The place we could afford was only about 20 miles away from Snowshoe in the tiny town of Durbin. It was an AirBNB rental that was a historic home. It had a very rustic feel and more than enough room for me and Shannon. Dina did not want to go on this trip since she had already been to Utah with me back in May and we couldn't find anyone from our area that wanted to split a room with us so Shannon and I were alone on this one. It may have only been 20 miles to Snowshoe, but it was a winding 20 miles through some twisty mountain backroads that made the trip take 50 minutes to get to the top of the mountain. It was a beautiful drive so we really didn't mind it on all but one of the trips we had to make.
Passing through Charleston, WV
We had a nice, easy drive from home to West Virginia. We planned a stop at the Mountwood Park trails in Waverly, WV to stretch the legs and ride something new. There are about 50 miles of mountain bike trails in the park. With it being in the mountains there was a good amount of climbing, but the woods were absolutely beautiful! The first trail we took along the side of the mountain was called Haystack and went through some of the darkest forest I have ever gone through with moss and ferns galore. The trail passed by some old oil pumps and equipment from the mid-1800s. There were also several elevated wooden bridges over ravines along singletrack that was just plain fun.
Haystack trail
It was late in the afternoon when we got to the top of the mountain, so we explored the ridge and then went back down to the car so we could get loaded up before dark. We were unable to get our bike rack fixed after it was hit by a car and broken at Helen, so we had our bikes inside the car which made for a real pain with loading and unloading. We basically had to take everything out of the trunk to put my old hardtail back in, which Shannon was riding on this trip, and the backseat had to be mostly empty for my Epic to fit in. It was a pain, but we made it work. While up on the ridge we saw some ruins from old houses and settlements built in the 1800s when the oil industry was huge in this part of West Virginia. There was a town on the other side of the mountain called Volcano that was built around some oil wells. Most of the oil was pumped out of the ground using wooden rigs, one of which is on display in the park. A fire burned the town of Volcano to the ground in 1879 and ended the oil boom there. The land has been gradually turning back to forest since then, but some of the signs of the town still remain in the woods.
Stone foundations atop the mountain
Mountwood Park Lake
Spinning on the road from trail to car
Sunset from Mountwood Park
We left Mountwood Park at dark and started what I thought was a two hour drive to Durbin. It turned into over four hours and we rolled into our rental house around midnight. We had trouble finding gas at one point because it was so late and gas stations are few and far between in parts of the state. I don't know how I misfigured the drive so much, but I was way off. The curvy mountain roads didn't help us make time, but they did show me some places I wanted to check out before we left the area. It was tough to find our rental house in the dark, but we did manage to find the place and get settled into the bed by 1 AM. Thankfully, we could sleep in since my short track was not until the afternoon on Friday.
We got over to the resort and race venue in the late morning on Friday. We had actually wanted to get there early enough to catch the Cat. 1 Men's XC races, but decided sleep was more important after such a late night. The weather had been rainy and foggy all morning so they delayed the starts and we actually got to sleep and still make it for the start of the races. When we arrived, the Cat. 1 Women were wrapping up their race in some very heavy fog.
Cat. 1 Women finishing up their race
It was fun to cheer on people who are your rivals most weekends. Guys like Dustin White and Justin McMurrer were out there among a bunch of others we know. We cheered on all of our friends. Dustin was in the top five early in the 25-29 age group, but fell back to 11th at the end. He was a bit disappointed, but I thought it was a good ride in a stacked field. I saw many riders in Cat. 1 that I have raced in Pro previously. I'm not sure how so many were able to move back, but they were in there and it made for some really fast races. Jamie Babcock fought them all hard to take a top 5. Justin ended up sixth in the 30-34 class. All of our regional riders represented the southeast well. Full Cat. 1 XC results are available here.
Cat. 1 Men in staging. Still very foggy.
Dustin White through the fog
Seth Kemp
Big group battling for a podium position in the 25-29 class
Merwin Davis leading the 25-29 class with Seth Kemp on his wheel
Davis and Kemp
Jamie Babcock took a top 5 in 25-29
Justin McMurrer
Dustin White coming to the finish
Video: Cat. 1 Men XC
I want to give praise to the people at registration. It was by far the smoothest, fastest registration process I have ever encountered at a national event of any kind and as good as any small event I have ever been to. They were totally ready and it was greatly appreciated by all the riders. I picked up both of my number plates and was back out the door with all the info I needed in less than three minutes.
