For the 2016 edition of Collegiate MTB Nationals, I ended up being Stanford's sole representative, despite my best efforts to convince others to join me. Thankfully, I found some connections with the MIT cycling team and ended up sharing a condo with them and the RPI team at the venue in Snowshoe, WV. Since the venue was the same as last year, and I flew into the same small airport, I had a slightly easier time navigating my way through Charleston upon arrival (after my cheap red-eye flight) and managed to get on the road to Snowshoe pretty quickly - it's a long drive, and I really needed to arrive with some daylight left to pre-ride the courses.
After a beautiful 4hr drive through remote West Virginia, I arrived at the resort with a few hours of daylight remaining. I assembled my bike in record time, through on my brand-new kit, and went out to join my new friends in pre-riding the courses. The weather was perfect for riding - low/mid-50's and mostly clear skies. Unfortunately, that would be as good as the weather would get for the whole event; the defining factor this year was shitty weather. After the usual registration and rider-meeting formalities, I reveled in a hot shower, hot food, and (half of) a bed. The racing would start first thing the next morning, and the forecast called for freezing rain.
After a beautiful 4hr drive through remote West Virginia, I arrived at the resort with a few hours of daylight remaining. I assembled my bike in record time, through on my brand-new kit, and went out to join my new friends in pre-riding the courses. The weather was perfect for riding - low/mid-50's and mostly clear skies. Unfortunately, that would be as good as the weather would get for the whole event; the defining factor this year was shitty weather. After the usual registration and rider-meeting formalities, I reveled in a hot shower, hot food, and (half of) a bed. The racing would start first thing the next morning, and the forecast called for freezing rain.
Friday Morning: STXC Race
Event: 20min + 3 laps of racing on a short (~3.5min) course, with riders being pulled if close to being lapped
Course: Essentially the same course as last year, but in reverse, and with a new man-made skills section. After cruising through the village and crossing a slightly slick open grassy area with a few short embankment drops, the course narrowed to a slightly off-camber, muddy left turn onto a narrow wooden bridge with some chickenwire mesh down the middle for grip, up and over another longer bridge, then a sharp right (again in mud) onto a short dirt-road descent. The road pitched right back up, and then led into a man-made 'skills course' consisting of two ~8" logs across the road, followed by a raised mud/rock garden with only a few good lines, followed by two more logs (I will refer to this as the CX section). The dirt road then becomes a sloppy mess and pitches up to ~11% for ~50' of climbing, briefly levels off into muddy/rocky doubletrack, then makes a sharp, steep, grassy/muddy right-hand turn onto wide singletrack, followed by a final left-hand turn up a (again) grassy/muddy/rocky (take your pick) ~15% sprint to the finish line.
Weather Conditions: ~40deg F and raining.
Race:
Due to the freezing rain, the start was moved from the edge of the village pavement to a muddy, rocky, uphill dirt road alongside the course just past the CX section, giving us an uphill start to spread things out before bombing through the village onto the narrow singletrack. Thanks to my being basically the only WCCC racer in attendance, I got the first-row conference-leader callup, although with the relatively narrow road width (4 riders across) I was actually in row 1.5 between/behind two other riders. Also thanks to getting one of the first callups, I got to sit and freeze my a** off while the remainder of the 60 riders were called up.
If you're familiar with STXC races, you'll know that the first minute or so is the most important period of the entire race, and beyond that, even your starting position can also make or break your race. With my nearly-front-row position, I thought I stood a good chance at a decent performance, with my goal being to make it into the top half, or at least solidly in the middle. Unfortunately, just a few pedal strokes after the gun went off the rider next to me got his bars (and elbow) across the front of mine, and we got tangled up for a few seconds (while still attempting to maintain a full-on sprint up a muddy, rocky hill). Once we broke free, I then pinballed off a few riders flying up from behind me (the tangle really slowed me down), had to take evasive maneuvers around another guy who put a foot down in front of me, pinballed some more, and then tried to ease my way onto one of the two clear lines of the doubletrack section without any more mishaps. About 30s into the race, and I had gone from ~5th place to nearly last. AAAHHH time to panic!!
