Here we go...part one:
The weekend proved to be a topsy-turvey of highs, lows, wins, losses, flat tires, flawless performance and general mayhem.
Thanks to Chris Seymor all members were adequately housed in West side Chico at his bike team house. The sight was beautiful there may have been $30,000 of mountain bikes in the garage between slug and chico cycling. Excitement was high, but the night was relatively relaxed as we were anxious to squeeze in a little sleep before out 5:30am wake up time. Nearly all members found a couch and Stacy and I set up camp in the backyard to sleep in the fresh air. It would have otherwise been a nice 5 hours of sleep except for the death metal music that started blasting from next door at about 2am.
Breakfast was quick and easy and we all loaded up and made the short drive across town to upper Bidwell. The staging area filled up quickly with riders representing Chico, Santa Cruz, Cal Poly SLO, UNR, Stanford and Humbolt as well as an unusually large number of NORBA riders. There had been rumors spreading that the XC course would be pretty technical; we were advised to carry at least two extra tubes, but when Endurance team made their way out to the course to warm up, they realized they had had no idea what they were in for.
Starting on relatively steep grade, the XC course was a 9 mile point to point loop consisting of a 4 mile climb along an ancient lava bed, a fast, technical, rocky descent and the end consisting of 4 miles of flowy singletrack covered in tire pinching lava rocks, wheel catching ruts and brutal hike-a-bike sections.
While I can't attest to the experience of others racing the XC course, this is what I saw: Slug cycling was relatively lucky in terms of injuries and mechanicals. Unlike some less fortunate teams, none of us flatted, broke derailleurs, cracked frames, snapped pedals, etc... In addition, aside from Jamie who injured his shin in a crash, no serious injuries befell upon endurance team.
Men's category B had a lot of fun. Personally, I took off from the get-go. I knew that once the group started, there would be no good way to pass others in the first four miles of climbing. I held a steady 4th place (out of perhaps 20 something) throughout the climb. It was rough and tough and so bumpy and rocky you couldn't really get spinning. Your whole body just kind of went 'kechunk kechunk' as you pedaled as hard as possible. I held my own on the technical downhill section, passed several women's A riders who had left 3 minutes before us, knowing (comfortingly) that it would be near impossible for the group behind me to advance much given the nature of the trail. Once the downhill opened up and straightened out, it was crush time. This also meant eat-shit time. Personally I had three major falls within the last 4 miles. I'm personally surprised that all my body parts are in-tact and still functioning given how fast the race was and how brutal the rock gardens were to land in. I passed the first place racer when he snapped his chain but then got passed once when I ate it and had to run 30 feet behind me to retrieve my water bottle. So overall I placed fourth in B's, but more importantly I had a blast. We all had a blast, and that's what it's all about anyway. I'm just glad that none of us ended up like the guy from Humboldt who looked like he just got out of battle in Vietnam. (The poor guy's entire body was covered in blood and scrapes; chest, face, crotch, arms, legs, etc...)
Super D was leMans style mass start starting on the lava bed, dropping into a rocky techy descent and opening up to a 3/4 miles sprint on hard-pack singletrack with a small climb in the middle. This gave endurance bikes an unprecedented advantage. It seemed like everyone with more than 4 inches of travel gave up halfway through the race after they realized they would actually have to pedal. Congratulations to Frank who scored second place in men's C's after Chris who placed first.
