Windham Mountain Gravity East Downhill Mountain Bike Race 6/28/09

Nick White of Team Marty's comments on the Windham Race. Read if you dare...

Overall the weekend was a blast, hers's a little recap.

Mike Rossi arrived Saturday morning to the Shawn March Racing Clinic. After learning all the tricks the pros use, he greeted the rest of the clan at the bottom of the mountain. Weeks of previous rain had turned the race course into a sloppy mess. It was, and this is no exaggeration, 3-4 inches of sloppy heavy messy mud from top to bottom. We all took several spills on each of our practice runs. After 3 runs on Saturday we had to pack it in, the bikes were getting trashed.

We cleaned up, went to the hotel, and decided to have a few beers. Joaquin, Jennel, Cat, and Nick all sat around watching the rain fall from the sky, drinking several beers. Rossi had one beer, actually, he tried to hide one beer from all of us by leaving it over by the jukebox on top of the candy machine. He was discovered and ridiculed. Final total of beers for Joaquin and Nick was 6 beers each by the time dinner was done. Rossi's total was 1.5 beers. He was pounding the waters at dinner, talking a huge amount of trash. He was explaining to Joaquin and I that we are mere mortals, and that all the sweet skills he learned at his downhill racing clinic would prevail in Sunday's main event. Obviously, he is the re-incarnation of Sam Hill. Joaquin and I were diligently taking notes, trying to learn everything we could from the great master.

I tell you all this to get to one singular fact..........(its coming....)

The final run took place at around 1:30pm on Sunday. Nick was the first out of the gate hammering a time of 5:19 on the muddy course. He placed 4th place in the Cat 2 19-29 Mens class. It earned him a spot on the "fuexdium". The odd thing was that 4th place at this race got more swag than the top 3 riders.

Mike Rossi (aka......Sam Hill, sponsored Monster rider, March Racing Clinic rider, Rossi Racing President and Head Racer Dude) put in a wicked time of 6:30, good enough for 2nd place in the Cat 3 30-39 Mens class.

HE LOST TO NICK BY OVER A MINUTE. HE TALKED A LOT OF TRASH, THEN GOT SMACKED.

Joaquin put in a solid run to earn 3rd place in the Cat 3 30-39 Mens class, just behind Mr. Rossi.

Jennel put in a hard effort on the course and earned herself a 3rd place finish in the Cat 3 Womens Class.

Great job to all who participated. The next stop for the Marty's Downhill crew will be at Mt. Snow in Vermont the weekend of Aug. 8th.

By the way.......the thoughts above directed at Mike "Rossi Racing" Rossi are purely fun. Truth be told Mike actually had a tough day, he fell several times on the course and lost some time with each of those. He also ended up catching the rider that went off in front of him, and passing on course conditions like we experienced was not easy. He has assured all of us he will be back with a fury at Mt. Snow. He will be taking another clinic, and he will be ready to crush me.