The right-hand / left-hand / steep hill bottleneck turned into a massive pileup, and almost everybody around me (including me) had to hop off and run up to the muddy/grassy field before the finish line. I took it easy around the corner on the wet pavement and through the village, though I was surprised at how slow some of the other riders were going once off the pavement and back onto grass. Coming up the CX section, I had previously decided that it wasn't worth trying to ride, so I CX-style dismounted and ran across the unused right line, passing a few people in the process. On the climb, I noticed this time around that my tires seemed to be holding up better on the slippery stuff, so I made some time there, and then on the wide-open descent I passed a few riders by sprinting in a straight line through the grass/mud to beat them onto the singletrack. I executed the next 1.5 laps the same way, and ended up in 41st / 60 place upon getting pulled.
Course: Essentially the same course as last year, but in reverse, and with a new man-made skills section. After cruising through the village and crossing a slightly slick open grassy area with a few short embankment drops, the course narrowed to a slightly off-camber, muddy left turn onto a narrow wooden bridge with some chickenwire mesh down the middle for grip, up and over another longer bridge, then a sharp right (again in mud) onto a short dirt-road descent. The road pitched right back up, and then led into a man-made 'skills course' consisting of two ~8" logs across the road, followed by a raised mud/rock garden with only a few good lines, followed by two more logs (I will refer to this as the CX section). The dirt road then becomes a sloppy mess and pitches up to ~11% for ~50' of climbing, briefly levels off into muddy/rocky doubletrack, then makes a sharp, steep, grassy/muddy right-hand turn onto wide singletrack, followed by a final left-hand turn up a (again) grassy/muddy/rocky (take your pick) ~15% sprint to the finish line.
Weather Conditions: ~40deg F and raining.
Race:
Due to the freezing rain, the start was moved from the edge of the village pavement to a muddy, rocky, uphill dirt road alongside the course just past the CX section, giving us an uphill start to spread things out before bombing through the village onto the narrow singletrack. Thanks to my being basically the only WCCC racer in attendance, I got the first-row conference-leader callup, although with the relatively narrow road width (4 riders across) I was actually in row 1.5 between/behind two other riders. Also thanks to getting one of the first callups, I got to sit and freeze my a** off while the remainder of the 60 riders were called up.
If you're familiar with STXC races, you'll know that the first minute or so is the most important period of the entire race, and beyond that, even your starting position can also make or break your race. With my nearly-front-row position, I thought I stood a good chance at a decent performance, with my goal being to make it into the top half, or at least solidly in the middle. Unfortunately, just a few pedal strokes after the gun went off the rider next to me got his bars (and elbow) across the front of mine, and we got tangled up for a few seconds (while still attempting to maintain a full-on sprint up a muddy, rocky hill). Once we broke free, I then pinballed off a few riders flying up from behind me (the tangle really slowed me down), had to take evasive maneuvers around another guy who put a foot down in front of me, pinballed some more, and then tried to ease my way onto one of the two clear lines of the doubletrack section without any more mishaps. About 30s into the race, and I had gone from ~5th place to nearly last. AAAHHH time to panic!!
The right-hand / left-hand / steep hill bottleneck turned into a massive pileup, and almost everybody around me (including me) had to hop off and run up to the muddy/grassy field before the finish line. I took it easy around the corner on the wet pavement and through the village, though I was surprised at how slow some of the other riders were going once off the pavement and back onto grass. Coming up the CX section, I had previously decided that it wasn't worth trying to ride, so I CX-style dismounted and ran across the unused right line, passing a few people in the process. On the climb, I noticed this time around that my tires seemed to be holding up better on the slippery stuff, so I made some time there, and then on the wide-open descent I passed a few riders by sprinting in a straight line through the grass/mud to beat them onto the singletrack. I executed the next 1.5 laps the same way, and ended up in 41st / 60 place upon getting pulled.
