Windham World Cup Recap

[RacerChick]

There's something to be said about the atmosphere at a World Cup event. Hundreds of spectators cheering the racers all over the course, awesome music in the backround the smell of Barbeque and perfect racing weather. Today's race at Windham Mtn had it all, including large fields of racers in all classes. This years World Cup course was my favorite venue of the year, by far. Last year's course was fun, this year they added some very technical single track. Super steep rocky downhills that if you didn't have the correct body position, you would soon be over the bars. Hard long steep climbs and grip and rip downhills. Today's event was one that should not have been missed. Take a look at the elevation profile from the G-500 data.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/46751054

RC ... :getsome:

 

[BiknBen]

Good Job. I was up there on Friday riding the course. I was not looking forward to racing it on my SS and didn't go back today. I'm glad I went though.

 

[mattybfat]

I wish I had gone 🙁...

 

[RacerChick]

Good Job. I was up there on Friday riding the course. I was not looking forward to racing it on my SS and didn't go back today. I'm glad I went though.

Hi Ben!🙂 On Wednesday I pre-walked the course on my SS. The Cat 1 Men SS race was 4 laps. It's like 640 feet of climbing in 2 miles! Good lord. The Pro Women were doing 19 minute laps yesterday!

RC ... :drooling:

 

[RacerChick]

I wish I had gone 🙁...

Matty they used computer chip scoring today, it took them a long time to compute the Women's Cat 2 35+, I hung around and waited and didn't mind. There was so much going on and so much energy. They had this huge air bag and letting kids jump off the second floor on to it! That was so cool, I wanted to jump too!

 

[xc62701]

My recap. 7th or 8th place at the end of lap 2 + 3 flats = 36th place of 42 finishers. The first two laps were great and I felt like I was gaining ground and confidence. Lap 1 was 19 minutes!

 

[thedoner]

Loved it! Great to watch the best in the world, and humbling when you compare their times to your own. It just goes to show...fast is relative!
Very cool to have you name called as you cross the line, and to be cheered on by so many spectators. I loved the course too...short be really fun, great climbs and enough tech to keep it interesting. I ended up in 4th out of 25. Kinda bummed that they only went 3 deep in awards, and I didn't get to stand on the Workd Cup podium. Oh well, still a great event and a killer weekend!
-G

 

[BShow]

anybody know where the results are? I can't find em.

 

[graveyardman67]

Loved it! Great to watch the best in the world, and humbling when you compare their times to your own. It just goes to show...fast is relative!
Very cool to have you name called as you cross the line, and to be cheered on by so many spectators. I loved the course too...short be really fun, great climbs and enough tech to keep it interesting. I ended up in 4th out of 25. Kinda bummed that they only went 3 deep in awards, and I didn't get to stand on the Workd Cup podium. Oh well, still a great event and a killer weekend!
-G

Damn! Where was my text update? All in all pretty respectable.

 

[thedoner]

Damn! Where was my text update? All in all pretty respectable.

Sorry bro, I got sloppy. Yeah...I'm happy. I was maybe 10th or so on lap one, and passed a bunch of people throughout the race, but it was hard to know what age group they were in without looking at their #'s as you went by. I honestly wasn't sure where I was when I finished, but was pleasantly surprised.
You would have rocked it up there as the course really suits your strengths.

 

[thedoner]

Matty they used computer chip scoring today, it took them a long time to compute the Women's Cat 2 35+, I hung around and waited and didn't mind. There was so much going on and so much energy. They had this huge air bag and letting kids jump off the second floor on to it! That was so cool, I wanted to jump too!

I was one of those kids! And yeah, it was pretty cool.

 

[RacerChick]

I was one of those kids! An yeah, it was pretty cool.

Awe Man! I knew I should have went up there and jumped! It looked like it was atleast 25 feet! Ah crap! I asked some guy if anyone was going inverted he said "Yea their doin all sorts of stuff!" :cry: maybe we could have gone off the roof on our bikes!

RC ... :getsome:

 

[steve336]

Awe Man! I knew I should have went up there and jumped! It looked like it was atleast 25 feet! Ah crap! I asked some guy if anyone was going inverted he said "Yea their doin all sorts of stuff!" :cry: maybe we could have gone off the roof on our bikes!

RC ... :getsome:

Yeah I my last lap i caught a glimspe of someone jumping off the deck. I was like what the heck!!

So my race went ok. After the pre ride sat night i knew i was in trouble with all the climbing right off the bat. I weigh about 200lbs I dont mix well with climbing but im getting better.
Overall I liked how they mixed in the course over and under the 4x and downhill. Lots of bridge work.
So I think i was about last at the end of the first climb. I did a proper warmup but it didnt seem to help. Try get into a comfortable speed for 3 laps. And cleared almost everything had to unclip for a nasty rock section.

Made it down the mini wall and Kabush falls without a tap all 3 times. If you didnt race it, The mini wall was a steep rooty and rocky decent with an off camber right turn then another drop into a sharp left turn. Nasty

End up 19th of 25 all 3 lap times were right around 29min mark.

 

[RacerChick]

Yeah I my last lap i caught a glimspe of someone jumping off the deck. I was like what the heck!!

So my race went ok. After the pre ride sat night i knew i was in trouble with all the climbing right off the bat. I weigh about 200lbs I dont mix well with climbing but im getting better.

Great Job Steve! Personally I think anyone who finished the race was a winner in their own right. I too can loose a few pounds and sometimes I'll get passed by the lighter women riders ... But I pass them on the downhills! Use your strengths to your advantage. There was no recovery right from the start as you well know. What has helped me in climbing (besides doing a lot of hills) is finding a gear and cadence that will allow me to stay under my threshold and ride in a low, more forward comfortable seated position and looking down just a few feet in front rather then looking directly at the climb. The "percieved effort" alone can make your climb seem much harder.

RC ... 🙂

 

[Pokgirl]

Glad to hear that further up in the Cat 2 field was clear enough to keep moving in the singletrack. The back of Cat 2 traffic, mixing with the front of Cat 3, was just horrible. This lead to me to defend myself in a very vulgar manner when I was getting yelled at, for which I just feel horrible about now. My bike clock read 5 minutes less than my actual time, due to all the off time, all stuff I cleared on my preride. In retrospect, I am really unhappy that Cat 2, 3, and first timers were out on the very short course at the same time.

 

[Mick]

. In retrospect, I am really unhappy that Cat 2, 3, and first timers were out on the very short course at the same time.

I strongly agree with that comment. I felt that the course was too short for the amount of people on it. I am always happy to see the younger riders at races, but at this venue, they were obsticles. I'm not sure that more seperation wold have worked though, if they started later, you would have just run into them later on the course, like in the falls section.

Either way, it was the best race of the season and the free swag at the tents was an unexpected bonus.