{"id":103,"date":"2011-10-13T20:38:04","date_gmt":"2011-10-13T20:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tjkopena.com\/blogs\/outdoors\/?p=103"},"modified":"2011-10-13T20:38:04","modified_gmt":"2011-10-13T20:38:04","slug":"eccc-mtb-2011-unh-attitashcranmore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tjkopena.com\/blogs\/outdoors\/2011\/10\/eccc-mtb-2011-unh-attitashcranmore\/","title":{"rendered":"ECCC MTB 2011: UNH @ Attitash\/Cranmore"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u00a0UNH rocked it out at Attitash and Cranmore this past weekend, the first time the conference has raced at those venues. \u00a0A short race report is in the USAC Weekly Wrap<\/a>. \u00a0Results are on the ECCC Calendar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This weekend basically started off right: I got home from work and Caitlin goes:<\/p>\n

“Mmm… Somehow I didn’t think you’d already left already. \u00a0Don’t you have any idea where the race is?”<\/p>\n

“Up north somewhere?”<\/p>\n

“Yeah, it’s at Mt Washington.”<\/p>\n

“Oh.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mt Washington is pretty damn far up there; it’s often taken us 11 hours to get there.<\/p>\n

In any event, fortunately it took Tim and I only almost exactly 9 hours to get there, with just a little bit of traffic. \u00a0Coming back was the same, even with an unnecessarily lengthy dinner stop. \u00a0This was also my first weekend in a long, long time traveling without any of the equipment; Sam had it from the previous weekend. \u00a0It was pretty awesome to be able to roll up to the start about two hours beforehand and crawl into the back of the Prius for an hour nap…<\/p>\n

Upon actually learning where it was, I was pretty excited about the location though we wouldn’t really wind up spending any time in town. \u00a0In many ways North Conway is not really my kind of place. \u00a0Too many trendy skiers, lots of shopping, steak houses, etc.. \u00a0But it does have those gear shops going for it, and we’ve had some great trips up there to go winter backpacking on Mt Washington.<\/p>\n

The venues worked out fairly well. \u00a0Cranmore seemed like a pretty good XC race. \u00a0Substantially more climbing than the previous races have had. \u00a0On the other hand, some of the descents were a bit fast fire road and double track affairs with some unfortunate step downs and waterbars. \u00a0I think the speed let people get in over their heads; there was notably more blood at this race than we’ve seen in a while.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Women's A starts up the XC opening climb.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Tom Sampson (Plymouth) recovers from a flat to take the day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Short Track at Attitash was workable but really only after we built a bunch of CX style chicane sequences to break up and slow down a long, steep fire road descent. \u00a0This highlighted that there was no way Attitash would be able to host XC after their trails were destroyed by Hurricane Irene. \u00a0In hindsight we probably should have moved STXC to Cranmore as well, but it was workable.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Women's A\/B short track lines up.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Derek Harnden (UVM) finally claims a victory this season.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Scott Igo (UVM) proving you really don't need to ever stop racing in the ECCC.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Downhill went off without a hitch. \u00a0Everyone seemed pretty happy with the DH trails around Attitash. \u00a0Super D was its usual terrifying affair. \u00a0The early sections were wide open gravel descents through a couple super high speed turns, not well suited at all for XC bikes. \u00a0Everybody seemed happy by the bottom though.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Early in the Men's C Super D.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Women's Super D leaders over the first crest.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Interestingly, Jesus Martinez (Columbia) crashed fairly bad in the XC, breaking his handlebars, frame, helmet, and some other stuff. \u00a0He got a bike from somewhere for the STXC but was clearly hurting. \u00a0Combined with skipping the previous weekend, that enabled Alex McAndrew (Clarkson) and Nik Patalano (Northeastern) to jump ahead of him in the season omnium standings. \u00a0All three have a shot at it this weekend, particularly with double points on the line for Easterns, so we’ll see what happens. \u00a0Could be exciting. \u00a0Nik sounds super pumped for it.<\/p>\n

A couple other thoughts:<\/p>\n