Afterwards, I warmed up with a hot shower, put on some warm clothes I rarely wear in California, and then watched the women's STXC race. Below are the CX section, and the mud pit before the finish line.
Saturday Morning: XC Race
Event: 2.5 laps of a ~4-mile course (reduced from 4 laps, and with a delayed start, due to near-blizzard conditions in the morning)
Course: Completely different trails than last year, and shorter laps. Starts the same as Short Track, but continues on the wide, swoopy singletrack descent for a while longer, then takes a succession of short but steep muddy and/or rocky climbs up to a paved road connector. Next comes the roots, a little less than a mile long, mostly flat, with the last ~1/4 mile being a short descent. Similar to last year, I don't think there's a single section of this trail that at least one of your isn't touching a root, making for slow progress and requiring healthy caution to make it around corners wet with mud and slimy roots. The forest was a beautiful winter wonderland though, with most of the ground beside the trails covered in bright green moss, which was then covered in a dusting of snow! The root chute dropped out on a long, shallow doubletrack climb followed by some rollers leading into the CX section and steep dirt-road climb. This time, instead of taking a right back up to the village, we took a hard left over the side of a berm and dropped into my favorite section of the course: a fast, flowy, mostly-smooth singletrack descent with big berms and short roller-coaster hills. SO FUN! The trail ended with a short rock-garden bridge over a creek and a root-drop onto a large ski-run climb, ending with a 14% grade up (big surprise) a choose-your-adventure mix of mud, rocks, and/or wet grass. After a short, flat section not nearly long enough to lower your heartrate, you turn off onto a slippery rock-garden descent, with large (~2-3ft wide) angled slabs of rock comprising the trail and mud puddles filling in the gaps, then back up more of the same, a sharp left onto the most virgin, loamy, rooty trail I've ever ridden, back onto more uneven rocks and giant mud pits, a sharp (and VERY difficult) uphill s-bend in slippery mud and even worse rocks, then more washboard-style rocks until the final mud/grass climb to the finish line.
Weather Conditions: 27F at the tail end of a blizzard, with near-30mph winds and snow/sleet in the village.
Course: Completely different trails than last year, and shorter laps. Starts the same as Short Track, but continues on the wide, swoopy singletrack descent for a while longer, then takes a succession of short but steep muddy and/or rocky climbs up to a paved road connector. Next comes the roots, a little less than a mile long, mostly flat, with the last ~1/4 mile being a short descent. Similar to last year, I don't think there's a single section of this trail that at least one of your isn't touching a root, making for slow progress and requiring healthy caution to make it around corners wet with mud and slimy roots. The forest was a beautiful winter wonderland though, with most of the ground beside the trails covered in bright green moss, which was then covered in a dusting of snow! The root chute dropped out on a long, shallow doubletrack climb followed by some rollers leading into the CX section and steep dirt-road climb. This time, instead of taking a right back up to the village, we took a hard left over the side of a berm and dropped into my favorite section of the course: a fast, flowy, mostly-smooth singletrack descent with big berms and short roller-coaster hills. SO FUN! The trail ended with a short rock-garden bridge over a creek and a root-drop onto a large ski-run climb, ending with a 14% grade up (big surprise) a choose-your-adventure mix of mud, rocks, and/or wet grass. After a short, flat section not nearly long enough to lower your heartrate, you turn off onto a slippery rock-garden descent, with large (~2-3ft wide) angled slabs of rock comprising the trail and mud puddles filling in the gaps, then back up more of the same, a sharp left onto the most virgin, loamy, rooty trail I've ever ridden, back onto more uneven rocks and giant mud pits, a sharp (and VERY difficult) uphill s-bend in slippery mud and even worse rocks, then more washboard-style rocks until the final mud/grass climb to the finish line.
Weather Conditions: 27F at the tail end of a blizzard, with near-30mph winds and snow/sleet in the village.
