Mount Snow

The fifth round of the U.S. Cup was held this past weekend at Mount Snow. After a 6 hour drive on Friday I checked into my hotel and headed to the venue. This is the 4th year in a row that I've raced at Mount Snow so I have become quite familiar with the area and the course. I picked up my registration packet and at about 5pm went out for a lap pre-ride.

To my dismay they cut the course down about 2/3 the length from previous years to about 4.1 miles, taking about half the climb and a good bit of the fun, ripping single track downhill out. Along with a shortened course the laps were kept the same and now that I'm racing 50+ that meant 3 instead of 4 laps. Race pace for me was around 26-29 minutes per lap, ending up with an hour and 25 minutes for the race. The pros were doing 19 minute laps and many were getting pulled when they were close to getting lapped.

Going off at 8am on Saturday in a group of about 40 riders with all the age groups from 40+ made for a tricky start through the cattle shoots. It was great weather, though typical of Mount Snow it was very wet and muddy in the woods. I didn't have great legs, went into the single track in 10th and rode a steady race to a second place. Unfortunately, there was no way of telling who was in your age group since there weren't any leg markings - a practice that has been consistent this year. For full results check out the link below:

http://www.fasttrackcoaching.net/timing/Results/MOUNTSNOWMOUNTAINBIKEFESTIVALXCRESULTS.html