BIG BEAR NATIONAL, BIG BEAR LAKE, CALIFORNIA
DAY #1 THURSDAY, MAY 1st
By Chris Firth
Today was pretty boring for a Thursday at a NORBA National. I signed up for Semi-Pro DH, paying a ridiculous $50 to enter. Amateurs have to pay this outrageous amount and for lift access on Thursday and Friday. Come on Team Big Bear give racers a break. I?m skipping the slalom so I can better cover the national and save another fifty dollars.
The new scheduling by Galeforce promotions has most of the racing happening from Friday to Sunday. Besides scheduling, NORBA has gotten rid of Pro downhill qualifying, much to the dislike of most riders, so they can make room for the new Super D format of racing. Super D is a 20 minute or so, primarily downhill, racecourse made to utilize the new crop of freeride bikes. NORBA and promoters are touting it as the format that?s going to ?save? NORBA racing. I think it?s a neat idea but it?s not going to save anything.
Since there was only expert downhill practice today, most pros took the time off to walk the DH course. I hooked up with my friends from back east, snuck up on the lift because we were too lazy to go back to our cars and pull off our number plates to get up the lift one time and checked out the new course. There?s a thirty-five foot double followed closely by another 15-foot double. Most pros were sweating it a bit but I?m sure we?ll all be doing it on our second run tomorrow. The rest of the course has some big jumps that aren?t all that bad as long as riders fully commit.
Then we took a look at the new slalom course. This is, by far, the best slalom course we?ve ever seen at Big Bear. Gone are the sketchy risers of past years, replaced by tightly spaced berms, step-ups and cool rhythm sections. It?s obvious that Team Big Bear put tons of work into these newly designed courses. I?m a lot happier to be racing this DH rather than the usual fireroad downhills Big Bear has become rather infamous for.
After walking I grabbed a burger (veggie burger for me) with the guys, rode some local jumps and tried to figure out where the MBA condo was to no avail. I crashed with my buddies from Sun/Ringle along with a couple of friends. Thanks guys.
It was Nathan (Stomper) Rennie?s birthday today too. It?s hard to believe this NCS winner is only Twenty years old. Happy Birthday Stomper!
DAY #2 FRIDAY, MAY 2
Today was much busier than Thursday. I picked up my downhill bike from Yeti; I trashed the rear wheel and derailleur hanger, for 10am downhill practice. Practice went well and was actually pretty fun. My decision to race clipless for the first national in three years is going well. It?s amazing the little corrections you can make with clips. I didn?t do the huge double double but at least I did everything on the rest of the course. The plan is to hit it first thing tomorrow morning. I pinched a nerve in my wrist, combined with some pretty bad arm pump, it?s pretty unpleasant but I should be fine to practice and race. My seat was bottoming on my tire. I?m going to fix it by trimming the extraneous plastic bottom of the saddle off. The loud buzz after every jump was sketchy but actually pretty funny.
After three hours of dehydrating (and pale redhead sunburning) DH practice, I grabbed some lunch and headed for pro slalom practice. The men?s and women?s pro XC sidetracked me for a while. Mary Grigson continued her win streak from last weekends Iron Horse Classic winning by over a minute and a half over Alison Dunlap. In the men?s XC Kirk Molday, who could barely find a ride this season, won the opening NCS race for Sunrace/Santa Cruz over World Cup winner Roland Green. It?s nice to see an American doing well in our country?s own series.
When I finally got over to the slalom course the number of pro riders trying to qualifying blew me away. I wouldn?t be surprised if this was the largest qualifying field ever. Brian Lopes pulled a ridiculous triple out of a rhythm section that was designed to have the first rolled and second two doubled. I think that Wade Bootes qualified first but Kris Kovarick may have, I?m not sure. Tomorrow?s Dual Slalom is going to be really close and exciting. It?s a shame more pros can?t qualify; lots of amazing riders didn?t make the cut.
There was a noticeable missing rider from both the slalom and DH. It seems Steve Peat is in some sort of tie-up with his US work visa that?s keeping him out of the US. Hope he can figure it out soon. Steve?s one of our favoite English imports.
Cross Country Results
Pro Men
1. Kirk Molday?SunRace-Santa Cruz
2. Roland Green?Trek-Volkswagen
3. Pavel Cherkasov?Subaru-Gary Fisher
4. Seamus McGrath ?Haro-Lee Dungarees
5. Ryder Hesjedal?Subaru-Gary Fisher
6. Steve Larsen? (L.L. Bean-Stairmaster)
7. Jose Adrian Bonilla? Caf?e Costa Rica
8. Ziranda Madrigal?Turbo
9. Travis Brown..Trek-Volkswagen
10. Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski? RLX Polo Sport
Pro Women
1. Mary Grigson?Subaru-Gary Fisher
2. Alison Dunlap? (GT)
3. Ruthie Matthes,?Trek-Volkswagen
4. Amber Neben?SoBe-HeadShok
5. Shonny Vanlandingham?SoBe-HeadShok
6. Melissa Thomas?Red Hook
7. Chrissy Redden?Subaru-Gary Fisher
8. Jimena Florit ?RLX Polo Sport
9. Willow Koeber?Cane Creek
10. Trish Sinclair?Ford-Devinci
BIG BEAR NATIONAL, BIG BEAR LAKE, CALIFORNIA
DAY #3 SATURDAY, MAY 3RD
This is the busiest day at Big Bear with the new Galeforce/NORBA scheduling. In the morning I had a short-lived downhill practice session. My derailleur pulled out of the recently re-tapped hanger and cut my session down to one run. The good news is that I did the big double double. I wasn?t smooth but I cleared it carrying some pretty good speed. With the line for practice being longer than any pro downhill to date, I decided to call it quits, turn in the bike to Yeti for repairs and get shooting photos.
