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Marathon up first at NORBA nats

by VeloNews.com

• July 12, 2006
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By Fred Dreier

The venue

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The 2006 U.S. National Mountain Bike Championships kicks off today at the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California, with the 56-mile marathon cross-country. Always a favorite of endurance freaks, pain gluttons and adventure-style riders, Thursday’s race spins seven laps around the same 7.9-mile loop that will be used for Friday’s cross-country races.

Race organizers admit that using the cross-country course for the marathon is not ideal. However, it is one of the many alternative plans that have arisen in the wake of the national championships being moved from Mammoth, California. Record snow that fell on Mammoth during the 2005-06 winter still lingers on the mountain, and in June, Mammoth Mountain announced that the area would be unusable for the championships, forcing USA Cycling to look for a new venue.

The Infineon Raceway, which was to host the No. 5 stop on the National Mountain Bike Series, was chosen. The NMBS event was switched to count as the U.S. National Championships, as it coincides with the Canadian national cross-country championships. The gravity events will count as an NMBS and national-championship event.

The change has posed a series of challenges for race organizers and athletes. While Infineon hosted a stop on the NMBS in 2004, as well as the annual Cougar Mountain Classic bike race, it lacks the vertical rise and trail networks of Mammoth. The cross-country trail is completely changed from the one used in 2004 — it was freshly cut in the winter of 2004-05 for the Cougar Mountain races. The downhill, however, remains relatively unchanged.

“In 2004 we had to stay within the boundaries of the racetrack proper. Now it is within the boundaries of the raceway’s entire property holdings,” said Jeff Frost of Team Big Bear, organizers of the national series.

Frost and Team Big Bear have been doing routine maintenance on the trails throughout the winter in anticipation of the 2006 races.

“Getting the venue ready has been more of an organization issue than a technical issue,” he said. “We don’t have, because of the conditions, a lot of options to change the dirt. [Infineon] is only permitted to use mountain bikes on the trails four days a year. A lot of the trails we could only do maintenance on. We added rollers and jumps to the downhill within the same terrain. Mostly, it’s been an organizational nightmare. The event just changed in its size — it’s double in participants from when it was just a NORBA race.”

The marathon
Looking to score big Thursday are Trek-Volkswagen’s Travis Brown and Chris Eatough. The iconic Brown, the defending marathon national champ, is a former Olympian whose cross-country speed is complemented by decades of racing experience. Eatough, the most successful 24-hour racer in the history of the sport, is an endurance honcho known best for his calculated planning and abilities over technical trails.

Brown won the last NMBS marathon, held July 6 in Park City, Utah, finishing two minutes ahead of Eatough. Brown said he is planning to work with his teammate to try to control the front of the marathon.

“For us it’s going to be all about tactically sorting the race out the first lap, then deciding who is going good,” said Brown. “The course is rolling and dirt and really fast and pockmarked with hoof prints. I think drafting could come into play. I wish they had built a course on its own, because that’s one of the keys to making the marathon a massive participation base. It’s supposed to be an adventure, like a point-to-point race or a big loop.”

Brown says he has a short list of danger men he and Eatough will keep their eyes on. Tops on the list are “Jungle” Jay Henry (3D), a seasoned altitude rider and climber, Nat Ross (Subaru-Gary Fisher) a 24-hour specialist, and Mike Janelle (Tokyo-Joe’s), a member of the 2006 Race Across America’s winning four-man team.

“There’s always someone who sneaks in, though,” Brown said. “Some guy can always show up who you never would have considered to be that great.”’

Eatough said keeping tabs on racers willing to attack is a key to winning a marathon.

“You can’t afford to give someone too much of a gap, especially if that someone is a Jay [Henry] or Travis,” Eatough said. “In 24-hour racing you can afford to race your own race and pace yourself and ignore the other competitors. You can’t do that in marathon. It’s a five-hour race, and you need to stay within two minutes at least of the front, or you don’t have a shot. You can also get by with more of a cross-country feeding style. A couple of shots and the occasional chunk of PowerBar should do it.”

Should the two men find themselves riding at the front of the race alone, both agreed that all bets are off — they will race to win. And the Sonoma course could prove an equal playing ground for the two. Absent is the high altitude and long climbs that favor Brown, but also absent are rooty, technical sections that would give Eatough the clear advantage.

“I’ve raced against Travis quite a bit, and especially in marathons he can excel at high altitudes, especially with a lot of climbing,” Eatough said. “If it’s a course at low altitude with a lot of technical stuff, then it’s usually me who does well. This is pretty in between. Most likely it’s going to be the guy with the most juice left over in the second half who is going to win.”

Among the women, keep an eye on Josie Beggs, Starbucks; Sue Abbene, Raleigh-Fusion; Cristina Begy, Maverick and Monique Sawicki, Team Mata.

The marathon kicks off at 7 a.m. Pacific Standard time from Infineon Speedway in Sonoma. Stay Tuned to Velonews.com for race updates from the 2006 National Mountain-Bike Championships.