Volunteering, racing, riding and a little more.

As there were no collegiate races on the weekend of September 27-28, most of the team found their own adventures to jump into. Of course they still involved riding bikes though. Matt, Seth, and Taylor headed to West Virginia to race in the 2nd Annual Freefall Festival at Snowshoe. Results are posted here. Nick, Stephan, and Bradley woke up early Saturday morning to volunteer for the Valley of the Lilies run on Western Carolina University’s campus. They got to ride their bikes in front of and behind the runners. Sort of like the lead-moto for bike races. Sounds like fun. After the run the volunteers traveled west to Franklin, NC to join Robert and Tierra in running the aid stations for the Tour de Franklin held by Smoky Mountain Bicycles. Andrew rode the 64-mile route of the Tour de Franklin and was pleasantly surprised to see his teammates at the aid stations. But that’s not it for the volunteer crew. After aiding with the Tour de Franklin, they headed to the Pisgah Ranger District to camp Saturday night and ride the trails WNC is notorious for on Sunday. While all these guys and girl were doing all this, Spencer had traveled to Dahlonega, Georgia to race in the Six Gap criterium on Saturday and century on Sunday. Spencer finished the century in 5 hours and 42 minutes. Impressive!

Now we’ve got two more collegiate conference races for this season. We will be headed to Atlanta, Georgia to race at the Georgia International Horse Park this weekend, October 4-5. This is where the mountain biking events in the 1996 Olympics were held! The following weekend, October 11-12, will be the conference championships at Lees-McRae College. There will be double points for the series and then a season ending award ceremony afterwords. Finally, Collegiate MTB Nationals will be at Beech Mountain Ski Resort on October 24-26! Go Catamounts!