There was talk about a big storm heading toward the mountain after the Cat. 1 XCs, but details were sketchy as cell service was almost nonexistent and wifi was poor at the race venue. The announcement was made that the afternoon short tracks were cancelled and would be rescheduled for Saturday with times to be decided later. There were dark clouds around and thunder in the distance, but it appeared to be a ways off. I ran to the car and unloaded my bike, changed my clothes and hit the XC course for a pre-ride lap while there was no traffic. I didn’t want to miss a chance to ride today and I also needed to work on my pedals. I was not able to replace the left pedal I bent in my crash at Versailles last week. Nobody in our area carries Xpedo and I really didn’t have the money to buy a new set anyway. We spent quite a bit to get to Snowshoe, so shelling out for pedals right now when I know I have a set coming from the SERC Series in a few weeks just wasn't feasible. Ordering online from Xpedo would have been pointless anyway as there was not enough time for them to ship to me on a short week and I sure couldn’t afford overnight shipping charges. The pedal was not destroyed and was still intact, so I was able to work on them all week with a lot of hammering and prying to get the clips shaped up enough to let me clip in. By the end of this ride, I got them where getting into the pedal was easy, but clipping out was still tough. I’ll take my chances with that versus not being able to keep my foot in while pedaling.
On the XC pre-ride lap, I was a bit disappointed with what I found. I have raced Snowshoe before and remember a lot of nasty singletrack, sometimes too nasty to even ride. I had heard they still had a lot of singletrack in the loop, but it would be much more rideable than past courses. There was actually very little singletrack on the loop though. I would say of a 20-minute loop, less than three minutes were on singletrack trail. There was some wide, machine-built trail on several descents, but that is not real singletrack. The loop might have been more suitable for a cross bike in all but the final section. The Pro course was shorter and less technical than the course used for other classes. The extension on their loop was mostly singletrack, just like the course at the Utah Pro XCT.
The Pro XC loop began on pavement through the Snowshoe Village, then descended in grass behind the village before going into the woods on machine-built trail that is part of the bike park. At the bottom of this trail was a left turn onto a dirt road climb that was very steep up the final 30 meters. We then turned right onto pavement for a short stretch before a left into the real singletrack. It was wet in there, but rideable and very fun. I really liked the small descent to end the section as it was full of slick roots and small drops. Next up was a long dirt road section which was flat at first, then descended to a right turn into more wide trail that is part of the bike park. More dirt and gravel road followed with another short descent and then a big gravel climb back up towards the village. There was a break in the middle of this climb where the gradient flattened out and a man-made rock garden was built. There were multiple lines across the rocks, but all were difficult and even tougher when you factor in that you have been climbing for a solid three minutes to get to the rock garden. More climbing followed the rock garden as we passed through the Tech/Feed Zone for the first time. The course then descended on more bike park trail that flowed along the hillside with some really big berms. There were some scattered rocks in the dirt, but nothing major on this decent. There was one little section of roots and rocks at the bottom as you rolled out of the woods and onto another long dirt road climb. This was another 3-4 minute climb up a steep slope that took you back into the woods on trail that was as wide as a road, but littered with boulders sticking up out of the ground. It was a tough section as the boulders kept you on your toes and there was no smooth places where you could build up a lot of speed. It was slow trudging through rocks and puddles while gradually gaining elevation on your way back to the village. There was one 15-second piece of singletrack in the middle of this final woods section, but otherwise it was all the same. This trail ended near the village and dumped you into the grass for one final pitch up to another man-made rock garden, this time a descending one. This rock garden had several clear lines through it. There was one line on the right side with a gap jump that was really cool, but too big of a risk in my opinion. There was an off-camber left turn leaving the rock garden and taking that far right line put you at a big disadvantage on that off-camber slope. It bit a few people over the course of the weekend, but that line certainly was a crowd pleaser. The second trip past the Tech/Feed Zone followed the rock garden. We then had a fly-over that took us back to the village and onto pavement for an uphill sprint to the line. It was a short, tough course with a lot of climbing and not a lot of singletrack. I was hoping for a bit more from an east coast National Championship course, but it seems as though they wanted to build it more for the spectators than for the riders. It had more of the west coast national course feel to it, just without the high altitude.
Pro XC Course Map
During the second half of my pre-ride lap the storm arrived and I got soaked. I actually hid out in the woods with another rider on the last long climb to avoid some heavy lightning. I hated getting my bike so nasty, but I had all night to get it cleaned back up. With everyone hiding out from the rain inside, there was no line at this bike wash. Once I got the bike clean we loaded up and headed down the mountain. We stopped in the town of Cass to check out the scenic railroad and general store, which had some really good ice cream!
