A Fred’s-Eye View: Noted and quoted from Sonoma

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By Fred Dreier

It’s been a while since VeloNews.com provided a Fred’s-Eye View of the domestic mountain-bike scene. It could have something to do with that skinny-tire race that’s been going on in France — but the fat-tire crowd has been throwing down, too. USA Cycling crowned some new champions July 13-16 out in sweaty Sonoma County, California, and more than a few newcomers made themselves players. Infineon Raceway was the stage, and I came back home with a camera full of snapshots and a tape recorder bursting with audio clips. Here are a few snippets from four days of dust, sun and fat tires.

Ryan Trebon
after winning his first national cross-country title

Ryan Trebon: I was just sitting in. I had to accelerate like four times on that first lap to get away. They caught up, and I’d accelerate, and they’d catch up again. I figured if I got a gap and stretch it out because then somebody is going to have to chase and I know that they’re not going to want to work together. I was like, “I’ll just keep pushing at it.” I don’t mind sitting out in the wind. It was a pretty good tempo and I was feeling good.

VN: You looked like you were hurting toward the end.

RT: I was hurting so bad on the last lap. I was thinking, “There’s no way I’m going to give this thing away on the last lap. I’ve been out here for an hour and 40 minutes by myself, and I’m not going to crack in the last 20.” I was hurting, but I just kept plugging away at the pedals.

VN: How does this result figure in with the other good results you’ve had in your career?

RT: It’s a pretty good one, man. I can’t complain. I was pretty cautious on that last lap on the descents. I learned my lesson at Big Bear a couple of years ago. I was really worried about giving it away, especially on the descents and flats. I just said I’d take it nice and easy and give it where I could.

Defending champ Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski
after finishing fourth in the cross-country

VeloNews: How did the equipment choices hold up out there?

JHK: I thought it was good. The [29-inch] bike was great. It was really comfortable everywhere. I was putting time into people. Today I just didn’t have the punchy legs to go with those moves.

VN: I know Ryan has had varied success going off the front of races this early. Did you think he was going to come back?

JHK: I was worried about him right from the gun. I’ll admit I tried to go with him. He put in three or four really hard digs. I stayed with the first three and then he put in another hard one on the pavement on the backside and stretched that gap out. I backed off for a second, then I put in some really hard pulls to try and bring that gap down and he managed to keep stretching it out. My hat goes off to him. He was super strong.

VN: What was going on in the chase group? Was it organized?

JHK: All of us except for Barry [Wicks] put in some pretty hard turns at the front. We got it together for a little bit, but it was never super organized. All of us were riding for our own interests out there, which made it tough.

VN: What does winning your first mountain bike championship do for a rider?

JHK: It’s a big confidence boost, for sure. I’m sure he’ll take that motivation into the rest of the races this year. It’s a big stepping stone for him. I’m really happy to have worn the jersey for four years. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed, but I feel like I’ve really shown my strength in some other ways this year, on the World Cup and NORBA series. I’m really happy about how my season has gone so far. I can’t win this every year for my career.

Jeremiah Bishop
after finishing third in the cross country

VN: What were you thinking when Ryan took off that early?

Jeremiah Bishop: Business as usual. Ryan is going to go up the road and crack like an egg. Everyone looked at the other riders, Jeremy especially. I remember looking over at Jeremy and seeing his face. He looked tired. [Todd] Wells was really sitting on a lot. I didn’t want the race to go like that, so I said, “Hey, guys, we gotta start chasing.”

VN: How did Jeremy seem to be riding on the 29-er?

JB: I think he was riding well. He just had a bad day. The heat was a major factor. Pretty much as soon as Ryan went off, Barry started blocking aggressively. He got 30 seconds, then 40 seconds. But once he got a minute I said, “Guys, we do not want to lose the race this way. Wells, get up here! We gotta start taking some pulls to close this down.” Jeremy did pull a lot. Barry would just insert himself behind whoever was pulling. Todd attacked at the top of the longest road climb on the second-to-last lap. Barry jumped on his wheel. I jumped on JHK’s wheel, who closed most of the gap, then I jumped across on the rough stuff. Barry was just sitting on Todd’s wheel. Todd attacked again up the top of the last hill and then started busting the slalom turns [on the descent] like he was on his ’cross bike. I was on my full suspension and was barely keeping up.

