So far, my time at the venue has been spent riding with journalists, checking out the new bikes, pre-riding the cross country course and connecting with friends.  The mechanics have also been tweaking all of our new race bikes and I have been trying a few different options with prototype tires, new Rotor Rings and some SRAM products that are just coming out.  It’s a bit of trial and error, but this is the perfect way to work out some of the kinks.

We spent a lot of time this week at Specialized, talking, looking, and tinkering with all the new products. I wish I could have taken pictures, but something tells me they wouldn’t like that. We also did the infamous Specialized “lunch ride” which is way faster than most would think. Then again there were four world champs there! My favorite part though was the museum. All the classic bikes they have made over the years, and even one sweet VW van are in there. I wanted to grab one of them for a cool vintage town bike, but apparently they are valuable or something!

I also raced the Super D.  It was my first gravity event EVER.  I signed up because I knew this course was not very technical and figured it would be a great way to work on one of my weaknesses.  I pre-rode the course and there was nothing technical about it.  It was a high speed fire road with a lot of pedaling and some loose, gravel cornering.  You could basically go as fast as you were willing.  I had Benno put on some beefier tires than the usual Fast Traks and opened up the suspension on my Era.  I tried to ask Rafa in broken Spanish for some advice, but all I could get from him was not to touch the brakes.  I’d never even watched a Super D race before, so I had a bit of apprehension.  I was filming the race with a GoPro helmet cam and my main goal was to get some downhill practice, get some race footage and get to the finish line without any injuries.  I was successful on all fronts.

The race started LeMans style with a short run to the bikes.  My first mistake was accidentally down shifting when I grabbed my handlebars to jump on the bike.  I wasted a bit of time getting back into the right gear.  Super D traditionally involves a bit of pedaling, so many of the XC riders do well on these courses.  The whole race lasted just under 8 minutes and it was a lung buster.  There were 3 climbs of under a minute each and they about killed me.  About 4 minutes into the race, it was clear that my position was not really going to change, so I just rode and had fun.  I must admit, the speed was somewhat addicting and I crossed the finish line with a huge smile on my face.  I’m not going to make any predictions, but I could see doing more of these sort of events in the future.

The short track race was today and it was awesome to watch.  Specialized had a strong showing with Lene finishing 2nd in the pro women.  Todd Wells won the pro men and Burry was 2nd.  Christoph flatted and and did not finish.  Conrad Stoltz (Xterra world champ) also entered and really impressed me in an event that he’s never raced before.  Sam Hill, another Specialized athlete also won the dual slalom.  Rafa, unfortunately, crashed during his run and roughed himself up pretty well.

The cross country is the main event for most of the team members.  I’m racing that event and expecting the competition to be gnarly and the start to be really fast.  Stay tuned for results.

Cheers

Reba