GREAT FUN

TOUGH COURSE
at this year's

24 HRS OF CANAAN

Written by
MARC VETTORI

MOUNTAINBIKERACER.com NEWS ARCHIVES

Date: Monday, June 07, 1999 6:08 PM
Subject: 24 hrs of Canaan Race Report...

      The 1999 24hrs of Canaan is completed and although Wooden Wheels did not have a dedicated team racing in the event, we were well represented. Three team members rode for teams in the area. Lyn Shaffer rode on a 5 man team, Andy Green was with his Marine posse, while I got to be a mercenary filling in for an injured rider on a team from West Chester, PA.

     The Course: The weather was hot and dry in Davis, WV. As a result the course was dry, dusty and wicked fast. I felt the course at Timberline Ski resort was very representative of West Virginia Mountain biking. In my mind I broke each lap into 4 sections. The first being the Prologue loop, which started you out a nasty grinding climb, with little or no warm up. The top of the climb dumped you down a steep fast decent, that left many a rider with an early flat. After the prologue loop the course flattened out some and opened up to some really fast single track.
      The track was so dry you could just spin the big gears so easily. This section was fun as it twisted through some of the camp sights, and it was just so fast you felt like you were riding on rails.
The third section of the course was the long climbs. A little more than half way through the lap the single track dumps you out onto an access road that twists it's way almost to the top of the mountain, unfortunately when you think it's over, it drops you out on to the base of yet another ski slope. This last climb nick named the "wall" is insult to injury after attacking the long WV mountain.      Finally, the downhill. This section is really technical with tight turns, tons of rocks and steep drop-offs. Anyone who said they had an easy decent after the lap, didn't ride the course. This may have been my favorite section of the course. There is something to be said for cleaning a rock garden with tons of spectators standing around cheering. The roar of the crowd gets everyone fired up!

Justin Thompson
places FOURTH at SEVEN SPRINGS - earning a TOP TEN National Junior Expert Status!!

Race: Junior Stage Race, Tour de FCCC
Location: Reading and Trexlertown, PA
Date: June 12 and 13
Written By: Justin Thompson

      After heading back east on Friday night after a hard day of racing at Seven Springs Justin Thompson had to change his mind towards road cycling. Thompson decided to race on Saturday and Sunday in the Tour de FCCC which is a LAJORS (Lance Armstrong Junior Olympic Race Series) event and promised to attract top juniors from this half of the country. Starting on Saturday was a 5.1 mile time trial. Probably because of the mountain bike race the day before my legs weren't especially happy about a short hard effort. My time placed me in 5th out of over 30 racers. I wasn't at all pleased with my performance and decided I would make the road race my stage. I think with a few modifications to my bike and a little experience I could have won the time trial. A couple hours later that same day the second stage took place. The road race was a 3.5 mile loop and we did 6 laps. This was not just any little loop though, the course contained a 2 mile downhill and a one and a half mile climb. I was pretty confident that I was the strongest climber there and decided to set the tempo each time up the climb. At the top of the climb was the start/finish. I won all three of the priem laps and after 3 laps a break containing myself and 2 other riders put some good distance on the other 25+ riders. The race came down to a sprint finish between the three of us and I won by about 1 bike length. Going into the third and final stage which was the criterium I was about 11 seconds from first and 4 seconds from second. The criterium was in the Bob Rodale Cycling and Fitness park. The course was a 1.1 mile loop with no hard corners and a slight rise near the start/finish area. Being almost impossible to move up or down in the GC standings my goals for the race included practicing my pack skills, sprinting and having fun. After the race I was happy to know that I had accomplished all of my goals and finished a respectable 3rd place overall and about 7th or 8th in the criterium. This was my first ever junior racing experience on the road. This was a perfect warm up for the junior road nationals in Cincinnati, OH which I will be attending at the end of June. I owe a special thanks to Katie Compton's father Tom Compton who drove me to the race on Saturday and coached me so well that most of the other juniors couldn't even tell I was a "Dirt Boy" mountain biker. I will be looking forward to bringing home some medals from the nationals.

Race: NCS #3 Seven Springs
Date: June 11, 1999
Written By: Justin Thompson

     After my first National top ten placing in Welch Village, MN I was shooting for another top ten finish in the mountains of western PA. Our race was at 7:15 on Friday morning and the course was a lot faster and dry compared to last year. After getting called up to the starting which was a surprise I was ready to get the race underway. From the gun I shot into the lead and set the tempo of the junior expert for the next 5 miles.
      At the end of the second 8.5 mile loop I was in 4th place and feeling good. The last lap was the hardest with the long climbs starting to take a toll on my legs. Just before the end of the race the most dramatic ending of my career took place. The lap ended with about a mile of fast switchbacks. Just before we got to the switchbacks which are very hard to pass or catch people on a fast junior got by me. I thought he was taking away my podium spot and said, "No way, the podium is mine today." After sprinting from switchback to switchback and flying through the turns I put enough pressure on the rider for him to lose his focus and slide out on one of the last switchbacks, a couple hundred yards from the finish. I had taken back the position that I had worked so hard to get. I thought to myself, if that finish had been televised to the world I think it could have been one of the most dramatic finishes ever. At the end of the race I was so overjoyed and relieved that I almost wanted to breakdown and start crying. I had gotten my first top five placing in a national by finishing in 4th place. Not only was I happy about 4th place but what really made my day was the fact that I had won the dogfight on the last downhill, we duked it out and I had shown myself that it is all about how bad you want it and I must say that feeling tastes better than any gourmet cuisine I had ever eaten. I now have a top ten national ranking and am looking forward to the next NCS race which is in Mammoth, CA.

     Results: Andy Green was triumphant in his return to Canaan completing 4 laps as his team finished on 10th place. Andy's wife has been sick all spring, and he wasn't sure he was going to even get to race so I was very please to see him Finnish so well. Lyn Shaffer completed 3 laps helping her team, "Sofa King Fast" finish 43rd in the 5 man class. The program states that this class is " more for fun", but I beg to differ I think this may have been the most competitive class in the race.      As for my team, "Krusty's Kids" we finished 41 out of 161 sport teams. The race was a lot of fun. My favorite lap was when Mark Fitzwater and I rode together in the morning. Mark was on my wheel the whole lap keeping me in the zone as we passed 40 riders on my final lap. This race is big; crazy and most of all big fun.
      Thanks: I wanted to thank everyone who came down to help out the riders even though they weren't racing. Jeanie Rengers, Diane Crampton, and Mark Fitzwater made the entire event ridable. I would also like to thank Andy Lowe who gave me the opportunity to race. And Budda, Katy and everyone else from our community that helped make the weekend so much fun. This was a great experience.

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