Georgia Gould
after taking the women’s cross-country title

VN: Talk to me about what happened in the second half of the race.

Georgia Gould: I just wanted to see how everyone was feeling. I pared down and just tried to ride steady. I knew that Heather was strong, so I figured I’d try to go a little earlier and take my chances and maybe open a gap. I gapped her right at the climb by the second feed zone. I didn’t look back. I was just like, “No, no, no! If I do it, then I do it! Just go!”

VN: What were you thinking when you were charging ahead of riders like Shonny Vanlandingham and Mary McConneloug, the strongest in the country?

GG: I was trying not to psych myself out. I just wanted to go by my own pace and it worked out. This is my best ever result. I’m really blown away right now.

Heather Irmiger
after finishing second to Gould

VN: What happened in your crash with [teammate] Willow [Koerber]?

Heather Irmiger: Oh, man, I don’t know. Willow and I were all, “Yeah, let’s be teammates for a lap and then let it go.” We were on it and were killing it on the downhills. I was in front of her and was just like “Whoa!” And she went by me and she was like, “Whoa … crash!” And we crashed into each other and we were both in the tape on top of each other and I had grass in my mouth.

VN: How was Georgia able to get away?

HI: Georgia was super close to Willow and I on the descent. She was close, and when we crashed it helped her get on. It was really clear that she had awesome legs when she caught onto me. She said, “C’mon Heather, take a pull.” I was like, “Ha, here’s the big secret, I kinda can’t. It’s not like I’m trying to be a jerk or anything. You’re all strong and stuff.” I took a little bit of a pull and just rode my own pace, which clearly wasn’t fast enough. She popped me on the single-track before the tech zone.

VN: What can you say about the up-and-comers like yourself taking out the veterans today?

HI: I think it’s awesome at how unexpected it is. I think if you believe you can do it, it doesn’t matter if you’re a newcomer. I think that’s why Georgia won today. She really believes in herself. That usually comes with age, but she’s got it. I think us young’uns are on a roll.

Mary McConneloug
after losing the championship jersey

VN: How did you feel on this course?

Mary McConneloug: The Gary Fisher girls were out front, attacking, attacking, attacking. I was right there kinda getting worn out. Basically I just gave what I had. I knew that I had to be in the top three when we got to the single-track because a lot of gaps opened up there. It was strange. Dara was out front with Willow and they started to pull away. Dara is all of a sudden on the side with a flat. Then Heather catches up to Willow. Willow is on the side with a headset loose and her bars are messed up. So Heather goes out front and I’m riding with Georgia. I’m like, “Oooh, Georgia is a great person to be out here in the wind with because she’s such a powerful rider.” I pulled for a while and was like, “Okay, come around.” She made this sort of sloppy turn on one of the loose gravel dirt roads and sent me into a wrong line and then gapped me. She caught up to Heather by the last lap. I saw her take the lead on a really bumpy single-track. Knowing how Georgia rides, I knew she would pull it off. She’s such a powerful rider. I’m happy to see new faces out there. I’m happy with third, considering my body type on this course.

Susan Haywood
after winning the short-track title

Susan Haywood: In the past I’ve really messed up on the looser corners, especially when I’m tired. That was my goal today, to ride the corners clean. I was really livid before the race at this course. I didn’t think it would lend itself to good racing. But we stayed together, and actually technical skills did come into play. Going over the four-cross bumps was tough. And there was a big crowd up at the first corner and they were going nuts!

VN: With the up-and-down year you’ve been having, what does this win mean to you?

