Mike Vine scores big win at Xterra

MIKE VINE’S 2006 XTERRA Mountain Championship Report

The XTerra Mountain Champs took place this past
weekend near Ogden Utah at Snowbasin Resort. This
event was the end of my 4-week road tour of the
deserts of the southwest and high mtns in idaho,
colorado and utah. Unfortunately the trip was not
without complications... my once trusty honda endured
blown brakes( master cylinder ), a cracked windshield,
melted tires in the 100+ heat, and finally without
warning the battery fried. The car troubles forced me
to miss the Colorado excursion and Crested Butte
points XTerra, an event I won last year. Then at the
Milwaukee Pro Tour event( i flew to this one out of
san diego) a mechanical ended my chances early.
So i went back to my homebase for this trip in
southern Cali and carried on with my workouts. I tried
to shrug it off since that’s just how it goes
sometimes... even though it was in line with how my
whole season on the USA Tour has gone.

It was a tactical call for me this year to pass on
altitude acclimation for Utah and instead go for a 3
week camp at sea level in Del Mar. I figured I would
fit in more mileage to better prepare for the upcoming
UK race. I enjoyed every minute of my Cali visit but
still, upon reaching Utah last minute I realized I
should've arrived sooner to familiarize on a brand new
venue that is all point to point. I had some work to
do, especially after my car troubles in southern Utah
left me with only the day before the race to check
things out. And turns out acclimation wouldn’t have
been a bad idea either, because although the swim was
at 4850', the course description neglected to mention
last minute mods to the bike course which now had it
climbing up to 8200' with the majority of the run at
7000'.

Going into this event, there was no talk of the
Vineman going for the repeat win, likely due to my
lack of results so far this season on the USA Tour. My
name did not even make the race favorites list,
despite dominating last year’s Mountain Championship
by almost 5 minutes. Albeit that was a different venue
at Keystone CO, however the courses are near identical
with high altitude and rugged, vertical bike courses.
So all in all, I was not lacking confidence because
after a month packed with solid workouts I was feeling
ready for the title defense.

It started well with a solid swim, which had me
exiting only 45 seconds down. The first 2 miles were
slight downhill and with no sun yet peaking above the
mtns, the cold air quickly took its toll... within a
span of probably 3 minutes it became a severe problem.
I went hypothermic . Guys were pulling away and
nothing i could do about it. My glutes and lower
back were seizing as well which soon had me thinking
i'll place top 5 today, if lucky. But the course once
climbing went on for the next hour, so I kept plugging
away and eventually warmed up, starting to pick riders
off... just not as quick as i would have liked to. I
was suffering. About 2/3 of the way up I came upon
Conrad, who had earlier been powering the bike and
leading convincingly but now on the side of the trail
with a puncture. So the race was wide open now. I
perked up and caught the two leaders Seth and the
upstart Simpson near the summit then opened a small
gap over the top. With a 1500' descent to T2 I had to
let 'em know the Vineman can still blast the track. I
nearly stuffed the front end on a couple switchacks
but rode clean into T2 and opened a 30 second gap on
Seth and Simpson. Then a small miracle occurred.... my
slow start on the bike must have helped me for the
run, b/c I felt fresh as a daisy heading out . The
first mile of the run was pivotal- all steep uphill...
but in the race it felt effortless. I motored over it
then had no trouble holding it to the end over the
rolling course.
So on a short 30 min course, for the first time in my
XTerra career my run split was fastest of the day - 23
sec faster than Seth and 1:42 faster than Andrew
Noble, the best of the rest.
Now I can’t help but boast a little.... That was my
third Mountain Championships title. My two previous
wins at the Colorado venue( 2001 and 2005 ) were the
two fastest times ever posted there. Now I have the
fastest time over the new Ogden venue and you can bet
I’ll be doing my darnedest next year to improve on
that.
So with the preliminaries out of the way it's all
climbing venues from here on in... my speciality! The
Euro finale in UK Sept 3, USA Champs in Tahoe Oct 1,
and Maui Worlds' oct 29. Bring 'em on!

About this new venue - racing in Ogden was incredible.
Sure it was partly due to the pristine Wasatch
mountains venue at Snowbasin and the backing of the
finely tuned Team Unlimited crew, but the success of
this event was largely due to the local support of
GOAL, the Greater Ogden's Athletic Foundation Legacy.
This org worked for months promoting this event and
bringing in an army of volunteers, as well as pulled
off a hitch-free event which was no small feat
considering the logistics of having a p2p course with
2 separate transition areas. Besides having huge
numbers of racers and a huge spectator turnout, having
the post race awards w/ big screen at the Amphitheater
in the center of Ogden brought out hundreds of people
also. (which was quite a feat for me having to do a
speech in front of so many people.)
In summary, this event took it up a level for an
XTerra event, it was simply bigger and better than
ever before.

Many special thanks must go to my homestays, both the
Morris-Berlin family in Milwaukee and the Waters
family in Utah. When people you've never met before
open their home and extend every bit of courtesy and
aid they can muster it really makes you feel welcome,
which for me travelling on my own makes all the
difference.

Also thanks to my sponsors with whom I couldn’t do
without- Rocky Mountain, Fox Racing Shocks, FSA,
Mizuno, Vega, Maui Magazine, Crankbrothers, Saltstick,
XTerra wetsuits, Frontrunners.


triathletemag.com/story.cfm?story_id=12344&publicationID=92&pageID=1705

http://xterraplanet.com/races/view_results_full.cfm?race_id=368

Sorry no pics yet!
for now,
VineROC