Bike racers show their grit
SANDPOINT – Downhiller Rebekah Gibson smiled as she sighed, and wiped the dirt from her teeth.
“I didn’t have a very good race,” said the 25-year-old racer from Sacramento, Calif. “It was a hard run, really dry and rocky. But that’s why we do it. If it was easy, it wouldn’t be fun.”
Gibson came to Schweitzer Mountain Resort this weekend for the 2004 National Off-Road Bicycling Association (NORBA) National Mountain Bike Series. She was one of about 1,800 athletes in town, including nine Olympians, from Argentina, Canada and the United States.
Besides the men’s and women’s downhill and cross-country races, Saturday’s events included the Shimano Kids Race. Those 6 and younger did one lap around a short course, many on bikes with training wheels and some with mom or dad running alongside, shouting encouragement.
Also in the mix, providing inspiration, was an easy-pedaling Todd Wells, a 2004 U.S. Olympic team member and professional rider for Team GT/Hyundai.
“Remember to watch him on TV in a few weeks,” a race announcer told the crowd.
In the race for 7-, 8- and 9-year-olds, one girl rode the flat, dirt track on a unicycle while spinning a hula hoop around her waist. She didn’t win, but she did draw much admiration from the crowd.
Catie Reed, 8, of Eagle, Idaho, has been riding her bike for three or four years, and she rode in her second race ever Saturday.
“I like to go fast,” she said, but she confided that her favorite part of the race was when she got done.
Her grandparents, mom and little sister were there to cheer her on. But her dad, two brothers, two uncles and their wives and kids were also on the mountain, either to watch other races or to compete.
“We come up every year for the NORBA race,” said Catie’s grandma, Cathy Anderson. “We enjoy watching our grandkids and just enjoy the outdoors.”
Saturday was a perfect day – bright but not too warm – for spectators like Matt Harper, 15, of Sandpoint, who came up with his mom to experience his first mountain bike race. Others planning to do the same today should plan their day around the downhill and short-track races, said race director Gino Lisiecki of Spokane’s Round and Round Productions, the company that promotes the race.
Today’s short track race features the sport’s top professionals competing handlebar-to-handlebar, riding multiple laps on a two-minute loop that’s right in the village and backed by a spectacular view of the fuzzy green mountainside. The pro women’s final starts at 1 p.m.; the men’s race follows at 1:30 p.m. Amateur riders race between 10 a.m. and noon.
To watch the downhill races, spectators can either hike or take the chairlift up the mountain and walk down the sides of the course – about two miles to the bottom. Along the way they can stake out the best spots to watch. The course includes various jumps, drops, S-turns, and wide, sweeping turns.
“The racers have to exhibit all kinds of skills,” said Lisiecki. Even the qualifying runs are fun to watch, he added, because the riders “really have to go kind of crazy.”
The pro women’s downhill final starts at 2 p.m.; the men’s at 2:30 p.m. Qualifying runs begin at 10:30 a.m.
Another popular spectator draw is the tech area. Each team has a tent and trailer, and team staff – and often racers – are available to talk about bikes, hand out catalogs and stickers and answer technical questions.
“We’re mainly here to service the team riders,” said Trek/Volkswagen head mechanic Zack Vestal. “But if people need help with small parts or are missing a bolt, we’ll try to help out as much as we can.”