Category Archives: Mountain

Mountain

to MTB, or not to MTB – that is the question

At the moment, I am filled with a bittersweet sensation: sweet because I found an awesome new form of fun on two wheels, and bitter because I only really got into it in my last year at MIT. Honestly, MTB-ing is so much fun and I would urge all the other team members to give it a try at some point. It’s a great contrast to riding on the roads since you get to get away from all those grumpy Boston car drivers and see some of the great trails New England has to offer, and it is fun to challenge your bike handling skills on different terrain. I certainly feel like it’s made me a much more competent rider – if someone goes down in front of me in the race, or I suddenly need to ride off-road to avoid a crash, I don’t feel like I’m going to freak out and slam on my brakes (which I probably would have done a couple of years ago), and half the challenge of staying safe in road races is not just about whether you avoid crashing out yourself but how you respond to things happening around you.

So if you take away once piece of wisdom from this blog post – try MTB-ing! It’s now really easy to try even if you don’t have your own bike, since MITOC rents out bikes for as little as $15 a day: http://mit.edu/~mitoc/www/

Fall Colours at Kingdom Trails - we were playing around with the panoramic option on our phone's camera (click on image to open larger version in new window)
Fall Colours at Kingdom Trails 2 - we visited these amazing trails during the UVM race weekend - the riding is simply awesome.
Sunset on the drive back between Angel Fire and Denver - near Taos
a big crack in the ground....
Mountain, Nationals

MTB Nats


For the first time since Katie Harris’ dominant performance in 2008, MIT Cycling sent three riders to Angel Fire, New Mexico for the 2012 Collegiate Mountain Bike Nationals. Although MIT hasn’t been as dominant on the dirt as it has been on the roads for the past few years, these three riders sought to put MIT back on the national mountain bike map.

Since the beginning of the 2012 season, sending a team to Nationals was one my personal goals as captain. It was really awesome to feel excitement for the race building throughout the season, and especially watch my teammates share in this excitement in preparing. Laura Ralston, long a force-to-be-reckoned-with on the road, competed in her first-ever collegiate mountain bike race season and was competitive enough to secure podium spots and easily secure a spot at Nationals. Luke Plummer, dedicated from the beginning, struggled through persistent mechanicals to upgrade to the A category, but after a first-place short track finish managed to qualify by the skin of his teeth at the last race of the season. With a final team cemented, Luke, Laura and I packed our bags and headed out West.

After arriving in Denver and watching the plains gradually rise into the Sangre de Cristo Mountains on our six-hour drive south we finally arrived in Angel Fire, NM. With not much but a ski area and a few small restaurants, the whole town of Angel Fire buzzed with anticipation as the horde of mountain bikers descended. After hurriedly building our bikes in the parking lot and checking into our room, we headed out to the course to get our pre-ride in. The course, with a start elevation of 8,500’, began immediately with a lung-popping 1000’ climb up the ski resort. Talk about a warm-up. It being a pre-ride, we took it really easy, but knew just how exquisitely painful it would be the following morning. After a technical singletrack section through a volcanic rock garden, the climb finally turned downward for the gloriously buff, bermed and curvy descent. As I floated down that flowy singletrack that first day and even lap after lap during the XC race, I found it impossible to wipe that perma-grin off my face.

Ok, maybe not impossible. On the starting gun the following morning, I could feel the thin, dusty, and dry mountain air searing my lungs as I fought to stay with the pack on the steep doubletrack that started the course. Narrowly avoiding a crash on the dusty off-camber first corner, I stuck with the bunch and made a few passes until it began to string out and settle down. On the second lap, Luke joined me, and we continued to catch a few riders off the back. As the DI leaders zipped by, we figured we’d also soon be lapped by the DII leaders. Considering how tough that climb was, this wouldn’t have been the most terrible thing – it would have meant only three, not four laps. As we crossed the line of our third lap, the race director urged us on – we hadn’t been lapped! Proud of this accomplishment, yet somewhat apprehending of the riding the climb once more we pushed on – only to hear the DII leader cross the line 100 meters behind us. We enjoyed our final lap (especially the descent), even considering crossing the finish at the same time Lemond-Hinault style. Laura put in a great performance in the DII women’s race. Building on her road experience, she powered up the climb time after time to put in a 7th place finish.

