Adam Craig, TEAM Giant, Check in From Norba National #3, Deer Valley Utah Back to racing in the States for me, and back to racing in the dirt for Carl. And what nice dirt it was! The last time the NORBA series visited Park City, Utah was in 2000. I remember the dirt not being very nice, and by that, I mean airborne in the form of dust due to the late summer Utah drought. Apart from the apparent lack of oxygen at 7000+ feet, Deer Valley is a great venue, good courses, beautiful backdrop provided by the Wasatch range, and the proper city of Salt Lake just a half hour away on I-80... The combination of a very outdoor oriented culture, a big city just down the hill, and the Park City Cycling festival (all road national championship events are being contested this week) produced a solid crowd of spectators and amateur racers alike. It’s always good to see a bunch of people at the races, especially when some of them are dedicated roadies checking out the proper dirt scene for the first time, and realizing that it looks like fun. With that, the three-day Cross Country Stage Race kicked off on a clear, cool Friday evening with the Olympic Bobsled Time Trial. Yup, we raced up the bobsled track. Gaining 110 meters in about 2k, it was a serious test of lung capacity and ability to maintain speed and composure as the pseudo tunnel wound around ever steepening corners towards the home straight. A variety of bike setups were utilized for this peculiar test, for which the rules stated you must use the same type of bike you would race all weekend, that meant Decker COULD use the infamous road bike, but he’d have to ride the XC and Short Track on it as well, probably not worth the tradeoff. I decided to run the Two2One singlespeed with a front brake on! ly and 700c wheels shod with disgustingly light Michelin Pro Light road tires. Decker thought the combo of false flats and pretty darn steep pitches required a couple gear options, so he stuck with the XTC Composite hardtail and 26” slicks. My setup turned out to be a bit faster, but definitely more painful, as I clawed across the finish line tenth fastest with my arms hurting more than my legs from pulling on the Monkey Lite so hard. Decker spun up the concrete tube with an eye to the rest of the weekend to finish in the top of the midpack. Jeremy H-K showed he’s back on form with a convincing win in 3:42. We had a nice 10 mile ride back to the condo in the dark to cool down and get ready for the rest of the weekend’s proper racing. Saturday’s XC was going to be a test of self control for everyone involved, especially me. I knew I had the speed to ride at the front, but also knew the lack of oxygen would make it a bad idea for all three laps, with lots of serpentine buff singletrack (NOT dusty!) and lots of subtle, low angle climbing. If and when you cracked from getting too excited, you would lose beaucoup time on the climbs and countless corners due to blurred vision and stinging legs. I stuck to the plan, although Jeremy did trick me into riding at the front for the first half lap before I remembered and reality set in. As I was setting in around eigth place and focusing on eating and drinking, Carl was implementing the same plan, minus the f! uel consumption, in the low teens, biding his time. The third lap rolled around and I noticed the three guys in front of me, Roland, Todd and Jeremaih, visibly struggling, so I took advantage of my relatively fresh state and reeled them in over the next twenty minutes to ride in alone (actually with a bunch of lapped women’s field riders) in fifth place to keep the NORBA XC podium streak alive for another couple weeks. Carl paid the piper for his lack of beverage consumption and fell back to 17th place, narrowly avoiding being caught by a hard charging buddy of ours, “off the couch” Ross Schnell. Kashi Leuchs made his early trip across the pond worthwhile by taking the win in just under two hours. Sunday’s short track was the glory day of the stage race, barring tragedy, nothing would change in overall GC, but there’s always the big W dangling there for the motivated. After a solid midday nap, I was feeling pretty motivated. Todd Wells pretty quickly crushed everyone’s motivation with a solid attack on the third lap, gaining a ten second gap he would hold the entire race. I was solidly in the lead group, but the twisty turny with it’s short punchy climbs was hard to organize a chase on, and Todd was riding really fast anyway. We kept the pressure on but never got it back. I maintained my place in the train, holding on through the oxygen debt and came across th! e line fourth, which, due to Geoff Kabush’s untimely puncture early in the race, was good enough to move me up into fourth overall for the weekend. Decker finally had a good day, working to keep the pace high in the chase group and finishing tenth, which should have moved him up a few places in GC as well, so the Short Track really did end up counting for something. We ended a nice weekend of racing with a fun ride around Park City’s extensive singletrack network and called it a night. Decker is racing Road Nationals in Park City on Wednesday while I spend a few relaxing days at home in Maine, then we’ll meet up in Quebec City where the World Cup Resumes this weekend at my second favorite place ever, Mont Saint Anne. I’m fired up for some battle..