SH: It means a lot. For a lot of weekends morale was pretty low. The only thing that was keeping me going was Super D and I felt like I had been having great training, but the races had been a flop. Even this year I felt like I could have won some Super D races but I made tactical errors.

VN: Take me through the low moments of this year.

SH: Well, Europe was soul-crushing, really. I didn’t feel like I was in the worst shape of my life, but those were the worst results by far. I came away from Europe feeling pretty bummed out. But the competition in the U.S. is pretty awesome this year. The competition between Luna and Fisher is a high level. This isn’t the worst year to have a bad year. I haven’t decided about the Olympics yet. But this is kind of a year to just keep my head down and get through the low points.

VN: Were you thinking of retirement after Europe?

SH: Oh. God. yeah. I was like, “Maybe I’m getting too old.” The girls on the podium are younger and younger. Maybe not calling it totally quits, but giving up those international aspirations. But all year I wanted to do world championships and then see where it goes from there.

Duncan Riffle
after winning the downhill

Duncan Riffle: I had a few little mistakes in a few crucial areas, but I don’t feel like it set me back too much. I found in qualifying that if I took it easy and just relaxed a little bit I’d be okay. The course is getting a bit more blown out.

VN: What can you say about Cody [Warren] crashing?

DR: To be completely honest, I wish he hadn’t, because I know that’s something that people are going to talk about. One of these days I’ll win this flat out.

VN: You made a decision at the beginning of this year to go it alone and search for sponsorship to get you to the World Cups. With that in mind, how does this victory feel today?

DR: It feels really good. To be honest, I’ve tried not to compare myself to Americans all year. I’m sick of that excuse, you know, people saying, “You’re the best American.” I’d really like to be up there on the top and I know I can do it. It’s just going to take some support. I appreciate all of the help I’ve gotten this year. A lot of people have really stepped it up.

VN: Do you think that this course is deserving to be the national-championship course?

DR: No. To be honest, I appreciate my win and I’m not going to be an ungrateful victor. I wish we could get a little better course for nationals. Something a little more technical and typical of a downhill course. But you can’t get the right courses every time. I think Infineon put on a good show and developed a good course for what they had. They didn’t have much to work with, but they did a great job with what they had.

Barry Wicks
after winning the short-track national title

VN: So there was talk before the race — kind of like, Ryan’s won one, now let’s get one for Barry?

BW: We talked a little before, and Ryan said he wasn’t feeling 100 percent because he did the single-speed race yesterday, which was a little hard to come back from. I told him I was feeling pretty good. You never know how anyone else is going to ride. Todd was a real unknown because he could be really fired up to ride after crashing in the cross-country. Jeremy looked like he was pretty tired. Bishop looked like he was the one who wanted it the most out there, but I was able to stay with him and match everything he had. Having Ryan there to turn the screws on those other guys was so helpful.

VN: Over the last few years the national cross-country championships have been owned by the same people. What can you say about new faces wearing the jersey this year?

BW: It’s good to see. You know, the younger guys like Ryan and Adam [Craig] and me are from the same area, we were all born in 1981 and came up racing together. I think we’re really starting to come into our prime. In the next two or three years, you’re going to see a changing of the guard.

VN: What was going through your mind as you cruised down the home stretch and looked behind you and didn’t see anyone?

BW: Oh man, I was like, “This is so sweet. This is unreal.” But I didn’t want to do the two-armed salute because I felt like I was going so hard and I didn’t want to crash. I was just like, “Ah, keep it together! You have the win, just don’t screw it up!” I’m still in shock.

Eric Carter
after defending his mountain-cross title

Eric Carter: You know, I’m 36 and I can come out here and get it on. It’s the first time in a long time that I have a big smile on my face. If everybody keeps a smile on their faces, maybe we can turn this around and get more people out here. How good of a gig do I have? I ride my bike for fun and I get paid to do it. It’s awesome. I’m thankful for everything that I have.

VN: Take me through that finals run. It sounded like you had a really good start.

