RACE REPORTS FROM THE GIANT MOUNTAIN BIKE TEAM

(Editor’s note: The Giant Mountain Bike Team has been around the country and around the globe competing for wins, points, and/or Olympic Games selections. Below are reports from Kelli Emmett, Oli Beckingsale, Amiel Cavalier, and Jared Rando.)

WORLD CHAMP’S AND WWF BIKE WRESTLING – KELLI EMMETT

After having a couple of great races this past spring, USA Cycling accepted my petition to attend the World Championships in Val di Sole, Italy. I was soo excited and honored to hear I made the team, since there were so few spots available to riders not on the Olympic Long Team. Giant was super supportive and offered to help pay for the trip and give me support while I was in Europe. Having a good support crew can make traveling to Europe so much less stressful and this time around I gained a whole new appreciation of the Giant Staff.

After a few days of traveling, I arrived in Italy Tuesday afternoon with hopes to go for a ride. A couple-hour ride always helps with dealing with jet lag and getting the legs to feel better after the traveling. Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to be the case for me this time around. As I was putting my bike together, I notice a large crack in my frame. Apparently, the airlines decided to do a little wrestling, WWF style, with the bike case and broke the rear seat stay. I did spend a fair amount of time packing just to make sure nothing would happen to it, but it seemed as though that didn’t matter. I immediately contacted Tom, our mechanic, and he was able to get a hold of Andy at Giant of Germany, and get a new small frame sent out immediately. Of course, I had fears of it getting stuck in customs in Italy and wondered if it would ever make it on time. Luckily, it showed up on Friday before the race so I had a chance to take it for a test run on Saturday.

Prior to the new frame showing up, I got to ride a couple of different bikes. The first gem was a bike from my old mechanic, Reg, who I worked with on GT and Luna. His personal bike was an old GT Ti frame with V-brakes, thumb shifters, and one of the first SID forks ever made. It did take me a bit to get used to the shifting, but Reg kept the bike in tip-top shape and it worked like a dream. But, I have to admit I was a little nervous about taking his dream machine on course and decided to just stick with the roads. The area was so beautiful with so many different mountain climbs; I was completely content with not riding the course for another day.

The second bike I borrowed was from a younger girl, on the U23 team who finished racing on Wednesday. It was a Giant bike very similar to the one I brought over with me. To help me feel more comfortable on the course Tom switched her parts with mine and it felt exactly like my own bike. The course was a blast, super rooty and rocky descents with steep fire road climbs. I got in a couple laps and the legs felt great. I think it was from all the rest I had the past few days. I started to get pretty excited for the race since I was feeling like my old self again and was ready to kick some Euro butt.

Well, unfortunately, that feeling didn’t stick around long enough, and the spunk I had a few days earlier, did not last. I could tell pretty much from the start of the race, it was going to be a long day. Since I had not attended any of the world cups this year, I had to start from the last row. I tried my best to work my way through the field of riders but didn’t feel good enough on the climbs to pass anyone. But, I did feel great on the descents and tried to entertain myself by riding faster each lap. I finished around 47th and 1 lap down. It was not the result I was hoping for, but some days you just don’t have it and all you can do is hope things will turn around sooner then later. I am hoping my luck will change for the BC 7 which starts on Saturday and lasts for the next 7 days.

Amazing single track, here I come!!!


MTB WORLD CHAMPS: RIDING GIANT TO THE OLYMPICS – OLI BECKINGSALE

Took part in the World MTB champs last week in Italy and following my top 10 at the previous world cup race in Scotland I came in 10th, just off my personal best finish of 9th in 2005.

After rain early in the week in was a red hot 30 degrees (86 degrees to you Yanks!) on race day and with a super tough course featuring steep climbs and tech descents it was going to be a hard day out. I started well and after 2 laps had moved in 10th place but then overshot a corner and ended up crashed big time into the bushes. After the spectators pulled me out (by my feet) I got going again; luckily the only major damage been by ripped shorts.

I had slipped back to 20th but over the next hour moved back up to the top 10.

With my two top 10 results in the last 2 weeks my position in the GB team for the Olympics is now confirmed.

