The Off Road MTB race season up North traditional kicks off with the Cable Off Road Classic.
--First time alot of the guys are taking too the one-track stuff.
--Weather? Sunny & beautiful, rainy & wet or snowing and cold… take your pick the last 10 years has pretty much seen any & all of it at race day.
--Competition, I was looking back at the past 10 yrs that I’ve been doing the CORC & it’s a crap-shoot who going to show up year to year.
---Some of the strongest field showings came in ‘10, ‘08, ‘06. Not to mention in the past 10 years there have only 2 two time winners on the men’s side– any big surprise or guess who those guys might be? Let’s try the legends Jeff Hall & Doug Swanson, each taking wins against each other & then dominating in the field in other years. I think Jeff’s driving a fork lift pretty fast these days not sure about a bike, but the guy could be in a coma & still probably beat the top end guys on the line. Doug’s probably still doing his 2 day a week workout & racing on “willpower” – there’s a machine who could have quite easily gone professional. Anyone remember how he was crushing everyone including Olympian JHK & 10 time US Champion at the Cheq 40 a few years back until an untimely flat? Anyways you’ll rarely find a funnier, good natured guy than Doug – sure wish he was around racing more always brought the good stuff to the races. I don’t know if it’s just my historical sentiment or what, but the best racers in recent years --Woodruff, Moore, to name a few, can match up to how good Hall & Swanson were.
--Then there’s the Duluth racers they always seem to pack a bunch of top finishers as far back as I can remember. Back in the day Mike Bushey & Bob McVeen, even good ‘ole Charlie Farrow (please make a comeback to XC racing Charlie!) Todd McFadden coming closest of the bunch to the “W” in a sprint finish with Dan Swanson in ‘04 (Sorry Dan, you dawged Todd that day for the W). Todd gets my thumbs up for still racing like a mad man long after the other guys find other distractions in life to pursue. Then there’s the “SKJ’s” – Scottie & Sara, I wouldn’t be surprise if one or both took home the the wins this Saturday – can you imagine how good their kid is going to be on a MTB bike if she chooses? They female Taylor Phinney of MTBing. Now beside Todd & Scott, there’s Adam Swank, Nicolai Anikin too.
--Can’t forget the icon of Midwest MTB’ing who rarely misses the Classic either– Jay “Hollywood” Henderson – there’s another dude who when he had time to ride was scary fast. Still in his reduced time riding he holds his own nicely.
--The Yooper’s made a voyage over in ‘10 and held there own in a year marked by constant misdirections in the race course. That topped with a 220mile drive it takes a bigger haul & commitment to get here.
--Could probably go on & on – adding in names like Gaier, Swift & Sova, the local CAMBA boys who can ride the stuff almost blindfolded.
--It’ll be interesting to see who shows for ‘11 will the southern Twin Cities guys make a getaway weekend of it, the Charlie Tri’s, Oftedahls & Moore come up? Wonder if Charlie can avoid the asthma or a broken bike what seems like the banes of his otherwise impressive racing.
Last note of things however…. I pre road Thursday night
--The course….
----you’re gonna be wet & muddy no matter what the weather between now & Saturday morning. PERIOD. Bring the beaver tires.
----The start, no matter what is said about the change of course to improve the bottleneck – it’s still a cock block, going to be just as bad. A big hill needs to get in the way if they ever hope to improve that part of the race.
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