Racing is Again! Mountain Bike Season Recap 2021

The weblog returns! We’re again in motion racing this fall, and there’s a complete season’s price of recaps to learn beneath. New buddies, new racers, victories, soiled bikes… the whole lot is right here. 

The primary race of the season was concurrently the primary collegiate MTB race for all of our racers. Josephine, Kira, Sara, Devin, and Felix all arrived sooner or later between nightfall and the morning’s race. There was loads of confusion getting numbers and determining the place and when the beginning was. Nevertheless, our valiant captain, Devin, had the whole lot underneath management regardless of by no means having raced a MTB. A seasoned highschool racer, Josephine was astounded by the lackadaisical nature of ECCC MTB. Evidently, we didn't actually pre-ride the course. XC started with bang when the three girls’s A racers left the improvised begin line. Josephine began behind, however, bemused by her rivals lack of tempo, sprinted round one earlier than coming into the paths. Devin and Felix began equally cautiously in the back of a big Males’s C subject and have been caught in an absolute chaos. The beginning can finest be described as a site visitors jam. Devin adopted Felix’s lead by working round droves of stranded cyclists floundering uphill. The MIT tag staff effectively labored their means up the sphere till Felix’s handlebars began to return unfastened and he fell off the tempo. Devin pressed to say 2nd, whereas Felix limped to the car parking zone, tightened some bolts and completed with a robust second lap.

In the meantime, Sarah and Kira began in Girls’s B with little or no prior expertise on MTBs. It was solely Sarah’s eighth time ever! Nonetheless, they each put the pedal to the steel on the uphills, when their fellow riders have been typically of their means. They took the downhills at an appropriately measured tempo, getting extra assured as they went. Sarah got here flying out of the woods for 4th place and Kira adopted not too far behind. The entire time, Josephine was quietly placing in an outstanding efficiency with no rivals in sight. Getting sooner each lap, she cruised by the remainder of the staff cheering after lap three. This prompted confusion as her race was initially imagined to be 3 laps. As a consequence of a shortened course, it had been prolonged to 4, which let her construct an unimaginable hole of 11 min on the 2nd place rider. 

The entire group migrated as much as the DS course for some enjoyable with jumps and berms. Though a number of of us had no concept what twin slalom is, we had a while to kill and jumped in line to offer the programs a shot! I (Sarah) discovered it hilariously difficult and fully completely different from any MTBing I’d achieved earlier than – however it was inspirational to see among the different riders actually rip it! So many have been even form sufficient to offer us some ideas/teaching (shout-out to the UVM girls!). Sadly the method of bracketing took so lengthy that a number of of us needed to go away earlier than the bracketed rounds started, after which your complete factor obtained known as off as a result of it began getting darkish and the EMTs needed to go away. Devin stayed round for STXC and braved mud to once more clinch 2nd and safe his promotion to B’s.

The second weekend of our condensed season introduced climate that solely the hardiest souls dared enterprise out into. With sunny Boston within the rear view mirror, Kai, Devin, Josephine, Invoice, Felix, and Matthew set out for soggy Vermont, steeled for the persistent deluge that awaited them. The staff awoke to the promise of moist skies and muddy trails however nonetheless hopped on their bikes for a slippery XC course. Out on the path, the enjoyable started with Felix taking second in Males’s C, Josephine notching one other W, strong races for Matthew, Devin, and Kai. Invoice ended with worse luck, wrangling his MITOC fats bike via the primary mile solely to fall sufferer to a damaged chain. Fixing that, he returned to the course solely to finish up with a damaged derailleur in the identical spot! Afternoon twin slaloming introduced the power up with speedy runs on the sloppy floor by Kai and Josephine and a really strong “not last” by Invoice who railed the berms on Kai’s XC bike.

Saturday evening proved eerily quiet for the ECCC, dampened by the drizzle, however offered our hearty rivals with evening’s relaxation. Sunday morning at Bolton Valley Resort noticed the beginning of essentially the most technical of the season’s quick monitor XC programs, with a difficult steep descent within the center. After a harrowing race, Felix, on his enduro steed, managed to simply outsprint some man on a totally inflexible rockhopper from like 1995 to take the win. Devin’s race ended a bit sooner and fewer fortuitously with an up-close-and-personal encounter with a tree. Subsequent up, Josephine loved a chill journey with the one different particular person within the Girls’s A subject, earlier than dropping her after just a few companionable laps. Kai completed out the weekend with a strong journey on a slippery downhill course and the staff skedaddled again to the town. When the factors have been tallied, MIT had are available a decent third total!

The ultimate weekend of ECCC got here all too quickly, hosted for the primary time in Claremont, NH. In an unlucky begin to the weekend, the well-known-to-be-extremely-calm-and-quiet ECCC was remarkably silent on Friday evening at Operating Bear Campground but nonetheless managed to be advised to not return for Saturday evening. Nonetheless, the 4 riders, Kai, Josephine, Devin, and Matthew, turned to racing. Saturday introduced the flowiest XC course of the season with a no-brakes downhill filled with berms and optionally available jumps bringing smiles to their faces. Following a profitable morning, the staff headed over to the enduro course, in the hunt for one other factors haul. Josephine surprised the convention once more, successful Girls’s B on her XC hardtail, and placing down sooner occasions than any of the Girls’s A riders. Recent off a day of racing, the staff loved an uncommon evening involving a crowd of grasp gliding afficicianados, an expert pyrotechnics crew, and a colourful bonfire.

Sunday began off sturdy with an thrilling win within the quick monitor XC staff relay! The day then shifted again to Arrowhead Recreation Space for the Downhill. Kai pulled out a strong seventh in Males’s A, which noticed him off to Durango for Nationals. In the meantime, Josephine turned heads along with her flannel, full face helmet, and signature XC hardtail, charging down the hill earlier than an unlucky crash beneath a rocky chute however nonetheless managing to salvage a second place. When all of the mud had settled, the staff walked away with a stellar second place total within the weekend factors competitors and the perfect place for the season of any staff that skipped the Pennsylvania race.

With 10 inches of snow the week earlier than, the Nationals downhill course was shifted to the muddy and pedally XC monitor descent. Whereas his dual-crown downhill bike might not have been the perfect steed for the duty, Kai completed off the season with a strong thirtieth within the nation. Though USA Biking listed him as a competitor from Michigan Technical College, we knew he was reppin’ the ECCC as he wished to journey the moist, snowy DH course.

Thanks for following alongside via the epic return to racing Fall 2021 needed to provide. We’re so pleased with our new racers, seasoned riders, and sponsors who helped make the racing come to life this fall. Subsequent up: ECCC Cyclocross, Fall Coaching Camp, and an entire lot of Zwift & Coach Street. Sustain the nice work everybody!