Team Kenda-Seven Race report:
by Mike and Mary
The transition into the race season is always a bit
difficult. In our case returning to the states from Chile to
my family's home in MA was the first step of transitioning
into race mode, a mandatory stop in and, judging by the
piles of backed up paper mail and loose ends that awaited us
on our return, a bit overdue.
After a busy and cold 10 days at home of training,
building race bikes and shuffling papers, Mary and I flew
south to officially kick off our race season. First stop - the
"The Ultimate Dirt Challenge" in Rincon, Puerto Rico, then to
Venezuela to attend the Pan American Continental
Championships.
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THE ULTIMATE DIRT CHALLENGE -- RINCON, PUERTO RICO
(03/31/2008)
by mike
MARY - 1ST
MIKE - 4TH
---------------
This years edition more than lived up to our expectations
for tropical weather, huge crowds and once again a fantastically organized and fun event. The promoter put
on three events in one day: a spectator friendly traffic snarling
(actually crossing the main road into town) downhill, a
crowd pleasing dirt jumping exhibition as well as a category
1 uci ranked cross country event. Thousands of enthusiastic
Puerto Rican spectators attended from all over the island to
enjoy this unique and fun one day bike festival.
The XC track is a 7 km twisting ribbon jammed into a
dense jungly patch of trees that surrounds a long retired
nuclear power plant. Primarily single track, short stabby climbs & drops and
the feeling of constantly being on a fast railing turn
pretty much sum up the course. glimpses of the blue
Caribbean and the
rustling of the shady palms helps to make this course one of our
favorites. This year the daily afternoon downpours splitting up the hot/humid sunny days had the track
primed, fast and tacky as we have ever seen it.
The small women's field did not stop Mary from pushing
her limits though she was able to ride away easily and take
the win. averaging around 19 mph throughout the race and and putting close to 30 minutes
on the second place woman. She clearly made the most of her
hard training effort as she continued her preparation for
top race fitness in the soon upcoming world cups.
The men's race was more attended by an international
field. we started fast-- my legs seemed to swell up with
stale blood just out of the start line in an all out effort
to get a good position before the no passing single track. I ended up going in
6th or so and had to make some difficult passes in the jungle in an
effort to move up. By the time I found a clean line
countrymen Todd wells and Jason sager had already made a
decisive split and were off the front and I settled in to
race with my Chilean friends Cristobal and Javier. The techy
course suited me very well but it was a struggle to race as
I searched my legs for some kind of top end. I ended up finishing 4th -- a
minute off jason sager's win and just 15 seconds off 2nd and 3rd
place Chileans, with Todd wells rounding out the top 5.
--------------------------------
PAN AM CHAMPIONSHIPS -- San Juan de los Morros, Venezuela
(04/06/2008)
MARY --1ST
MIKE -- 6TH
---------------------------------
This year's event was held a few hours south of Caracus
in the small town of San Juan del los Morros. We met up with
the rest of the small US National team which consisted of
three elite riders Myself, Mike, Todd and two u23 riders
Colin C. and Sam J. We were accompanied by three USA Cycling
staff members: new mtb team director, Marc Gullicson, team
therapist Bernard C. and mechanic TJ Grove. Rounding off our
support staff for our brief 4 day trip to Venezuela were two
local body gaurds: Juan (x heavyweight body builder) and Luis (black belt karate master).
The race was held just outside the busy town in the dry,
treeless hills with some spectacular jutting "morrows" (tall
craggy rocks) as a backdrop. The 5 km track contained some
extremely steep climbs, open fire road style driveways ,
some wide off camber single roped into the open desert and
some gully and rain rut trails. The hard pack dry earth began to deteriorate to
moon dust as the tracks were ridden over and over. The apparent
local custom of burning your own field continued right on
through race day adding plumes of black smoke to the already
dust choked sky but unfortunately did very little to block
out the scalding sun.
The first thing that came to mind during our initial
training session was to have mike put the small ring back on
my bike as there were some abrupt steep climbs that would be
all too draining without a little help from granny. I was
hoping that this would be enough to keep my power output in
check and not crack as the extreme conditions of searing
heat were sure to take a huge toll even at my morning race
time of 8:45.