There was a jumping contest with two ridiculously huge jumps. The contest was actually cancelled after the builder was hauled off to the hospital in a practice crash and since most of the field thought it was too windy for something this big. A couple of guys were hitting it anyway for the huge crowd. John Jesme was amazing. While the other two people riding were basically happy to clear the jumps he was backflipping them. He flipped both sets, one after another, on a run. I hung around and shot the jumps while the short track was going on. John and Jimmy were keeping track of that one for MBA.
I didn?t get to see the Super D but I guess it looked like a bunch of riders pedaling down a long flat Sport course.
This was one of the best slalom courses and races ever put on at a NORBA national. The course was fast and tight with lots of rhythm, tight berms and rollers. The competition was so close and evenly matched after the round of sixteen. The women?s race looked like it would go to Missy as long as she didn?t crash. She of course Deathstarred horribly but salvaged 4th. Leigh looked smooth and was the most consistent woman riding today. Winning the season opener isn?t bad for someone on their farewell tour. Men?s favorites: Lopes, Carter, Kovarick and Voreis were all taken out in the round of eight. I expected Bootes to take it after advancing this far. He looked like his usual fast and powerful self. It turned out the finals were going to belong to the young, new Global team in the form of Greg Minnaar and Mick Hannah. Mick was on fire! He kept his momentum from beating McCarroll and Carter and edged out newcomer Michael Deldycke and teammate Minnaar for the win. None of the people riding could believe what they were seeing today. All of these riders were unreal! I can?t believe that a new young rider, who doesn?t wear any pads by the way, could school such a seasoned field for the win.
PRO WOMEN?S SHORT TRACK
1?Alison Dunlap
2?Jimena Florit
3?Mary Grigson
4?Shonny Van Landingham
5?Susan Haywood
PRO MEN?S SHORT TRACK
1?Ryder Hesjedal
2?Seamus McGrath
3?Roland Green
4?Pavel Cherkasov
5?Jose Adrian Bonilla
SUPER D PRO MEN
1?Nathan Lloyd
SUPER D PRO WOMEN
1?Christina Probert
PRO MEN?S DUAL SLALOM
1?Mick Hannah
2?Greg Minnaar
3?Michael Deldycke
4?Wade Bootes
PRO WOMEN?S DUAL SLALOM
1?Leigh Donovan
2?Katrina Miller
3?Tara Llanes
4?Missy Giove
BIG BEAR NATIONAL, BIG BEAR LAKE, CALIFORNIA
DAY #4 SUNDAY, MAY 4TH
Sunday is downhill day. Amateur DH took up the morning. Pros practiced at eleven and didn?t start racing until two. I saved my strength and only took one practice run, which ended up working out well since the double was closed shortly after I hit it because of a bad crash. Crashes seemed to plague the DH today. There were multiple course hold that caused the already late start to be pushed back between almost an hour. We spent a lot of time sitting around waiting to race. All of the semi and pro riders seem to hope NORBA does something with this new scheduling to avoid this in the upcoming nationals. I took my run around one-thirty only to blow a corner after jumping over a cool rock section. It always seems no matter how fast I try to practice my race run is way faster. The problem with that is you have to ride differently when your going faster but what can you do? After that first crash I heard the whistle for the rider thirty seconds behind me. I continued down for a bit but pulled to the side of the track for a while to let my friend Derrick pass. I?m glad I did because he finished with a great time in fifth. Hey if you fall and you?re already OTB always get out of the way for a faster passing rider. I finished a dismal 75th out of 96 riders in Semi-pro. Maybe I just need training wheels.
Marla took the Women?s DH by four seconds over Missy a bit later after some timing problems. When Marla?s on she can?t be beat. Only the top six women braved the huge double double. In the Men?s race slalom winner took the hot seat early from Waylon Smith who actually kept it for a pretty long time. Every rider down you could see Mick sigh and look a little more relieved. He said that he was the most nervous about fellow countryman Nathan Rennie and with good reason. Nathan only finished five-hundredths behind Mick?s time of 3:15. Australians took the top four spots. I?m not sure what?s in the water over there but I want some!
Almost everyone packed up and headed home but they missed the best part of the national, the post-race party. I?ll leave out the details but let?s just say it got a little crazy. Have you ever seen two people arm wrestle so hard that one of them gets a bloody nose? Yeah well that was just the start of the night.
PRO MEN?S DOWNHILL
1?Mick Hannah
2?Nathan Rennie
3?Chris Kovarik
4? Greg Minnaar
5?Markolf Berchtold
PRO WOMEN?S DOWNHILL
1?Marla Streb
2?Missy Giove
3?Tara Llanes
4? Marielle Saner
5?April Lawyer
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