“Stoked to spend some time up in the northwest for the NAEC. Happy to end up on the podium and keep building towards where I want to be. Day 1 was pretty hectic. We pedaled up for stage 1 and raced on a somewhat dry track. It started pouring rain during the stage and continued as we took the gondola up for stage 2. By the time we got to the top of the mountain, it was dumping snow. They ended up canceling the rest of the day. Sunday ended up being the full pull top to bottom and stage 3, which had some slippery conditions. I felt like I rode a little conservatively due to the conditions, but I’m happy to keep it on two wheels and get on the podium in 4th. Stoked to keep building going into Angel fire”.
–Shane Leslie
“I was very excited to make it out to Kellogg, Idaho, for the one-off race that is put on at Silver Mountain Bike Park. It was a challenge racing in a completely new venue with only one day of practice. The day of practice consisted of riding all 6 stages while having to do 3 of the transfers between the stages. It was a big day of riding and trying to learn the stages.
The stages were ranging from 4 -16 minutes long. This was my first time racing stages longer than 10 minutes. They had everything from bike park, loose rocks, and fresh-cut loam. I had a blast riding all of the stages but struggled to remember the key sections.
Race day started with a 5-mile 1800ft climb 3/4 of the way up the mountain. As I waited in line to drop in for my race run, the rain started to come down. My run was smooth but very conservative with the rain. As I transferred back to the basement area, the rain got a lot worse. I loaded the gondola to get to top of stage 2, at the top of the mountain it was 30 degrees and snowing. The race organizers called the day off as all the other stages were buried in snow.
Day 2 started with a gondola ride to the top straight into a top-to-bottom run nearly 15 minutes long. The snow melt and overnight rain made the conditions challenging, so I had another conservative run but stayed on my bike while others did not. The final stage of the weekend had many roots and steep, fresh-cut sections. I tried my best to push and ended the weekend in 4th place”!
–Lucas Cowan
Day 1
Day 2
