GRANBY, CONational Champs weekend. Got to Sol Vista Resort last night and spent today roasting in the sun, prepping bikes, walking the DH Track, Pump tracking, and also rode a mini lap of the xc at sunset.
It has been awhile since I've been to an event with all disciplines of mountain biking in the same spot; DH, 4x, xc, short track, super D, etc, but jeeze there are so many amateur xc bandits cruising around all lycra-ed out. Standing in line, tweaking on bikes, practicing xc starts!, pinning it up hills, getting all crazy,,, just packs and packs of em. Very strange scene here, but more power to people who wanna ride bikes, glad the sport is healthy in all shapes and sizes.
Anyway, DH course walk was pretty good. I had never been up the hill at this place, so it was all new to me, but it is very apparent that the builders at Sol Vista put a lot of work into these trails, lots of man made obstacles. Ther dirt from top to bottom changes texture a lot too. From the start, sand mixed with rock. In the middle, grey dirt all blown out and reddish grey clay mixes on the man made stuff, then some grass, then super baked dirt down below. There are mega jumps out there again. Dunno why they have to do it, but I'm guessing 40 footers. One section has a set up dirt jump that leads into a huge triple out in the wind, it is just massive, landing full speed into grass turns. The go around looks alright, but still jumpy and not as rad. Then down below, full runway into a basic 40' jump, it's a little intimidating. I don't really know what the flow is yet. All I do know is that is is real windy at this place, super hot and dusty,and rain showers happen a lot. That is all.
I din't take a close look at the 4x, but from what I could see they left it pretty loose. Not as tech as last year, but spanning a good amount of terrain. The bottom is fast and straight, but the jumps and rhythm kind of require a speed check I think, so who knows. They spent a lot of time trying to create options in turns. Our pit set up is in a prime location, so we can see quite a bit of action from the bottom, I may go hot-lap it to see, but am not racing it.
XC loop is pretty rough, not because of features, but the ground is just baked in rough. Nothing that technical, but the decents will probably give some long stems and tall seats a bit of grief. Breaking bumps are all the way down and into the apex of turns and blown out already. I found it to be fun sliding around and leaning into em, but for sure there are way more ups than downs.
Tomorrow is Downhill practice, will let you know what I discover...