Windham World Cup update – Part 1
Originally posted on August 7, 2014 at 2:43 amOur correspondent Jay de Jesus is in upstate New York for the only stop of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in America. He’ll be bringing us the latest from Windham, New York.
Wednesday was moving in day for the international trade teams. European-based Team Chain Reaction’s gladly unload their overstuffed rental.
The UCI MTB World Cup has arrived here with the weather, many teams pulling in last night and setting up camp while lightning streaked the evening sky. Courses are prepped to World Cup-level perfection, and the last evenings soaking rain softly made things better.
The mountain is a buzz of activity today as riders, teams, technicians, and mountain operations interweave this hive of energy. TV/media are hucking miles of cable through the woods, UCI official course foot inspections are taking place and riders are just starting to make tracks. The quiet country roads of Green County are rumbling with groups of riders on knobbies in international federation team kits speaking different languages as the energy builds up towards this weekend’s racing.
Timed training commences Thursday, with qualifying and racing underway Friday. Weather forecasts are absolutely perfect for the weekend, with a storm of international point-chasing superstars here to fight a heavy USA presence of racers.
American UCI World Cup tour heros Aaron Gwin, Jeremiah Bishop, Todd Wells, Lea Davison, Georgia Gould, Stephen Ettinger, Jill Kitnner, Howard Grotts and Neko Mullaly are flanked by surging neo-Pros Kate Courtney, Cameron Dodge and Cole Oberman. Expect Dodge, Oberman and Wells to possess increased powers to defend home turf as they are local to this region, especially Well having grown up down the road!
The World Cup is here under beautiful skies all weekend—more to come!