The following day’s short track proved no less trying. Each lap included eighty feet of climbing, which doesn’t sound like too much but proved extraordinarily painful every time. That, in combination with a fast but dusty descent and an off-camber gravelly turn made for an interesting but short race. Luke improved on his performance, placing 39th, as did Laura, who made 5th!

After such a great racing experience, we couldn’t resist the urge to go for a fun victory ride. Turns out we were but miles from the best mountain bike trail in New Mexico – the South Boundary Trail – which connects Angel Fire to Taos, NM. Generally, it’s done as a one-way, mostly downhill ride, but we didn’t have quite enough time to arrange for a shuttle. Instead, we drove our rented minivan 7 miles up a rough dirt road to intersect the trail at the Heaven on Earth section. After some confused navigation and interesting interactions with the locals, we finally found the trail and got riding. The Heaven on Earth absolutely lived up to its name: gradual, smooth downhill through groves of quaking aspen led us up a gentle climb to the top of Osha Peak with beautiful vistas of the surrounding mountains around every corner. After a snack and a nature-appreciation break, we barreled back down Osha Peak, the flowing turns through the aspen like a dream. Eventually, the sun setting, we arrived back at the car just in time to drive back to Denver for our flight the following morning.

Thanks to everybody at MIT Cycling for the opportunity to race at Nats! I’m excited for an even better performance next year.

See y’all out on the dirt soon!
-Ben Eck

Mountain, Race Reports

My first collegiate MTB race

DS_practice

Last Saturday, I tried out my first MTB race and had so much fun! I splurged on a mountain bike last year, when I saw a deal on eBay, and played around on it a couple of times in the Fells last Spring, but after I kept falling off and bashing my knees, I decided to give it a break until the road season was over. Green Mountain was my last really important road race, over the Labor Day weekend, so I decided it was time to get down and dirty, and get the bike (+ recently purchased knee and shin guards) out of the closet and start riding it again.

I did a couple of rides in the Fells last week, attended the very helpful clinic by our new MTB coach Sara Bresnick, and tested myself at a local race (Wompatuck’s Landmine Classic) a week earlier, before deciding to show my face at collegiate race. The Wompatuck race had been quite a lot of fun, but I flatted, I was not really sure how to change a tube on a tubeless tire – luckily some very kind gentleman helped me – so that ended up being more of a ride than a race.

The collegiate XC race was an absolute blast. It was hosted at Holiday Brook Farm in Western Massachusetts and I loved the 4.5 mile loop. There was a lot of super smooth single track and the course was extremely undulating. I felt my advantage was pumping it up all the short steep climbs, while I simply tried to hold onto my nerve on all the downhills and ride as cleanly as possible. The race ended up coming down to a duel between me and another woman from UVM – I think I was a bit stronger on the climbing and I would sometimes manage to open up a gap, but she was so much more comfortable on all the descents and would make up ground in those sections.  In the final lap I caught back up to her at the top of a 20 sec climb, and as we both tried to push out the last pedal stroke before cresting the hill, we somehow collided and I ended up a little worse off with twisted handlebars. I picked myself up and resigned myself to a solid second place, since I knew my skills with even straight handlebars wouldn’t match hers on the remaining descents, and safely completed the course, 25 seconds down on the winner, but 1 min 20 sec ahead of 3rd place!

For the remainder of the day, I enjoyed watching more gutsy riders tackle the dual slalom and I’ve attached some video of  Ben and Lluis doing this!

