Ride Against the Machine / Salvagetti Mountain Bike Team
Mountain Circuit Race Report (8/23/08)
Rider Results and Comments from last weekend...
Special thanks to: Salvagetti Bicycle Workshop, HoneyStinger bars and gels, Maxxis tires
Winter Park Mountain Circuit - Winter Park, CO
Shawn Meredith - 21st place Pro Men - Time 1:40:40.0
Wow, I got second! Second to last. I could not get my legs moving this race, and was sucking wind the whole time. Sometimes your just pedaling squares I guess. I was really glad I was on the full squishy though, the downhills were really fun, and did not beat me up. This course was really fun, and I had a good ride. I am really looking forward to some redemption next weekend at King of the Rockies.
More on Shawn's race can be found at http://shawn-meredith.blogspot.com/2008/08/winter-park-6-mountain-circuit-race.html
Chris Plesko - 5th place Expert Men 25-29 - Time: 1:51:34.4
The first ever run on the Winter Park Mountain top circuit was quite the course! We took the lift up to a high altitude (over 11,000 feet) lap race and then a bomber down the Mary Jane side to the finish. Expecting a pretty straight up and down course I tried out 34x20 gearing which was probably two teeth too easy in the back. I led out with a group of six in my field and hung through lap one. My arms were too pumped on lap two to hang on however and the leaders escaped. I tried to chase them down each lap on the steep dirt road climb but I could never make up enough ground to hang in on the downhills. I backed off the chase on the last part of lap 3 and enjoyed the fast descent down the hill. The last piece of trail had a nasty little climb in it and I rolled across the line in 5th. Great course and I'm looking forward to King of the Rockies where I think I'll try out 34x18 instead.
Marni Plesko - 3rd place Sport Women 19-29 - Time: 1:48:02.3
After getting snowed out the previous weekend, the Mountain Top Circuit went off in beautiful weather. I spent the morning very nervous about what I'd heard to be a very technical course. Nicolette and I got up the lift without a hitch (which is not always easy!) and did a good warmup, only to find that our start was pushed back 15 minutes. Once we finally got started, the pack took off like usual up the dirt road. Perhaps due to my ramped up training, or my good warmup, I was finally able to stick behind Nicolette as we charged through the pack and were soon near the front of the group heading into the singletrack. Unfortunately, a girl crashed a few people up, and in my attempt to get around her as the girl behind me screamed at everyone to move, I clipped my helmet and then bars on a tree and went down myself. Once on the ground, I had to wait for the entire field of girls to pass me before having a chance to hop back on the trail, negating the good start on the road. I bashed my ankle pretty good but kept going and used the pain as fuel to go fast and get out of the back of the pack. Girl after girl went down in front of me on the first lap of the circuit so I carefully picked my way through riders and fallers to complete the two laps before heading down the hill to Mary Jane. Once I was able to get out of the pack, I could make my way down at my own good pace and I made up a lot of time. The ride was technical, but absolute fun. I crossed the line in 3rd place, narrowly squeeking out 4th by 23 seconds. This is the first race that I feel I really raced well, and was very happy to get 3rd and lock up my 2nd overall placing for the series.
Nicolette Clark- 1st Place Sport Women 19-29-Time: 1:40:34
After much debate about competing in this race, I decided to go for it. I am really glad I did, this race was definitely one of my favorites. It was full of twisty singletrack over rocks and roots, decent climbs and a long descent. The descent wasnt at all what they made it out to be, it actually rode pretty slow, with some difficult switchbacks and narrow trail, which made it hard to get much speed. The last section, Jackalope, was by far the hardest. Lots of ups and downs, a couple really steep sections, sharp turns through trees, and for me a not so graceful crash in the middle. I survived and was able to cross the finish line ahead of all my competitors, giving me my first official first place of the season.
More on Nicolette's race can be found at
http://nicoletteclark.wordpress.com/2008/08/24/winter-park-race-6/