Thanks for your support
Oli


EURO WORLD CUP AND WORLD CHAMPS: GERM TUBES, CRASHES AND SWEET HAIRCUTS – JARED RANDO
Tara Llanes once referred to a plane as a “Germ Tube” for obvious reasons. Well, on the “GermTube” back from the first World Cup in Slovenia, I got “germed up” good and proper…

This was some kind of super germ that put me on my butt the whole time I was back in the US and is still somewhat with me six weeks later. With a four week long trip coming up involving the US Open of Downhill, World Cups at Andora and Scotland and the World Champs, I wasn’t so stoked…

I left for the US Open feeling, well, crap at the best but was still super excited to get out and do some racing. Check out a helmet run of the DH by clicking here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vesjMF9sQQY

It’s a great track and an awesome event to go to. This year was the first year they had Dual Slalom. It was a pretty basic track, but even basic slaloms are way better than the best 4X. Dual Slalom is the sh*t!

The event went well into the night and by the finals, we were riding basically in the dark. I felt great on the track and ended up winning the finals which I was stoked about especially since it was 10pm and all I wanted to do was go to bed and get some rest for the DH the following morning where $5000 was up for the win (1st place in Slalom was still $1500…. Why can’t we have more races like this!!??)

The Downhill went pretty well too. There was a huge international turnout and it was more like a World Cup. I was feeling a little run down from the Slalom the night before and the “germ” which still had a hold of me but I managed to put a somewhat decent run together despite a bobble in the top rock garden and finish 13th. Not what I was hoping for but 2 or 3 seconds faster would have had me in the top 5. Downhill racing these days is ridiculously close…..

From there it was across the pond to Andorra for the second World Cup. It was a beautiful place surrounded by massive mountains and with no taxes there, was super cheap compared to other Western European countries.

What’s cheap? 2 liters of Olive Oil (the good stuff)? 3 Euros. I even bought a bottle of wine for 80 cents just because it was 80 cents. And it didn’t taste too bad either. I needed to shave my head so bought some clippers for 4 Euros, complete with attachments, scissors and instructions on how to cut hair.

We forgot about the instructions though-

I was still feeling pretty crappy from the Slovenian bird flu SARS or whatever it was and the track was super physical and quite muddy which wasn’t going to help me out either. It was, however, one of the most scenic DH tracks I’ve ever ridden so you can check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp7VtoXiHgQ

I finished pretty average- somewhere in the mid thirties but was happy just to make it through the week and get some points. I had some solid crashes in practice and was riding a little too timid. My fitness level was pretty bad from not being able to train and I wasn’t feeling any better. Thanks “Germ Tube” I blame it entirely on you.

From Andorra, we jumped on a few more “Germ Tubes” and ended up in Fort William, Scotland for the third World Cup. Paying with British Pounds for everything ensured that the seemingly cheap Andorra would soon be forgotten and our fear for Scottish food was overcome by two things – The local restaurant where we ate at every night which was amazing and the fantastic breakfast at the B & B where we were staying. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, they couldn’t make haggis or black pudding taste any good and I will never try either ever again.

I really like the track at Fort William and come the finals I was feeling pretty good. I was finally feeling a little better and decided to cruise qualifying and save everything for the finals since the track was so long (5 minutes). Rather than the usual half can of Red Bull before my run, I tried half a can of Monster Energy Drink since they were being handed out for free. In retrospect, I decided it was a poor decision when I was throwing up 10 minutes before my start time.
I started my run and actually felt awesome. “That Monster wasn’t too bad after all!” I thought as I nailed the top section….. And then I crashed. It wasn’t too bad and I managed to get on my bike fairly quickly only to find my bars twisted to the side. I stopped, straightened them and realized it was over. Not even the Monster could save me. I cruised down, threw a couple of whips over the jumps and finished feeling pretty upset.

To make things even worse, I was randomly selected for anti-doping and spent the next 20 minutes sitting in a small room drinking liters of water wishing I could pee in time to see the last few riders come down. I managed to pee and wondered into the finish area for the last of the riders. It was great to watch, the crowd was amazing and Fort William is by far the best World Cup on the circuit.

From Fort Bill, we all traveled to Val De Sol, Italy, for the World Champs. Awesome place, awesome food, crazy track (sorry no helmet cam) and a good time was had by all. I crashed in practice and sprained my wrist pretty badly the day before seeding and was happy just to make it down the hill. My race run started out pretty well for the first 20 seconds and then I cased a rock and folded my chainring and chainguide underneath my bottom bracket……. Damn it!!

Being now somewhat used to shi**y luck I wasn’t too surprised and came down in 46th place. Oh well, what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger I guess. Bring on Mt St Anne then!!

