Wreckin' Rims in the Sugarbush

I wont forget this weekend for a long time…

It started off in Nantucket. On Thursday evening we departed the island after a couple of chill days of beach and ocean. On Friday morning, we drove up to Highland Mountain Bike Park. I had always wanted to go Highland because of their great reputation. It was a mountain bike park built and run by mountain bikers, a very different vibe than most bike parks that are a ski hill first and a bike park second.

The US Open was having a slopestyle competition over the weekend and a few big names were there. But I was at Highland to ride, not to watch. I got in 13 laps on a blistering hot day (the heat wave of 2019 where it was a solid 95F throughout the day) and had a blast. I rode hard and had a couple of uh-oh moments as I hit new jumps for the first time, but no crashes. It was a great time, and once riding was through it was on to our final destination of the day, Sugarbush for the Eastern States Cup, another 2.5 hours northwest.

I really like the course at Sugarbush (they were using the same one as last year). It starts off winding through an open ski slope before diving into the trees. The crux of the course is an off camber, down sloping rock slab. It’s deadly when wet, but it stayed dry this year. The rest of the tree section was a mix of rocks, some roots, and some steeps. The track then reappears in the open ski slope with a couple of berms and jumps.

I rode with my buddy Tristan all practice and we had a blast…and had tacos in town afterwards (side note, while having tacos I saw a guy crash through a railing on the second floor of a building and land flat on his back, hard. He had to be taken away in an ambulance.)

On Sunday, race day, I had my first practice lap and it went really well. I had just enough time to take another one before my start time, so I went up again. On this lap a horrible thing happened.

I was halfway down the course when I hucked over a set of natural rock stairs and got a little off line. I landed just off to the right side and smashed my rear wheel on a rock. I instantly flatted. Calling my dad over, we then noticed it was much more than just a flat, I had completely destroyed my rim. We were not sure exactly what to do, but with time ticking, we made our way to the bottom of the track as quickly as we could. We had less than 45 minutes before my start time and the organizers weren’t going to let me race if I missed it.

On the way to the Sugarbush bike shop for assessment, we run into Tristan’s father, Dale, who generously offered me the rear wheel off his bike. Not sure how that was going to work exactly, we rushed both bikes (and my dad’s) to the shop.

The guys at the Sugarbush bike shop quickly saw our predicament and jumped into action. A quick measurement determined my dad’s rear wheel wouldn’t work, but Dale’s miraculously would. The mechanics set about removing my rotor and cassette, then Dale’s rotor and cassette, making the swap. Time was ticking, it was now 11:12AM and I had to be in the start gate by 11:40AM.

It was now time to swap tires, as Dale had a fairly tame cross-country tread and I needed my aggressive Maxxis Minions. It took the guys forever to get Dale’s tire off…it just wouldn’t come off. But finally it did. Then it took a super long time to get my tire seated on the rim. Sealant was then added and the guys pumped it up. But the tire wouldn’t seal, air kept escaping from the valve area. It was almost 11:30AM now. Giving up, the guys then pulled open the tire and quickly stuffed in an inner tube. Pumping that up they couldn’t quite get the bead to fully set, but we were out of time. My dad said it was fine and off we rushed.

I sprinted to the lift and grabbed the first chair that came through. My friend Brooks was just loading and grabbed my bike and took it up the lift with him.

Once at the top, I raced down the quarter mile of gravel road to the starting area and just made it in time!

I had a fantastic run, my best yet of the course. It was fast and clean. I took third (behind two older kids) and was stoked on the day.

I’d like to give a big thank you to the guys in the Sugarbush bike shop for their hustle and work, I wouldn’t have made it otherwise.