Thursday, October 30, 2014

USAC Collegiate MTB Nationals

Lehigh Cycling had three representatives compete in the 2014 USAC Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships this past weekend at Beech Mountain, North Carolina.  Lenny and Andy raced downhill and Dean raced cross country.  The trip began on Thursday afternoon as the trio set out on their nine hour journey.  After many gas stops, rest stops, stretch stops, food stops and soda stops they finally made it to North Carolina.

Friday morning began with registration and finding some food.  There was a bit of disappointment as Andy discovered that his highly coveted and sought-after #269 number plate had already been claimed - nothing that a nice egg sandwich on a biscuit couldn't fix!  The rest of the day was used to pre-ride the courses.  Andy and Lenny headed up the lift to the top of the mountain for downhill practice, and Dean rode up the mountain to check out the XC course.  Later on, downhill seeding took place to determine when each person would start their race runs on Saturday.  Andy made quite the impression on the crowd when he blew his rear tire right off the rim going across the finish line - twice!

Bright and early on a cold Saturday morning Dean rode over to the mountain for the cross country race.  Men's Division II began at 8:40am.  Six laps for a total of 21 miles and 4200 feet of climbing made for a tiring two hours of racing.  After a few rounds of long climbs and fast descents Dean came in right behind fellow ECCC racer Ian from RIT for a 14th place finish.  He was pedaling so hard in the end that he lost traction and nearly fell over right before the finish line!

Lenny and Andy started their race runs later on Saturday around 4:30pm.  An injury on course interrupted Andy's run, but he was able to redeem himself with a free second run - what a bargain!  The two daredevils tore down the the course plowing through anything in their paths that they could, and jumping over anything that they couldn't.  When it was all said and done, Lenny finished 15th, and Andy finished 22nd.

This season as a whole was a huge success.  The team hasn't seen results like this in quite a while, and everyone is looking forward to continued progress and growth in the future!