US OPEN AND DH WORLD CUPS 1, 2, AND 3 AND WORLD CHAMPS – AMIEL CAVALIER

The US Open of gravity mountain bikes is a annual event held in a small town of Mountain Creek. This event pulls in some big names due to its awesome race course, big prize money and an event run to make the riders enjoy great riding which is its 4th year running. On the Epic journey home from Slovenia I was feeling like the flu was about to come upon me. It did! And it did hard! I spent the 10 days between these two races in bed very ill! I was very unsure as to how I would compete this weekend. It didn’t turn out to bad.

The DH Course is very East coast style with lots of slippery rocks and roots. It wasn’t a very big hill but they did very Well with the small hill that was available.

First day practice the sun was out and the forecast was looking good for a great weekend of racing. I really enjoyed the course which was very much the same as the previous years. Practice went O.K. -- taking a fall in both Friday’s and Saturday’s practice. Race day was dry as a bone and the course was fast! I was having a little bit of trouble with the bike set-up through out the weekend but managed to sort things out morning of the race. Changing setup is risky the morning of the race but with the super fast lift system I was confident I could have enough practice to fall back on.

I qualified 11th (Saturday afternoon) and was confident I could shave a lot of time off. My preparation went well and I had a reasonably fast run coming in at 9th place in the final. My time was good and I was just 1 second off 4th place. Lately
I have been battling some confidence issues so to be so close to the podium and the World cup racers was confidence-building. Can’t wait for Andorra!

The US Open also had a Dual Slalom event which was introduced for the first time this season. Although the course was short and had a ton of rain dumped on leading up to the event it was awesome fun! It was a simple course which saw you laying it over in soft berms and getting your bike up to speed with a really fast finish! I qualified 3rd. Woo hoo!

We started racing late on Saturday night and all the riders knew we would be racing in the dark! And we did! It was awesome. I come up against Bryan Atkinson (Australian racing for GT) and beat him in the first round. In the 2nd round I had a great start but made a small mistake in the 2nd turn ending my run. It was very unfortunate for me because I was confident in how I was racing. I was still very happy with how I went, 5th.

WC 1
290 starting riders in the elite men DH field at the weekend. The Weather was perfect! There had been a small amount of rain in the days leading up to the race and then sun for the three days of training and racing.

The course is one of the faster and mentally challenging courses on the circuit. High speeds, roots, rocks, breaking bumps and changing light from high-speed ski runs into dark technically fast single-track made interesting training and racing! A great race course at that. I really enjoyed the mental pressure of being back racing Worlds Cups. The courses are tough and Europeans are fast! I was happy with my comfortably-paced qualifying run but the fact that there was
290 racers fighting for 80 spots for the final made qualifying a final in itself for most. This really upped the ante with the 80th rider only 14 seconds off the fastest qualifier. I was confident in aiming to break the 3 minute mark in the final having qualified 57th mark but was unable to accomplish my goal. Final time: 3mins 3seconds. My expectations of a top 20 result were shattered by super close times and super fast Europeans.

Overall the Weekend was a great start to the season and I can’t wait to be back in Europe riding amongst the toughest riders and most testing courses.

WC 2
After my result form the previous weekend at the US Open I was feeling ready with confidence and high expectations. When we drove in the province of Andorra all I seemed to be doing was looking up out both sides of the car at very rocky steep wet massive mountains. It made me wonder long and hard about where this Vallnord DH course was going to be? The terrain surrounding the corridor seemed unrideable! Turned out the venue was 6 miles out of town on a pretty small ski slope. The course reminded me of something I would ride at home. Pretty tight through the trees with not much line selection. I liked the look of it! It felt very natural for me to ride being similar to "home" (besides the fact that it was raining consistently for the duration of the event.

On the Friday of practice we had the top 80-ranked practice with timed runs. Although not everyone tries to do a race-pace fast run I knew that it would give me a gauge of how I was riding. I threw down some pretty fast runs and posted a time that put me 13th. This was really confidence-boosting for me. I was having a lot of fun. Throughout practice things were going well and I was happy with my bike setup.

The night of the race it rained so the race day “frantics” of everyone getting eager to ride the course caused for congestion on the track! I opted to go for later practice making it tight for time between the end of practice and my qualifying time close to get into fresh race kit and clean the heavily-packed-with-mud race bike (due to very short supply of bike cleaning facilities).
Not to worry -- everything turned out and went smoothly. I qualified strong and a lot better to the previous World Cup but it was still not where I feel I can be and should be. As the day went on the course was drying out and by race run it was like riding in massive motorcycle ruts up to your pedals! It was pretty cool! Although the course was short it felt very physical! It was very draining. By the finish you were absolutely stuffed! (Yes, you should be). From a third of the way down it you were riding in tight single-track which was fast and very slow in sections (even uphill in parts) there were no places to rest! 30th was my result and I was happy with my progression from the previous World Cup!

