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| Texas Hill Country |
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| Lance trains on these hills |
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| Independent Fabricatons- New Ride - New Clothes |
| The golfers didn't even notice that hundreds of mountain bikers had invaded their turf. |
| The 2005 NORBA season opener was at Boerne, Texas. The guy pictured at left epitomizes mountain bikers everywhere. He has just endured three hours of agony, cold, and mud yet he is all smiles. The Cross Country race at Tapatio Springs Resort was one of the muddiest ever. Boerne was a medium sized Texas town. It had about ten restaurants; one Italian, one German, and eight Mexican. The roads were filled with pick-up trucks and you rarely saw a foreign car. People had American flags waving from their front yards. It appeared that the best job in town was probably at the Home Depot For the second year in a row, Colt was sick in Texas. He sucked on Cold Eze, drank copious fluids, and checked his temperature hourly. We was determined to race, and race he did. His Time Trial was so-so as he had breathing trouble, but his cross country was epic.......(more below) |
| Colt lined up last for the XC, just hoping to finish and get some points. He wore his jacket and looked like he was going out to warm up. But, as he got into the race he began to pass people, including many who would DNF because of the mud and cold. At the end of the day he got his first National top ten finish. Pretty good for being sick. In the pro races, Alison Sydor and Geoff Kabush would take the early lead by winning their Time Trials. While Sydor would go on to win the XC also, Adam Craig would best Kabush in the XC. Many of the pros felt that the first week of March was too early to be starting the NORBA season. Several had competed in European Cyclocross and the World Championships....and as a result only had a couple weeks of downtime. |
| Rumor has it that the NORBA Series will be going back to Waco next year. As bad as Waco was last year, it is much more user friendly than Boerne. I just hope they fix the bad tasting water. I did find some wonderful road riding in the Boerne area. The hills are not mountains but many of them are fairly steep. The trick was to find routes with space along the side for a bike. Many of the drivers seemed a bit hostile.....but that was mainly trucks with gun racks. On to sunny Arizona! |
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