Last week I headed out to the EWS in Colorado for a little race action. It was a great trip and Winter Park makes Big Bear and Mammoth look pretty silly by comparison. They actually have real dirt on their trails!! The variety of terrain is also impressive with huge park lines, full DH courses and cool backcountry trails. Format was 7 Stages with courses released 20 hours prior to the race. IE Friday's courses were released at noon on Thursday, Saturday noon on Friday, etc. This meant big days riding at 10K altitude. There was not much O2 up here and it was painful. Courses ranged from 11 minute bike park lines with huge berms and jumps to full DH courses including big natural lines including rocks/roots plus a 10 minutes XC style DH course that was a serious pedalfest. Overall it was a blast and can't wait to hit it again next year. BTW there were serious consequences on these trails and one of the pro women ended up in critical condition after a crash. My teammate also dislocated a rib after hitting a tree at full speed.
Narrow courses+High Speeds+Technical Trails=Serious Risk
A few pics, but didn't take a lot of action shots since we were so focused on racing and learning the courses.
Lift Selfie
160 bikes do get used
Every single run here
Climbing at altitude is not fun. Burying yourself in race runs even less. It hurt bad, but I was feeling much stronger by Saturday
My teammate starting Stage 1
End of day 3 and time to go home
After a 16 hour drive we made it home at 4:30 AM
Overall we had a great time and can't wait to go back. Unfortunately I had to abandon day 3 in order to get home in time for work. There was a 2 hour course stoppage which put my final run outside the window of getting home in time. Sucks because I was feeling good and inside my goal of finishing in the top 10 of my age group. Can't wait till next year and will probably try to hit the Whistler round as well.