Crankin' out the miles, Crankin' out the Love: On the Road Again.....to Mt. Snow, VT

After being home for five days, the Jeffina packed up again and headed for Mt. Snow, VT. Mt. Snow is not hosting a national event this year, but was holding a Rt. 66 series mountain bike race. We don't participate in many of the Rt. 66 races, but Jeff wanted to test his fitness after a great run in Colorado. Outside of that, we love traveling to VT, we love the quaint setting and rural roads, and the course is typically one of the most difficult we will race on here in the northeast. For both of us, this course would test our fitness and handling skills.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon with plenty of time to pre-ride the course. The course started with the traditional parade loop that took riders up the hill from the main base lodge into a section of woods with a short rocky descent back down to the base lodge, and then more climbing to the top. This year, the course took us all the way to top -- we circled the pond before making one more final ascent and then dropped back into the woods for the descent. The descent is broken up by transversing the ski slopes at times and then diving back into the woods. The loop was about 6 miles, but both Jeff and I agreed that it felt a bit shorter. On the pre-ride, I was able to ride just about everything on the descent. After coming back from Colorado, my confidence to ride technical courses is improving.

Saturday evening, it rained most of the night, but we awoke to clear, blue skies, but we knew that the rocks and roots would now be wet and slimey. We were both up for the challenge.

The SS men lined up with five across the line. Jeff's good friend and fellow competitor, Brian, was there, and Jeff was unfamiliar with the other riders. Jeff states that they had a relatively easy start, but by the top of the first climb, Jeff and Brian distanced themselves from the other riders. From there, it would be the two of them going back and forth. About 3/4 of the way into the first lap, Jeff's rear brake cable loosened from the main brake handle and Jeff would end up riding the remainder portion of the race with ONLY a front brake. For any of you who are familiar with the course at Mt. Snow, you must realize what a feat this was. Jeff admits that there were sections so steep that he had to run down, but surprisingly, Jeff would go on to take 2nd in his division.

Similar to Jeff, myself and a rather young gal distanced ourselves from the rest of the expert ladies field early on and we would go back and forth for the entire race. Seven expert ladies lined up, with five of us in the 35+ category. On the 3rd and final lap, I was able to make enough time on the final climb to hold her off on the final descent. I won the overall (and of course, my division) by about 15 seconds. I had a relatively uneventful race and just rode my own race. The course is so tough that I did not want to push over my limits. I admit that at times, my riding was not pretty on the technical descents, but nonetheless, I made it through.

After awards, we stopped at Dot's Diner, a local Dover landmark, and drove home as the sun set. We were both satisfied with our races and hope that this will provide a good tune-up for the upcoming AMBC race in Macungie, PA.

Enjoy the photos!