like organized/unorganized sliding. There was no rain today and it’s supposed to clear up for the weekend so I’m hoping the woods dries out more come Sunday. That or just torrential downpour and ride the river (Thx Fraser)!

From the upper woods you cross the road and head into the fairly flat rock garden. When I walked the course it seemed like the best line was the far left but after trying quite a few of them out I think the middle line is the fastest. It’s hard to decide whether you want to slow down a bit to get to the better line or just blast through the rough stuff and keep your speed but take the longer line. Tomorrow I’ll just have to turn on the speed and see what lines really work. The only ouchy of the day was going too inside at the top and smashing my little broken finger on the pvc posts holding the tape, drew some blood and everything! Nothing ice and tape can’t fix. The bottom section is really fun, just lean those side knobbies in and hope they hold! Heck yes HighRoller2!

I was happy to see some familiar faces today, PNW represent! Plus my mommy arrived today so now I have a complete support crew that is making this race so stress free and fun. Thanks mom and dad (most amazing parents ever)! Btws there are little baby kittens that are living downstairs on the porch! After screaming last night when I thought they were weasels I was so happy to find out they are adorable little black and white kitties!

Looking forward to another day on the course tomorrow, time to start gaining some speed! Maybe I'll go to bed before 1am tonight too!

National Championships-part 1

The good thing about jetlag is that you have plenty of time to do things like write a new blog. The bad thing is that when your alarm goes off at 9am you still feel like death. The trip so far has been great. The preflight five hours in SeaTac got a little old but I managed to buy a new book, headphones, dinner and drinks, chocolate cake, trashy magazines, and plenty of snacks. We watched the whole Giants game and toured the entire airport, good times. The flight was awesome thanks to the Dramamine induced coma. I managed to buy a $7 blanket on the flight and I don’t even remember giving her my debt card. Next thing I knew I was retrieving my bike (in perfect condition!) and getting the rental car. The drive from Charlotte to Beech Mountain wasn’t bad except that it was 3am our time when we arrived and the 3 hour drive felt like death. There was a little confusion with out hotel location so we ended up moving into a little condo that is right below the pits so it was a much better choice. After arriving to our new home away from home I promptly went to bed for the next four hours. This was the beginning of the end of my transition to the new time zone.

The last couple of days we’ve been exploring Beech and Banner Elk (the town right at the bottom of the mountain). It’s a very sleepy little town being that it is the in between season. There are a lot of houses, condos and hotels here; apparently it’s a very popular spot in the winter. It’s almost always misty here in the mornings/raining. It tends to clear off in the afternoon but the clouds always stick around in the valley. Today was a huge success, we found espresso AND wifi!!! It is down in Banner Elk and apparently a college hangout for the little university that is there. There is wifi up at Beech but it’s at the chamber of commerce and they don’t have espresso. That doesn’t mean I didn’t sit in their parking lot for 30 minutes this evening but whatever.

We also hiked up the course today, which was the greatest success of them all (aside from putting my bike back together and successfully making derailleur adjustments!!!!). The whole course is taped really wide, which is a cool change from most of the courses at home. There are so many line choices it ridiculous. I think most of tomorrow will be trying them out and seeing what really ends up being fastest. The course is really wet currently since its been raining for a couple of days now but its supposed to clear up Saturday and Sunday so I think it is going to change a lot.

The top is open grass with some drops and flat off camber corners then into the woods. The upper woods drops elevation pretty fast but its full of berms and off camber traverses. There are some rocks here and there but mostly lots of spider web little roots.

The line choice here is pretty much inside/high line or outside/low line. We’ll have to see just how much I can straighten these corners out. The lower woods section is the rock madness. It’s not as steep so the trick is going to be carrying momentum and sticking to my line. There are a couple of gaps that look fun but potentially not any faster so that could be interesting. The rocks are very grippy even with water streaming down them so that’s a nice bonus!

After all the rocks you go back to the La Bresse style open grass and drift your way down to the big step up then down to the jumps at the bottom. From there you pedal your butt off to the finish arena and what’s that? You’re in the hot seat?!?! Haha just kidding. I’ll wait until tomorrow when I actually ride the course to see how I feel about it. I think its gonna be pretty good though!

Alright, I’ll keep you updated on the developments.

Kthxbye!