WC 3
Fort William, Scotland, by far the most exciting place to race a mountain bike with thousands of cheering spectators lining the course and finish arena. Finally when things are starting to look a lot better for me with a solid 16th place qualifier I was happy with where I was! I was so confident that with a fast race run up my sleeve I would see my self in the top 15...or even better. My qualifying run was quiet sloppy so I new I had a lot of time up my sleeve.

Warm up for the finals went well; I was focused and knew where I needed to go to dodge the massive motorcycle-style braking bumps to conserve energy on the worlds roughest foot path. From the gondola the DH course looked like a gravel foot path flowing down the mountain amongst swampy and very uneven ski field. This makes it very important to stay on the track! One small mistake on this course was very unforgiving, crashing onto gravel wooden construction or uneven ski field.

My race run was going so perfect and I was riding to my best result of the season! Towards the lower section of the course I was off my line just by inches sliding off the course and over the handlebars on a slow section of the course. It was stupid I had just hit the top section at a million miles an hour with much more risk. I was very annoyed. Just when I thought my season was getting a lot better.

FYI: my qualifying time would have put me 21st in the finals.

WORLD CHAMPS
The hardest gnarliest and most man-course of the season was Val di Sole Italy. World Champs! The best of the best! Team Giant arrived very early to the race venue and had a lot of time to do nothing but relax and enjoy semi-unpredictable Northern European Weather. The Course was awesome! I was really looking forward to riding it.

There were fast sections followed by steep slippery rock gardens followed by ice-like root sections that seem to repeat 3 times throughout the course. There was no rest! Practice went really well and my confidence was boosted by other riders complimenting me on my speed and line choice! I was confident! The weather was finally in a predictable pattern which turned out to be hot, hot and more hot for the duration of the event.

Worlds Is a little bit different to the other World Cups and US races. You are racing for you country and therefore have to race in your country’s uniform.
The cycling federation has an allotted amount of spots for which you can be selected by competing in World Cup races, your National Championships and a few other key selection races early in the season. The format of the race is also a little different as well. Because you were "selected" to be here and compete for your country you have already qualified for the finals. Therefore you complete a ceding run much similar to qualifying -- just every one makes the final.

This was very good for me! As I left the gate for my seeding run on Thursday I snapped my chain. My mind was all over the place as I ping-ponged down the course frustrated as to what had happened. In practice I was having problems with hitting my chain ring on rocks/ground so that must have weakened it. My mind wandered and I had a really big crash, knocking the wind out of me. I lay on the side of the track for a minute catching my breath as an Italian medic comes to me and puts a cigarette less the a foot from my mouth! I was almost gagging on the smoke and trying to get my breath back! I was not a happy camper!

I got my breath back and hooked on my bike and continued my run. I ceded 94th out of 100 riders. Which meant for the final on Saturday I was to race very early. This was fine as I was just so happy that I was not injured to where I couldn’t race. I had another day of practice and the morning of the race to finalize my lines and get ready.

On the Friday I was having a lot of suspension issues which was strange as my bike was running awesome in the previous 3 days of training. I sorted that out and only had two runs on the morning of the race to get adjusted to my new suspension settings. Suspension is a big deal and a much bigger deal on a course like this.

I was eager to race and see what I could throw down on a course which I really liked and was riding well on. It was a little hard to gauge as to what I needed to improve on with no ceding time to go off. Race run time came around and I was dressed in a skinsuit with my national colors. It was tough to get a clean run! I think the crash rate would have had to have been a third!

My run wasn’t going so well and I struggled to get in to a rhythm. My feet were being thrown off the pedals which was strange and my bike began to make odd noises. I didn’t know what was going on. I finished the run not knowing why my run didn’t go so well and why my bike was feeling funny and making noises. It turned out I had another suspension issue! It was my rear shock this time.
I rode the course virtually on a pogo stick which meant I didn’t have much control of the bike. This was crazy because our suspension is so reliable and in the last two years I haven’t had a problem on any course. I suppose it goes to show how tough this track was on equipment and the racers! I finished in a respectable 18th position -- which I am very happy with and is my best result of the season.