andy reagan only the interesting stuff

Campeonatas!!

After 5 weekends of hard racing we're bringing home the 2010 Mountain Bike Conference title right now!

The championship weekend at WVU was awesome, with races Saturday ay Wisp Resort and today at Big Bear Lake state park.

There were 5 races in total, four on Saturday and then the XC on Sunday.

Dual Slalom

Carved into the side of the mountain was the dual slalom course, which was really only a single slalom course after the first burm.  After a few practice runs (which entailed pushing/riding the bike up the slope) we all took qualifying runs and were seeded into a bracket.  My run was pretty good, and I got seeded well.

I was down taking pictures next to the big jump when my number was called though, so I had to sprint to the top of the hill and get into the start gate.  As soon as I stepped into it, Ryan asked if "riders ready?" and I said "no!" as I was still unclipped, and my chain was in the smallest ring, and I was completely out of breathe.  He said "too bad" and dropped the gate.  I scrambled to clip in and shift the bike, but lost enough time that Jan got in front of me where the courses merged.  There is really no opportunity to pass on the rest of the course...so I took second.

It was a pretty dick move on his part to start it like that, but I was relieved to learn that we each took two runs.  What I quickly realized though was that we switched sides, and the side that I had been on had a HUGE advantage.  For the second run, I tried my best but could only get my front wheel even with Jan's back wheel by the time the courses merged, which was after only one burm.  I was inside of him on the next burm but couldn't get around for a pass.  I continued to try to pass him on the inside, but he was taking a pretty low line on the burm so I was basically turning on flat ground...and after a few turns I had to get more aggresive but with the flat turn, my wheels slipped out.  So there went that race...I was a little put down because of how I lost it, but oh well.

Super D

The super d is a mass-start downhill race, and to make it even more interesting it was a "le mann" start.  That means that instead of all starting on our bikes at the top of the hill, we pile them next to the start of the trail and start the race running to the bikes.  I love that start, but had some difficulty with my sweatpants getting stuck on the back of the seat (I was wearing them to protect my legs) so I was about halfway back by the trail.  It's a really fast downhill race, so I finished just about where I started, although I think my practice run was faster...

Downhill

I had just enough time to get one practice run of the downhill course, which was fortunate.  The course went down the woods next to ski slopes, and was pretty crazy.  There was on section that I was not going to hit for sure, a huuge drop off.  Luckily I spotted a place to bike around it for the race.

At the start, there was a girl with a full downhill bike and body armor that looked pretty intense, and with just my hardtail and lack of major downhill skills, I let her go ahead.  But with about a quarter of the hill left to go, I had been absolutely flying down it, I caught up to her.  She stopped to let me pass, but it  was right over a two foot root drop and I had to almost stop too, and went over the handlebars.  I landed on my feet, but realized that my chain had come off and my handlebars were really twisted.  Throwing the front tire between my legs I straightened the bars somewhat, and hopped on down the hill so I would be in front of her.  Without the chain on, it's extremely difficult to get clipped in because the cranks spin freely, and I was trying to get in, the trail was taking some huge drops and was really steep.  Without my feet attached to the bike, I got bumped off the bike on one of the drops and flew about 10 feet down the side of a bank, landing squarely on a log with my right knee and chest.  That really hurt.  I had got my knee pretty bad, and my felt my chest for broken ribs, but was OK there.  Getting up really slowly, I sat back on the bike and coasted slowly to the finish where I laid on the grass for a good 20 minutes.

Short Track

After riding the chairlift back to the top again, I only had about 20 minutes till the short track started.  I popped a couple advil, and after 15 minutes could move my knee again.  So, what the heck, I rode to the start of the short track race from the house.  And ah, might as well try it, so I started the race without pre-riding the course, my knee hurt too much.  Having not ridden the course was interesting, I didn't know about a narrow tree gap that squeezed Jan and I together, knocking him off the bike and into another rider.  Sorry, Jan!  Then there was a crazy rock section, you'll have to look on FB for some pictures of it.  It really wasn't that bad, but people were falling off their bikes and everything.  I made it through, and eventually made my way past a bunch of riders.  There couldn't have been too many more people in front of me, like 5 I guessed, so I kept riding fast.  I shouted to our team watching and they told me that Andy was ahead of me, to catch him.  I'd already passed most of the other people on our team one at a time.  So I kept going, feeling better the whole time and LOVING the jumps on the second half of the course, gettin some air!! Andy was kinda far ahead, and I couldn't see anybody gaining on me, and it was like that for a few laps before we were done.  Turns out, he was the only one I hadn't caught, and I got second!  Not too long after that though, my knee started stiffening up.  We watched the other races and that was fun, before going to WVU's house for a cookout.