Mountain, Race Reports, Road

“Always wear a helmet”: Keith’s race report

Keith, our former MTB captain, had an interesting couple of weekends racing road, and has posted his thoughts to his blog.

Let’s digress a moment to understand my perspective on this road racing thing: I’m a guy who races with big spacing at average speeds of 14mph; on dirt, which is soft; dodging trees, which don’t move; on a bike that eats obstacles the size of baseballs for breakfast. Now take this same guy and put him on a bike that feels like a toy, speed him up to double the pace, replace dirt with concrete and add a couple dozen clean shaven 20-somethings as fit and aggressive as they are squirrely bike-handlers to swarm about while whipping around in circles until everyone is blind from oxygen-deprivation. They tiptoe on the brink of disaster where the minimum penalty for failure is ending up like a lemon skin after an evening in a french kitchen. This is pretty much the definition of scary.

I strongly suggest you read the whole thing.

Mountain, Race Reports

UNH MTB race report

After skipping the first weekend of racing in upstate NY (too far, too early in the school year), MIT sent its MTB team to its first race of the season. UNH put on a fun and well organized race as usual, with XC at the traditional Kingman Farm venue. STXC, Dual Slalom, and Downhill events were at Highland Mountain Bike Park. Veterans Keith Berkoben, John Romanishin, and Cimarron Wortham were joined by Luke Chellis in the endurance races (that’s XC and STXC), while freshman Romi Kadri may well be the first MIT racer to compete in the Downhill race.

Saturday began with the XC races. John started the day off in fine style, taking 5th in his first MTB race (mens C). Cim, apparently getting ready for cyclocross season, made sure to hit the only muddy part of the course at full speed every lap and was probably the dirtiest rider/bike by the end. While the benefits of taking the shortest path were probably offset by the extra weight and degraded shifting, he finished 4th in the mens B race. After the XC racing, the team made the hour drive to Highland to preview the DH course and watch the Dual Slalom action.

Sunday morning brought more endurance racing with the STXC. Again John took 5th and Cim 4th in their respective races. The afternoon was time for the downhillers to fly down the mountain without regard for rocks, roots, or drops. Romi’s 3rd in the Downhill (mens B) capped off a fine weekend.

My only disappointment with the weekend is the number of times I heard “MIT… I didn’t know you had a mountain bike team.” While we have a solid reputation as a powerhouse in cyclocross, road, and on the track, it seems that UVM is feeling pretty comfortable in its position as King of the Mountain(bike). The only way to change that is to get out and race.
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On a related note, if you’re sorry you missed out on racing this weekend, don’t worry! There are races coming up on the next three weekends. Stay tuned for next weekend’s Lehigh race announcement later today, to be followed by the UVM race Oct. 2/3 and Easterns Oct. 9/10.

Mountain, Race Previews

Follow Eric and Keith at BC Bike Race

The word “epic” gets tossed around a lot these days. And it’s clear we should be careful when the word is used by event promoters (except X-Pot) or anybody hawking a product. But there is absolutely no question that the word “epic” applies to the BC Bike Race, in which riders haul themselves from Vancouver to Whistler over seven spectacular stages of singletrack. And two riders from MIT are about to embarrass the rest of the field.

Our very own strongmen Keith and Eric have been training for this for many moons. (But not at the expense of the latter’s thesis, of course, heavens no.) Anybody who’s tried to hold their draft in the last few months knows that they have tuned their engines to perfection.

In fact it’s possible you’ve already been following their build-up to the BC race. Since 2008 Keith and Eric have helpfully and exhaustively documented their training and thinking on the blog they jointly maintain as Team Pedal and Wrench. Only a blog by a pair of MIT students, and in fact only by this pair, could include both setting up wireless in Afghanistan and a 10-year statistical analysis of trends in MTB geometry.

The race starts on the 28th. Wish them luck, cheer them on, and follow their progress as Team Pedal and Wrench—on the race website, linked above, and on their blog, when they get a break from a week of unrelenting contact with nature.