MTB News and Notes: Hanging near Winslow, Arizona
- By VeloNews.com
- Published Mar. 20, 2003
My emotions are mixed as I write this latest column from the partly sunny climes of Sedona, Arizona. On one hand I am ecstatic to be here in the desert southwest for the combined Trek-Volkswagen/Subaru-Gary Fisher training/media camp powwow. My two days here have included lots of face time with some of the world’s best mountain-bike racers (Green, Hesjedal, Sydor, Grigson, Redden, Bootes, Ferguson, etc.). And I’ve managed to sneak in a few rides on the labyrinth of sweet single-track trails that wind their way all around the outskirts of this picturesque town, two hours north of Phoenix.
But…I just checked the snow report for back home in Colorado, and while I’m down here, the boys back at the office are enjoying one of the most epic winter dumps in recent memory. For you ski bums not lucky enough to be somewhere in Colorado, here’s what you’re missing. Breckenridge: 24 inches last 48 hours. Loveland: 41 inches last 48 hours. Arapahoe Basin: 52 inches last 48 hours. And the big, big, big winner — Winter Park: 71 — count ‘em — 71 inches in the last 48 hours. That, my friends, is 5-feet, 11 inches, equal to the height of last week’s VN cover boy, roadie pro Jonathan Vaughters.
And to top it all off, Boulder — world HQ for VeloNews — got dumped on so hard that the higher ups down at North 55th declared a Snow Day! for all my co-workers on Wednesday. What is this? Middle school?
But I digress…Here in Arizona there’s lots of excitement from both the Trek and Fisher camps, as they prepare for the first sort-of big race of the mountain-bike season, the Nova Desert Classic, which runs Friday through Sunday just outside of Phoenix. Both teams arrived in Sedona last week for training, photo shoots, sponsor meetings, and of course to answer a bunch of questions from the likes of me.
Alas, even usually arid Arizona didn’t escape the effects of that monster storm, and the riders were forced onto trainers in their hotel rooms when snow and cold weather passed through over the weekend and on Monday. Tuesday things warmed up just enough for some road riding (or very muddy trail riding), while Wednesday was even better, with the trails mostly dry.
I was lucky enough to head out for a two-plus hour ride with the Fisher crew Wednesday morning, and was quite humbled while trying to stay within earshot of Ryder Hesjedal, Walker Ferguson, Chrissy Redden and Liam Killeen. Of course being well coached when it comes to media relations, they were nice enough to wait for me from time to time, and answer some questions along the way.
Here’s some tidbits from those conversations, as well as a few notes gleaned from some time with the Trek gang the day before.
Ferguson says his primary focus for 2003 will be the NORBA series (the only World Cup in his plans is Telluride), meaning he’ll spend less time on the road with the U.S. national team this year.
“After last year I’m starting to feel a little more pressure,” said the 21-year-old of a season that didn’t go as well as he’d hoped. “It’s really hard to please everybody. Last year I wasn’t getting the results on the mountain bike so Fisher wasn’t happy, and I wasn’t doing everything the national team wanted, so they weren’t happy.”
Ferguson still has plenty of road racing in his plans, though. He says he’ll do at least “Gila, Redlands and Cascade” with the Trek-All Star composite team.
Meanwhile, Wade Bootes is coming off a winter that saw him do a little experimenting on the track. The Australian did a bunch of testing at his country’s national training center, and even made the trip to Moscow, where he rode the leadoff leg for his country’s Olympic sprint team at the season opening track World Cup (they finished eighth).
Don’t expect Bootes to abandon mountain biking for a fixed-gear career, though. He said that his “okay” times, combined with the fact that the Australian team “is the hardest in the world to get on to” will preclude him pursuing track racing any further for now. Still, he did get some good training out of it.
“I logged more road miles in a month than I had in my entire career,” Bootes said.
Bootes will try to put all those miles to work this weekend, when he’ll take on teammates Roland Green and Travis Brown in the cross-country race.
The 33-year-old Brown won’t let Bootes distract him, but he definitely has his mind elsewhere at times these days. The 1999 NORBA series champ and his wife Mary are expecting their first child in August. Brown said that will likely keep him from making the trip to Switzerland for the world championships, or to any other races in Europe this summer. Instead the focus will be on the NORBA series and more “festival type stuff.” Brown was also sporting a new look that he said was the result of having “too much time on my hands, with all the crappy weather here.”
Grigson, 32, is also at a crossroads in her career. After back-to-back overall NORBA titles in 2000 and 2001, the Australian had an admittedly off year in 2003. But with a new training regimen — she backed way off from what she’d done in years past — she thinks this year could see a turnaround.
“I didn’t start my real training until January, so right now I’m not as fit at this time as I have been before,” she said. “But the difference is that I really want to be here. That wasn’t the case a lot of the time last year.”
For more from the Trek/Fisher camp check out the next issue of VeloNews, and check back to VeloNews.com all weekend for reports, results and photos from the Nova Desert Classic.
GOOD DEEDS DEPARTMENT
Lastly, got to give the folks at Giant props. Since 1998, the bike maker has been donating bicycle parts to the Trips For Kids organization in San Rafael, California. Trips for Kids sponsors, promotes and organizes rides for inner city youth and youth at risk. On March 3, Giant shipped the largest donation in the six-year relationship, worth over $100,000. Giant’s equipment donation is used for maintaining TFK’s existing fleets of bicycles, as well as for build-ups that are sold through TFK’s bicycle thrift store, the Re-Cyclery. Nice work guys.
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