We went up Wednesday, before any of the practices started, if nothing to hopefully get away from the
100 degree heat in town. Beth, if you are reading thing, THANK YOU for the loan of the condo. Nice
doesn't even begin to describe it, and it was about a 3 minute walk from the base.
The weather report for the four days was sunny and hot. This means 85 degree days up at altitude.
Sunscreen and hat weather, and lots of dust.
Lots of photos, but it's going to take me a few days to get that part together.
I signed in Thursday morning, and picked up my T-shirt and radio, then a few us were hauled up to
the DH course to marshall the first set of practice runs. I was placed at the top of Alter Boy, the
crux move of the course. It's a rock face, maybe about 45 degrees steep and 50 feet long. Some of
the rider would "read and run" (boating term for going for it) other with stop, and park their bike
and check it out briefly, and then a small percentage would stare at it for 15, 20, 45 minutes until
they were completely psyched out. My main job was to manage traffic, as you'd get a ball up of
riders blasting down the hill and having to stop up short to wait for someone to get off the face.
Also, the beginner/sport line Y'd off here and even tho there were signs and tape, riders were so
focused on their lines that they'd take the wrong line even with a sign and it being taped off.
Since I was at the top of the drop, I never really got to see the whole thing, but Mr. Penny was
stationed at the bottom of the drop as a medic. I found out that psyched out racers don't like it
when you say things like, "don't worry, there's a great medic at the bottom...." After lunch, I
moved to a different spot for the beginner practice. One of the fun things is just talking to people
as they were hiking the course... lots of parents supporting their racers, and folks from all over
the place. That evening found us hot, really really dirty and tired. The medic crew was camping out
in the day care like a big slumber party. Cascade Toboggans had donated $$ for stuff so we had a
great group dinner and then crawled into bed.
Friday morning myself, another marshall, Mr. Penny and a couple of other medics decided to ride the
XC course. The medic crew's goal is to figure out the action spots for positioning. Me, I just
thought it'd be good to get out for a ride. As an XC ride, the course was nothing really special but
I guess it had enough variety to be an interesting race course. Fire road climbs, rock garden single
tracks, some downhill singletrack descents, creek crossings and my-oh-my... the boomerang single
track section. Think: sweet windy, switchbacked forest singletrack, once pristine, but now
unmaintained and worn down due to over riding and lack of maintenance. It's deep and rutted, lots of
roots, and dust about 4-6" deep... before the racing began. ( we had a long talk with one of the
guys who helped build this trail years ago, the bottom line is that the ski area doesn't do any
trail maintenance and thinks that little fairies {local volunteers} will just take care of
everything and the little fairies are sick of being used by the ski area....)
Friday afternoon's XC race (expert, semi pro, jr expert) stationed me at the corner where the riders
take a sharp turn off the road and drop into boomerang. It's a sharp steep corner, dropping right
into the afore-described ruts and dust. My job this time is to monitor riders: at this particular
location the trail goes both directions and someone could easily cut under the tape and shave their
distance. Also, I have to monitor for "no assistance" for mechanicals, running of water etc. I have
a few spectators here... some kids from San Diego watching for their dad, and some team folks with
Cannondale Leftys... finally got a good look at those.
A few minutes before the racers hit my section on the first lap ( 10 mile laps) Mr. Penny shows up
with a backboard and we hang out together. In-between the laps it's pretty boring, but we found lots
of huckleberries in the woods right there. When the pack comes by on the first lap, it's pretty
exciting as they ball up dropping into the trail, and the dust cloud... .unbelievable. ( photos to
follow of course) Craig wait anxiously as we can hear riders going down and over in there, but there
are no injuries... just a lot of cussing coming out of the wood. You can see the airborne bikes in
the woods, and then barely make out the helmets as riders recover and head on down the trail.
By the second lap, these guys and gals are really hot and dusty. Their faces, arms and legs are just
caked with dust. The pack has dissipated, so the dust isn't so bad. One rider has a very good
strategy... he does a running dismount dropping into the section, and runs and carries his bike
through this section. He gains time on every lap. No real excitement here: I have to radio in a few
DNF's for mechanicals; we give a kid some water after he drops out, and we have a very long bull
session with a product guy from Shimano who drops out and then hangs around to chat.
After the race, Craig and I hit the team trailers. We manage to get Schwinn T-shirts from the
Schwinn guys... "hey we are mister and mrs. Sch(wyn) seems to work pretty well. Not much schwag out
there tho. I drop my bike off at Rock Sux where I have a RS tech rebuild my fork for 1/2 of what the
lbs wanted for it... the best solution for now. We then clean up and go out for dinner: great food
but the worst service I've had in 10 years. How can a town NOT be prepared for the onslaught of
folks for a national sporting event.? Every hotel in town was booked!!
more later
Penny