We then went back to our rental house in Durbin to make dinner. Shannon cooked while I took my bike apart and did a thorough clean-up. We had good internet at the house and I happened to check the USA Cycling Twitter page to see if anything had been posted about the rescheduled short track times for Saturday and to my surprise they had posted that the short track races were going to start in just over an hour. What?!! How can you cancel a race and then two hours later decide it’s back on? You can’t backtrack once a race has been cancelled for the day. Even if you jump the gun on your decision you have to stick with the announcement you made. They didn’t take into account anyone that was staying off the mountain, or the poor communication that was happening onsite with the minimal cell/internet service. It was complete BS in my opinion, but that is how it seems to go at these national races. I would not be surprised at all if someone missed their race. So, I had to scramble to put my bike back together and hurry back to the mountain. That was the drive over from Durbin that we didn’t enjoy. Thankfully, there were a few short tracks ahead of mine and we had just enough time to get there and get me in a short warm-up. I managed to get in one lap on the course before the start.
Junior Women
Lily Peck from Indiana rocked a 4th place in Junior Women 11-16 class
The Pro Women raced right before us and Kate Courtney had a huge lead and then flatted with a few laps to go, which was an eternity on this course as it was very long for a short track. She had to ride the flat as there is no pit in short track. Her lead was so big that she was still in front on the final lap, but ended up getting caught by several riders just before the end and finished fifth. She was devastated to say the least. Her flat handed the win over to Erin Huck, who couldn't believe it.
We had 64 riders take to the start line for the Pro Men’s STXC which was scheduled for 20 minutes +3 laps. I think 20 minutes is a bit short for the Pro class at the national championships, but this course was long so the +3 really added on some major time. The loop was 1.1 miles in length and nearly all wide open. It was the start and finish of the XC loop with two connectors. It was basically all the spectator-friendly areas I wasn’t very fond of when I pre-rode earlier in the day. Yay. So we began with a slight uphill on pavement through the village before a fast grass descent behind the lodges and under the fly-over. There was a quick pedaling section on pavement before more descending down some wide trail with a hard right at the bottom to cut across to the first man-made rock garden. After the rocks came a decent climb that leveled out before a right turn took you onto another short, steep climb to take you toward the second rock garden, which we bypassed in the short track. There was more slight descending to the fly-over, then it was uphill to the finish in the village. Other than the one 50 meter stretch in the middle of the climb, you were either going up or down on this course. It was a course for the climber for sure.
Short track course map
I got called up to the start in the last five spots so I had a lot of work to do. I got a good jump off the line, but there wasn’t a lot of room to move up as we were packed so tight barrier-to-barrier through the village. A guy in front of me went down and I had to almost stop to avoid him. That sent me to the back. Of those still upright, I was next to last coming out of the village and starting down the grass descent. The congestion helped me a bit down this first downhill and I was able to take the far left line and pick up a few spots while things were packed up. I tried to ride the rock garden which was a mistake as everyone was running with their bikes and I got blocked up. The entire group flew up the climb the first lap and it was all I could do just to hold onto the end of the group as things started to split. I gave up several spots, but was still ahead of the first split and had gained positions overall. People started to slow down as soon as we started lap two and I got a few position through the village and on the first descent again. I took a lot of chances on the downhill and it nearly cost me. I jumped a big ditch in the weeds and it set me up at a weird angle for a wooden bridge which was very slick from the earlier rain. I got all kinds of sideways, but I stayed upright and kept rolling.
Pro Men STXC start
photo by PB Creative Photo
Me in the middle of this group of three. Had to go with the black kit again since it was a UCI race.
Me coming across the fly-over
I cleaned the rock garden the second lap, which got me another spot, but there was a big gap ahead of me now and I knew I couldn’t close it. I went as hard as I could the rest of lap 2 and that basically destroyed me. I picked off two more riders, but then lost them on lap 3 as I had to recover. I also botched the rock garden again and almost went flying of the bars in the middle. They pulled me as I exited the village on lap 4. We were in no danger of getting lapped yet on a course this big, but they pulled us anyway. The two guys that had just repassed me and were only a few bike lengths ahead got to stay in while I was pulled out. I just don't understand the methods to their pulling madness.
Howard Grotts rolling toward the title
The battle for second.
They listed me 58th out of 61 on the results which is far from correct. I passed many riders and only gave up a couple of spots. I would say it was more like 50th out of 64. Nothing to brag about either way, but I would appreciate it if they would score us correctly when we pay $85 to race for 14 minutes. The whole day was really just a big mess. I did take away one positive though. My pedal worked great! I was even able to clip out fairly easily after the race. Props to the Pro group out there as that was definitely the fastest group I have ever raced with. Howard Grotts ended up getting the stars-and-stripes jersey with a win. Keegan Swenson, who dominated at the Utah Pro XCT round, was second and Luke Vrouwenvelder finished in third. Full results from Friday's short tracks are posted here. A video is posted below.
Video: Junior Women and Pro Men STXC
We were treated to a nice sunset on the drive down the mountain. It was a nice way to end what was a wild and disappointing day.
Sunset behind the parking lot
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