Race:
As I hopped on my bike to attempt to warm up, it was dark, snowing, and I nearly got blown off the road within a few seconds of reaching it. After a quick lap on the short track course I gave up and hid inside the Shave Center, where registration and such was; shortly thereafter a 30 minute delay was announced due to the near-blizzard conditions. Once the time to line up came around it was at least lighter and snowing less, and while waiting for our callups we all just rolled in a big circle to avoid freezing. Speaking of freezing, my rear brake line/caliper apparently has some water in it, because although it would actuate closed, it was slow to recoil back. I just pumped it a ton while waiting and hoped for the best.
At the starting line it was announced that, rather than doing the original 4 laps, or even the 3 that had just been discussed, we would be doing 2.5 laps - finishing off the back half of the course once we exited the start sprint, then doing 2 full laps. With the same callup as the previous day (and this time actually at the front), and given how short the race might be, I was determined to make better use of it - I was still angry with myself for the terrible start. Unfortunately, while I would not normally consider myself to be a terrible starter, compared to the top-tier racers around me, I'm just plain bad. I managed not to get tangled up with anyone else this time, but I still got passed by 20-30 guys pretty quickly. Things settled down once we hit the singletrack, and the massive train of riders flowing through berms and over rollers at high speed was quite possibly the most fun I've ever had in a race! There was a short pileup at the rock bridge, but soon we were hammering up the ski slope (the grass to the side was the popular choice, but my Maxxis Ignitors handled the mud just fine), and onto the massive rock-garden trail. With the field still not entirely spread out, the slippery rocks got pretty sketchy, and many of us (me included) had to hop off and run some sections. My technical-ability insecurities got the better of me and, trying not to block anybody, I let a number of riders pass me before getting back on my bike; a move I kinda regret, as it turned out I was actually moving the same speed as everyone else.
As I hopped on my bike to attempt to warm up, it was dark, snowing, and I nearly got blown off the road within a few seconds of reaching it. After a quick lap on the short track course I gave up and hid inside the Shave Center, where registration and such was; shortly thereafter a 30 minute delay was announced due to the near-blizzard conditions. Once the time to line up came around it was at least lighter and snowing less, and while waiting for our callups we all just rolled in a big circle to avoid freezing. Speaking of freezing, my rear brake line/caliper apparently has some water in it, because although it would actuate closed, it was slow to recoil back. I just pumped it a ton while waiting and hoped for the best.
At the starting line it was announced that, rather than doing the original 4 laps, or even the 3 that had just been discussed, we would be doing 2.5 laps - finishing off the back half of the course once we exited the start sprint, then doing 2 full laps. With the same callup as the previous day (and this time actually at the front), and given how short the race might be, I was determined to make better use of it - I was still angry with myself for the terrible start. Unfortunately, while I would not normally consider myself to be a terrible starter, compared to the top-tier racers around me, I'm just plain bad. I managed not to get tangled up with anyone else this time, but I still got passed by 20-30 guys pretty quickly. Things settled down once we hit the singletrack, and the massive train of riders flowing through berms and over rollers at high speed was quite possibly the most fun I've ever had in a race! There was a short pileup at the rock bridge, but soon we were hammering up the ski slope (the grass to the side was the popular choice, but my Maxxis Ignitors handled the mud just fine), and onto the massive rock-garden trail. With the field still not entirely spread out, the slippery rocks got pretty sketchy, and many of us (me included) had to hop off and run some sections. My technical-ability insecurities got the better of me and, trying not to block anybody, I let a number of riders pass me before getting back on my bike; a move I kinda regret, as it turned out I was actually moving the same speed as everyone else.
