U.S. National Championships >> Mammoth, CA

Mammoth

I made it home from Europe on one of the easiest travel days of my life. No missed flights and no stinky people sitting next to me. As a matter of fact I didn’t have anyone sitting next to on any of my three flights from Geneva-Frankfurt, Frankfurt-Wash/Dulles, or Wash/Dulles-L.A. Shocker! No crying babies and I even had a smooth transition through customs in Wash/Dulles, which usually takes 2 ½ hours to get through. But even with all of that I still managed to get sicker than sick. I guess I was due. With the amount of travel we all do, altitude changes, airports, and between the hot and cold weather climates our bodies take a toll. Mine finally said enough if enough.

I got home late Monday night, was home Tuesday doing laundry and then packed and drove up to Mammoth with my Mom on Wednesday afternoon. Going home was such a teaser. One day is just not enough.

Once up to Mammoth I felt even worse. I’m sure the altitude didn’t help. Thursday I managed to walk to DH course with full intentions of racing it. Actually when I registered I was signed up for the DH, Mtn.-X, Kamikaze, and the Super D. Yeah right!! I wish I could’ve done them all, but in the end I knew I’d only be able to do the Mtn.-X. My head felt like it would detonate at any moment and my ears still hadn’t popped.

The Kamikaze is such a classic; it would’ve been awesome to do it. Mammoth brings back so many memories and the Kamikaze is just one of them. The Reebok Eliminator was such a crazy event. I remember Jimmy Deaton with his Etto half shell helmet, his huge 60-tooth chain ring, and his yellow and turquoise Yeti hard tail. Or Myles Rockwell wearing his red, yellow, and black Cannondale skin suit hauling ass tucked over the FRONT of his bike going 60 mph! And who could forget Johnny T’s all black skin suit, mirrored Oakley’s, Bell Helmet with the kick ass Troy Lee paint job, and his disc wheels. Man, those were the days. Doing the Eliminator and being helicoptered back to the top. Before that race I had never even been in a helicopter. Imagine getting in one to take you to the very top of a mountain your going to race down! I remember Jurgen Beneke racing for Manitou when there uniform was still purple and white, Missy Giove still with her famous dreadlocks, and the plaid blue, green, yellow, and black of the old Iron Horse jerseys. Holy flashback. Needless to say that was entering the heyday of mountain biking.

Today and being back at Mammoth has a completely different feel to it. Maybe it’s because I’ve been racing now for about 10 years and I’m not a newbie anymore. The dual slalom isn’t here. Instead it’s the mtn.cross, and the Kamikaze is open, but most pro’s can’t do it because there are too many scheduling conflicts between the DH, Mtn.Cross, Super D, Marathon, etc, etc. There’s probably even a freaking unicycle race. The teams are smaller and so are the racing fields. I qualified yesterday in the Mtn. Cross and I think there were only seven pro women and 23 pro men. Of course this is a one day event as opposed to the usual accumulative series end so I’m sure some people that didn’t think they maybe had much of a shot didn’t bother coming, but it still is a shame to see. One of my first memories of Mammoth was finishing second place in the dual slalom when I was like 17 yrs. Old. Finishing second behind I think it was Rita Burgi who rode for Iron Horse or maybe it was Kim Sonier who rode for Kaluha. Rita was Swiss I think, and her teammate Penny Davidson I think finished third. The funny thing was that the only reason I got second was because everyone I raced against kept crashing. Hell, I didn’t even know how to use my shifters yet, but I got lucky. Oh well.

I think the last time we raced up here at the top of Mammoth was when I rode for Specialized and it was the one and only time I qualified first for the DH. It was a pretty tough DH and right out of the start gate you were riding down these huge rock slabs. I remember being at the top and everybody had already gone down and just looking around thinking, “you can do this.” But I was nervous as hell. I was third overall in the series and if Missy and Elke didn’t have good days I could’ve taken the title. Well, needless to say my nerves got the best of me and I crashed twice. Once right out of the gate! I remember hearing Steve Boemkhe yelling,” Get up…get up!” And I just stared at him for what seemed like an eternity. I got up crashed once more further down, but still ended up fifth for the day. So I knew I was riding fast to still be in the top five. It’s still great to know that I once could ride as fast and on a good day sometimes faster than some of the best women in the world.

Today are the Mtn.Cross finals and my main competition is Jill Kintner. She’s young, talented, and fast. But like many of the Mtn. Cross courses it seems the first straight away is the key to the race. We’ll see what happens. I’m feeling better than a couple days ago and my head isn’t as stuffy. I would love to be wearing those stars and stripes at the end of the day. Both for myself and everyone that has helped me along throughout the years. I want to thank Giant Bicycles for making some great bikes, Frank and Tom for being not only fun guys, but also for working their assess off and being great mechanics. Thanks to Elke for really going above and beyond her job description and making life on the road a much more fun place to be. I know the entire team appreciates it more than you know.

So with that said I have two more races to go. Tonight’s Mtn. Cross finals and next weekend in Austin, Texas for the last Jeep series race so I’ll write more later and let you know how it goes.
O.K…I’m back. Well, to say this past weekend went well is an understatement! Later that night after I wrote I won the Mtn. Cross race and was wearing the stars and stripes happily on top of the podium. The race was a bit nuts. Out of the gate myself, Jill, and Melissa got good gates although Melissa had a slight edge. All three of us were pedalling our assess off down the first straight none of us were giving anything up. I was in the middle of Jill and Melissa and they were both coming over on me. I swear I don’t think any of us touched our brakes until 6 inches before the first turn. Jill was on the inside and was trying to get ahead, but when she didn’t brake she landed way to the outside of the turn. Meanwhile Melissa was still on the outside of me. I tapped my brake enough so that I could stay in the high side of the mountain and try to get to the next turn first. I put in as many pedals as I could and got their first. After that it was pretty much inside, inside, inside to the finish. I was so stoked! Oh my gawd and you should’ve seen my Mom. It was awesome. Jill ended up second, Melissa third, and Leanna fourth.

And that wasn’t even the rest of the team. That same day Carl won a National Championship for the single-speed race and Adam won a National Championship for the Super D. I know they would’ve rather won them in XC and Short Track, but still they were close. Adam got second in the XC and Carl got third. And in the Short Track Carl got second and Adam got third. Giant / Pearl Izumi had one helluva weekend!

So now it’s off to the last race in Austin, Texas with the Jeep series. Hopefully I’ll have even more good news although I think I’m sitting in fifth right now. You never know…
Thanks again to all of our sponsors. Giant, Geoff & Josh @ Pearl Izumi, Jose & Lance @ Manitou, Race Face, Scott @ Hayes, Leif & Steve @ Michelin, Easton, Sun / Ringle, Matt, Foy, & Chad @ Shimano, Chopper @ Smith, Maxim, Giro, Sigma Sport, WTB, ODI, and E-thirteen, Troy, Mike, & Greg @ Troy Lee Designs, Park Tools, and Finish Line. If I forgot anyone I’m sorry, but you know who you are.