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State of Affairs, so far so good
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Entry Date: 7/5/2006
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Hello everyone.
I know it has been a while since my last bit of useless rambling, but after all it is racing season.
In the last few weeks I have been to the US Open, Masanutten Virginia, The Sugar Mountain Nationals, and Mount Snow Vermont. I have been driving back and forth between nofuntuckey and my beloved east coast. I can honestly tell you that I miss being Within 2 hours from Diablo and that racing National Venues absolutely suck!!
I like the Mid Atlantic Series. Mike and his crew do a great job. They always make a course that is challenging to us sports and yet fun and fast for the experts. Unfortunately he seems to have bad luck in the timing department. At the capital cup the sub-contracted timing was a nightmare. For the most part the fun course and the good vibes make up for these sometimes major inconveniences.
Sugar Mountain was a typical national scene. The locals tried to step it up with a killer course only to fall short with a dangerous rock drop that after a lot of complaining and injuries was finally removed. Everyone used the same course and a lame go around was put up to keep the sport / beginners off an easy gap jump. I do not know why they didn’t just leave the thing open and let the riders decide what they wanted to ride. The vibe was typical NORBA National. The Downhillers were treated like the unwanted stepchildren of cycling, nothing went off on time. The ½ mile uph9ill walk from the parking lot to the lift was totally ridiculous. Not to mention the over priced charges so you can risk life and limb for a cheap ass medal and no swag or prize money. The Mount Snow wasn’t any better. The Pro course sucked unless of you like riding at top speed on grass. The Sport course rocked. It was the same course as last year with a couple of minor tweaks that made it just so much fun. The last part of the sport course was also the end of the pro course. It was the only rocks on the pro course. Problem was that during practice the pros and sports were crossing paths. The pro course was altered 3 times at this point before all was said and done. In Typical Norba fashion al the Dh events were running late and start times screwed up. I had a much better time this year, mostly cause I had some fun runs and kept the locals out of my pocket. No more 10-dollar steak dinner with 12 dollars worth of iced tea.
I am so looking forward to the next MAC race that is going to be at the Wisp resort instead of Blue knob. Wisp is short fast and just all around fun. Plus costs are low and the deep creek area has a lot of fun stuff to do. I am only hoping we are not banned from the go-kart track.
All in all the Kranzel bike team is rocking!!! We have had several Podiums this season from Lames, Kent, and My brother Jake. And no matter what I may thing of some of the venues and the NORBA nonsense I will not be giving up on them. One day it wills all be perfect. So what’s up in the future, the rest of the MAC series, a couple trips to Snowshoe and at least 2 trips to Diablo. More if I could win the lottery and quit my day job and just enjoy life like we were all meant to.
Rick
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