Through the start/finish I used my lesson learned from short track and passed riders on the open grass, then got stuck behind some slow riders on the singletrack. I made a mental note to work on passing there next lap. On the next steep, muddy/rocky climbs, I noticed quite a few guys around me having issues with the slippery mud; my tires seemed to have plenty of grip though, so I moved up a bit there. Once into the woods and the roots, it was a repeat of the rock garden; a minor crash lost me 5 or 6 places, then once my glasses fogged up and I couldn't see anything on the descent, I let more guys pass me as I tried to un-fog my glasses. I should have just ran instead. By the end of the woods, I had probably lost 10 or more spots; on the other hand, I was recovered for the climb ahead and put the hammer down and made up some time. Going into the singletrack descent this time I had a small gap in front of me, so I was able to go full-tilt on the sweet, sweet singletrack and forget for a minute that I was in a race. Alas, the riders ahead of me again fumbled parts of the rock garden in front of me, forcing me again to hop off and run a while, losing more time. Cresting the climb before the start/finish, a USAC official on the side called out at us to wipe the mud off of our number plates so that they could record our positions. I wiped my hand across the front of my plate a few times, realized the mud was completely frozen on, then gave up and yelled "159!" to the officials as I sprinted across the line, sincerely hoping I had remembered my number correctly.
The wind was blowing hard in the village, and the sleet in the air stung like needles on my face - I was very glad to have my thick beard. I passed 4 or 5 guys on the grass and singletrack descents, and 2 or 3 more on the steep, slippery climb (funny, I always thought I sucked at steep climbs, but my Ignitors were my saviors!) The roots went similarly to the previous lap, losing another half-dozen spots once my glassed fogged up going into the descent. I made up time again on the next climbs (and again by running the CX section at full tilt), and I took a bottle feed from one of the MIT women I was staying with just so I could get a drink of something not filled with mud. I got stuck behind someone on the descent (sadface) and passed them on the ski slope, then worked hard to chase down the next guy I could see ahead of me (while a few hecklers complimented my beard, and another told me that my RS1 inverted fork should make me climb faster). Having open space in front of me this time, I cleared the rock gardens with just a few quick foot dabs, the rider ahead providing motivation to give the final sections everything I had. Sprinting to the finish line, I again had to yell out what I hoped was my number, and as I caught my breath I heard the announcer say something about the top 40 riders. As it turns out, I was indeed 40th / 66, which was a little disappointing again, but considering the circumstances I couldn't complain much. Also, I would have placed 51/74 in the Varsity category!
The wind was blowing hard in the village, and the sleet in the air stung like needles on my face - I was very glad to have my thick beard. I passed 4 or 5 guys on the grass and singletrack descents, and 2 or 3 more on the steep, slippery climb (funny, I always thought I sucked at steep climbs, but my Ignitors were my saviors!) The roots went similarly to the previous lap, losing another half-dozen spots once my glassed fogged up going into the descent. I made up time again on the next climbs (and again by running the CX section at full tilt), and I took a bottle feed from one of the MIT women I was staying with just so I could get a drink of something not filled with mud. I got stuck behind someone on the descent (sadface) and passed them on the ski slope, then worked hard to chase down the next guy I could see ahead of me (while a few hecklers complimented my beard, and another told me that my RS1 inverted fork should make me climb faster). Having open space in front of me this time, I cleared the rock gardens with just a few quick foot dabs, the rider ahead providing motivation to give the final sections everything I had. Sprinting to the finish line, I again had to yell out what I hoped was my number, and as I caught my breath I heard the announcer say something about the top 40 riders. As it turns out, I was indeed 40th / 66, which was a little disappointing again, but considering the circumstances I couldn't complain much. Also, I would have placed 51/74 in the Varsity category!
Afterwards, I again took time to thaw out (while my bike completed freezing over), then bundled up & prepared to give the MIT & RPI women a bottle feed, if they actually needed it. The feed zone was in a great spot for spectating: right after the CX section. I would've enjoyed watching some other parts of the course too, like the forest or the bermy singletrack, but oh well - the feed zone provided some nice winter views.
All in all, it was an incredibly memorable experience, I'm mostly satisfied with my results, and more importantly, I finally accomplished my goal of actually finishing high enough to earn team points! I single-handedly ensured that Stanford did not come in last place in the team omnium. I also will now always have proof that I follow Rule #5: HTFU.