Windham World Cup 2011

Windham World Cup 2011 This past weekend I traveled to Windham, New York to race for the USA National team at the World Cup. Finally, I was getting the second chance I was waiting for after breaking my collarbone at the Offenburg World Cup in Germany just six weeks prior. I flew out of the blisterning heat that was currently Pheonix Thurday morning to arrive that afternoon and meet up with the rest of the U.S guys at the National Team condo where we were staying at. I was a little worried about the elevation of the course considering I live at only 2,000 ft, and I believe the race was at 6,000 ft. Luckly I was able to go to Flagstaff for five days or so to get some what used to the elevation change that was sure to meet me in Windham. Once I got to the team house I started to build my bike right away so I could sneek a little ride in to flush the legs out from the traveling. As I started to build my bike I quickly realized that I had forgotten my stem in my garage and needed to think of something quick. Luckly I rolled down to the Subaru Trek guys and they were able to help a kid out. Being apart of the Trek family is a pretty amazing and helpful thing. Once I finally got my bike built I went on a beautiful spin around the town and checked out the start of the race course. It was about 400 yards of pavement to fireroad before the single track hit. The next morning I headed off to the course to to get a few laps in and find all the right lines. The course was super sick! Not exactly as rooted and technecal as a Euro World Cup course, but was deffinatly one of my favorite U.S courses. It was a up and down course for sure. Climb up and up with a few small technical downs and then once you got to the top of the ski resort/ lift, then it became some awesome downhillin fun. I noticed the lenses I had in my Oakley Jawbones were a little to dark for the tree sections, so I was able to meet up with Mr. Blick (Oakley man of all men), and talked about what would be a solid lense for this course. I ended up going to the Lighter Oakley Transition lense and it was the perfect lense for the course. The great part about it was how fast it was able to change tint/ lense darkness and with how often we were going in and out of treet became super helpful quick. It was crazy hpw one minute you were in darkness, and the next you were getting blinded by the sun. I later went back to the house and put on my recovery socks and put on my Compex machine to get some much needed recovery going. After using the Compex my legs felt so fresh that it almost felt like cheating. After an amazing prerace dinner, I headed off to bed. The morning of the race I was filled with excitment and nerves. Luckly it was more excitment than anything else. About an hour before the start I jumped on my bike and started on my warm up. WIth five minutes to go I was in the call up box waiting to hear my name. I started two spot from last so I knew it was going to have to be a passing day. With fifteen seconds to go the starting gun can go off at anytime and boy is the heart rate going. The gun went off and I entered one of the hardest hour of racing in my life. The start pace wasn't all that much faster than the US races I had been doing all year, the only difference was that they never slowed down. I didn't have my greatest start and ended up getting boxed inn, but once we got to a little more open spot, I made my move. Trying to get what seemed like no oxygen in the air, I powered away, giving all I could to get by as many people as I could before the single track. I was able to get up a few spots before the the major climb hit, and man it hit hard. The rest of the race I basically road with two kids from the Canadian National team while togther we were trying to pass as many people as we could while at the same time fighting eachother for the lead. During the secong lap I notice my cleat feeling super loose and my front tire/ wheel feeling loose aswell in the corners. After the race I found out that my cleat came loose causing it to go up and down on my shoe and that my front screwer broke, go figure. Luckly I didn't let it slow me down too much and I just kept on pinning it. With one lap to go I attacked on the final part of the climb and dropped both of the Canadians. All that I had to do was to keep the rubber side down on the rocky downhills to the finish. Once I crossed the finish line I was super stoked. I eneded up 13th and got some much needed UCI points. Next time I should get a much better call up for sure. Overall I was stoked on my World Cup race despite a few mishaps and letting the altitude get to me a little. All was good and I was ready get some food and pass out only to be hit with the same kind of effort next weeked. Next stop US National Championships!!!!!!