AshevilleCX16

We stayed with old friends in Asheville NC this week for the 2016 USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships. They had chosen to settle in Asheville over all other places on the planet, oceans included, and we can begin to see why. It is nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and there are views up the wazoo. The town itself is like 5 Phoenixvilles or a 20X Philadelphia concentrate, with fine restaurants, street performers, art galleries, and nary a chain store in its core. Check The Wikipedia article, which calls it "The Hippest City in The South" and much, much more. Keywords: new age, freak, alive, outside, writers, beer, romantic, Art Deco, locavores, retirement, movie maker, and yoga-friendly.

And The Biltmore Estate. "Bilt" refers to George Vanderbilt, and "more" refers to..., well, check it out. It is the largest privately owned house in the US, over 20 times the size of the biggest house I know firsthand. It has 8,000 acres, albeit down from 125,000 in its heyday. We chose not to visit the house on this short trip; it requires a full day, and we had to spend two half-days at the "Antler Village" section of the estate, site of the aforementioned Nationals.

The first half-day, I pre-rode the course while my wife did spectator reconnaissance. The course covers a lot of ground, and is designed so spectators can see where they want to go, but can't get there from here. She spent a full hour picking the best spots for viewing, but failing to plot a way from one to the other, despite asking every gatekeeper for help.

On my pre-ride, I learned that there were sections that required mountain biking skills, of which I have none. It was drilled into my head, quite literally, that you don't touch the front brake on a descent.

On race day, she walked 6 miles to watch two races, which is more distance than I raced. She never really figured out the flow of the course, also not unlike my experience. I got a pretty good start, but was soon relegated to the middle of the pack, where I belong (until next year). On the second lap, I hopped on my bike after running the trickiest descent, only to discover that my rear wheel had come out of its dropouts. This had happened in other races, so I knew what to do. But it didn't work - I couldn't get the wheel back in, so I decided to run the course to the pits to get my other bike. I got to where I could see the pits Right There, but I would have to run another half-mile to get there. I tried again to fix my wheel; this time it worked, but it was too late. The officials waved me off thinking I was one of the Slow Guys. I should have protested ("I'm not slow, I'm average, but with below-average repair skills"). I did finish 22nd of 29, so I was the leader of the last quarter (7 1/4 times 3 = 21 3/4).

There's always next year.

The elite races are actually "televised". Sunday, Jan 10 at 2:30 is the Women's Elite Race (with Katie F'n Compton, who is Awesome), and the Men's Elite is at 3:40. The course will be muddy, so the race  should be more entertaining than football.