EC: I did. I knew I wasn’t going to out-ride Brian [Lopes] this weekend. He smoked me in qualifying by a full second. I can’t hope that I can try and catch him, so I have to get him at the gate. He took lane one, fortunately, which was the longest route to the first turn. I took lane four, which was the shortest, and I needed a hole shot. Everything went right. I had the shortest distance and the hole shot and he still almost beat me there.

VN: Were you surprised that he chose the outside lane?

EC: No. I know Brian likes to ride from the front, and generally the inside lane is the controlling lane. If he took lane four and didn’t get a good start then there was no way he could control the race. So I took lane four and luckily it paid off. I wasn’t my smooth self. I was a little out of control, knowing that he was breathing down my neck. He almost got me in that last straightaway. Five more feet and he would have taken it. I guess it was my day today. I’m stoked to be out here.

VN: We haven’t seen too much of you this year, Eric.

EC: Well, my doctor told me when I dusted my collarbone in Spain that I was looking at eight weeks out with surgery and 16 weeks without surgery. I think I’m at eight weeks now. I got back on my bike at five. I did a lot of rehab. I did everything I could to get back on my bike because I wanted to be back here to defend my jersey. So here we are, racing bikes. I’m stoked.

Brian Lopes
after finishing second to Carter in the mountain cross

Brian Lopes: I think again Eric anticipated the gate and got an awesome start, and you can’t time the gate here. He was going for broke and got a great start on me and I was on the inside. He came over and cut me off and slid wide in the first turn, and he had his foot out, and I went inside and thought I could have just clobbered him right then and there in the first turn. But I like to do my passes clean, so I just followed him and had a different line through the last rhythm section and was definitely faster, but I guess they said he got me. I would like to see some video when it’s that close. They might be right, but it’s always nice to see some confirmation.

VN: I know you’ve been injured this year and haven’t had the best World Cup campaign. How important were the national championships to you?

BL: Actually, this race wasn’t even on my schedule until a couple weeks out. They moved it here and the only reason I came here was because there was the Jeep [King of the Mountains] race in San Luis Obispo last week and I was on my way up to Whistler [British Columbia for the July 26 Crankworx Festival]. But other than that, I think you guys all know how I feel about racing the NORBA Nationals. But it was actually a really fun track. It had a good challenging rhythm section at the end, and it was the first time in a long time I’ve ridden a course that has a section that you actually have to think about. Nine times out of 10 you just look at everything and just go, “Okay.” You cruise down, coast down, jump everything you want to do first run and then go up and work on your first straight or whatever. Here it was good. There was a good tricky section at the end and a little triple up on the third straight, which was a good little boost. It was good that they had some technical stuff.

VN: How has your season gone, with the injuries?

BL: I started out feeling great, doing good at the Sea Otter. Then I went to Europe for an invitational four-cross race in the Czech republic at Michal Prokop’s track. I was really happy with how I rode there, and then went to Spain and had some unfortunate luck. I had a brain fart and went over the bars. It was a pretty hard crash, but nothing serious — no broken bones. I went home and recuperated and got better and went back to Europe for the second trip and felt pretty good, got second [in Fort William, Scotland] behind Prokop again and he beat me in qualifying and had lane choice. I felt good and was all over him up top, but sometimes lane choice really makes a difference. I was really happy with my performance there again, getting second. Went to [Willingen] Germany, which I was looking forward to because I really like the track they have there, and unfortunately I had a big mistake again in practice and left there early with a second-degree separation in my shoulder. It’s been kind of up and down.

VN: How are you going to go about beating Prokop?

BL: Well, it’s going to be tough. He’s definitely on fire. But he can be beat. Actually, last week at the Jeep race I was beating him. We were doing a two-race format and I crashed all by myself on the last one. I know I have the speed and the power to do it. In four-cross racing everything happens so quick, so it’s really all about who puts it together on that day. Prokop is going fast, and there are a few other Europeans who are going fast. It’ll be a good race.

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