I went hard from the gun and soon found myself out front
with a swarming dust choked field of women close behind. I
was able to gain a small gap by the end of the first few
laps and then switch to conservation mode as I battled the
course and conditions. I knew my nearest competitor,
Jacqueline (Brazil) was not far behind so I started to dig a
little deeper, focused on riding smooth and swift and
hydrating as much as possible. On lap 4 of 6 the heat was
getting to me and I took advantage of my time splits from
our team director mark and backed off a bit to make sure I
was going to make it through the day. I managed to maintain my lead and
crossed the finish line earning my third pan American Gold medal. I
feel it is a huge honor to participate in this race with my pan
American sisters and I am happy to once again win this
unique and important race that spreads the sport and good
will of mountain biking throughout the Americas. Big thanks
to Kenda, Seven and all my sponsors, Mike and the perfect
race day support from our awesome USAC staff!
It is always a bit special to find that you have some
fans in far off places like south America--or perhaps these
folks just saw me ride for the first time, in any case It
felt pretty good to do some interviews, sign autographs and
pose for a pictures with kids -- though not as nice as it felt to get back to the team
van and change out of my sweat and dust soaked team kit.
Definitely a draining effort!! I was lucky that my race was
early--when the heat was only in the mid 90s. the men were
now lining up for an 11:15 race start under the white hot sun in dry,
breezeless 100 plus degree weather! I was nervous to see the
toll that was to be taken...
As I watched the men jet off the line a vacuum of dust
tracing along behind their effort and then suddenly a big
vertical plume indicating an invisible but heavy pile up. An unseasoned
rider had tried his hand at the kamakazi advance forward around
other riders but into a course marking pole. He ended up
taking himself out of the race to be carried shoeless like a
child to the ambulance and in his ill thought out effort
slamming into Mike's back wheel causing him to loose his
momentum in the critical few seconds at the race start. Mike
stayed upright, but lost his clean line and was caught back
in the dust as the elite men set to complete the start loop
and then 8 full laps in the devastating heat.
The front of the race was pretty tight. the top ten were
within a few minutes of each other, the other 30 competitors
were scattered as the race carried on. The first few laps
Todd was rocking a blistering pace at the front with our
Chilean friends, Cristobal and Javier close in tow. The heat
and difficulty of the course started to take its toll and
the men's field began to blow apart. Mike persevered thru his sketchy start and continued to
ride advancing his position as high as 5th before eventually
settling for 6th after a bit of a "sharing the effort while
you battle it out" type ride with Todd. The u 23 men competed at the
same time as the elites and suffered thru the same conditions
with one less lap, where Sam J earned his his first Pan Am
Championships victory. All and all it was a very successful
day for the USA.
Mike and I as well as the rest of the team feel that this
was possibly THE hottest race we have ever competed in--
well into the danger zone for even watching an outdoor sporting event!
some riders cramped with dehydration, some got dizzy and
crashed, some just ploughed thru and others were able to
hold out and somehow turn the conditions to their advantage.
After the race, podiums, and anti-doping (took me about 4
hours to hydrate enough for a sample..), we enjoyed sitting
by the pool for a half hour, packed up the bikes, cooked
another crock pot feast in the hotel and went to bed. In
order to catch their flights home, most of the team had a
painful 3 am departure! Mike, Marc and I were glad to be
able to sleep in till 6:30 am before we began the long
travel home. Yes, a brief 4 days in Venezuela with some very
memorable experiences.
Venezuela facts: gas is only $2/gallon
Chavez decided to make a half hour time change... so we
did we were some of the lucky athletes to have water running
in our hotel average monthly income: $200 and the groceries
are expensive and hard to come by We enjoyed the best papaya
ever here The USA cycling staff declined an offer to buy a
turtle in the tec zone during the races.
Off to Europe on Monday...
All the Best,
Mary and Mike
Team Kenda/Seven Cycles
