Continental Champs
Last weekend the Subaru/Gary Fisher cross country squad joined the rest of the US National team for a quick jaunt to Chile. It was the first trip of the year and we started things off with a good one. It was quite possibly the shortest trip ever taken to Chile; we got there on Friday and left on Sunday, but with our upcoming travel schedule it was kind of nice to minimize our time on the road for this trip.
Things started off well right from the start. I managed to snag an exit row seat that I was pretty pumped about, however I had second thoughts when I got onto the plane and was greeted by my neighbor with a loud, "woooheeee, I got me a skinny one". It turns out this rather large man was excited to have extra room to spill over to my side of the seat because he had wide shoulders. Things worked out alright though and it was nice to have the extra leg room, plus he was actually a pretty nice guy.
We landed in Santiago in the morning after our overnight flight and loaded up the rental vans to head up to our lodging. We stayed in a ski lodge in the mountains outside of town. The address of our hotel was actually switchback #40 (yeah, there were really 40 switchbacks and they were seriously steep switchbacks). The race course was at the bottom of our 40 switchback road so it was pretty fun to start each day out with 30 minutes of crazy cornering with no pedaling involved. It's a good thing I put new brake pads on my bike before the race.
The course was technical and super dusty, but it was mostly rideable so it was cool. The last descent was a really steep hillside that was composed of fine pumicy dust and ruts that were at least a foot deep. It was so steep that I ended up hopping off and running the middle section after I almost died when I got a little cocky while pre-riding it. Overall it was a good course and I was pscyhed for the race.
On race day I felt pretty good and I had a solid callup of around 10th. I lined up on the 2nd row and prepared myself for the start. All of the races that I have done in South America have had crazy fast starts so I was ready for some chaos. I actually ended up holding my own and went into the first singletrack in the top ten. The race was pretty exciting and included a pretty solid crash and a lot of time right at the verge of cramping. My Superfly 29er treated me right and I ended up finishing up in 2nd place with teammate JHK right behind me. After the race I felt like a total rock star. I must have been asked to pose in 100 photos with Chilean bike fans. It was pretty sweet.
After my couple minutes of soaking in the finish the real race began. The entire US team had flights that left Santiago at 9 pm on race day so we were in a pretty serious time crunch to pack our stuff and get to the airport. On top of that, the top 2 finishers had to pee in a cup for anti-doping purposes. I was super dehydrated after the race so doing this in a timely manner was not an easy task. I reported to the anti-doping barn (yes it was definitely a dark and musty barn with no running water) and started chugging bottles of water. I think I went through at least 7 of them. Finally it was time and I selected my cup and told the chaperone that I was ready to go to the bathroom. He led me to a tent inside of the barn that featured a cut off barrel and a camping toilet instead of standard toilets. I managed to fill the cup, but just barely.
Then it was time to go pack my bike. Luckily Keith, the downhill coach, had already dismantled my bike so I packed it quick but I think I was still the last one that was ready to go. We drove straight to the airport, sans-showers, and barely made it in time. I wiped some of the dust off of myself in the airport bathroom but it was nowhere near a real shower. I felt bad for the people who got stuck sitting next to me in the airplane. Bu postponing my post race shower made it feel that much better once I got home.
All in all it ended up being a really good trip. I was super psyched with the result, I earned a lot of UCI points which should help out for the rest of the season, and now I'm warmed up for our next block of races.
