Race Report: Beech Mountain Race 1 - July 10 & 11, 2010

Dual Slalom - Jay 2nd and Will 3rd - Good times had by allby GROM racer, Jay Fesperman

(July 12, 2010)  This past weekend we raced at the first race of the Beech Mountain series. Our team had a low turnout with Walker and Luca already in Colorado and Sam and Lauren unable to attend, so we only had 4 riders. With heavy rain the night before, the Beech Mountain downhill track was muddy and slick. Specialized hooked us up with some Storm mud tires that tracked extremely well on the rutted, muddy trail. With practice and the race on the same day, we had limited time for practicing the track. It was cool riding with our coach Christopher Herndon and learning his fast line choices.

            The trail had dried out a lot by race time, which made it super fast for racing. We all had clean race runs with Ben taking 5^th, Will taking 4^th, and me taking 1^st. After our runs we went up the trail to watch the Pros in a gnarly section. Christopher was scary fast, and we were sure that if the rest of his run was clean he had won. When we got to the bottom after his run we learned he had won by 4 seconds! We were all stoked on the day and we couldn’t wait for slalom the next day.

            Sunday morning started out with the Dual slalom track being tacky from the dew the night before and it got drier and dustier as the day progressed. It was a cool track, with many berms, a  5- pack roller set and some fun jumps. We all were having a great time riding the track and before we knew it qualifying started. Everyone had clean qualifying runs and felt good going into the head to head racing.  The racing started out with Ben racing Nathan Swartz, Will racing teammate Eric Vest and me (Jay) racing Reid Dressler. Will and I placed third and second respectively. Christopher placed first in the pro class on the track that he had built for collegiate nationals a few years back(Lees McRae College). We all had a great time at the Beech Mtn race number one, and were excited to head out to the U.S. Nationals in Colorado the next morning.

Pensler Makes NC Tour

Jay Fesperman & Sam Pensler at Beech Springs Trails (Poplar Tent)

During my spring break I made a trip down to North Carolina to visit and ride with GROM Racing team members and coaches.  I did a brief college visit at the University of North Carolina and then met up with Ben Calhoun and Will O’Brien to ride their local cross country trails in Chapel Hill.  My Specialized Stumpjumper handled perfectly through the tight and twisty trail network and I had so much fun riding with Ben and Will because they both knew the trail system so well. 

The next day I headed to Davidson to ride with Jay Fesperman and we rode on some nearby trails.  The trails were particularly technical and had many difficult sections and jumps.    Jay and I rode until dark and explored many of the different features and steep roll downs in the park.  The Stumpjumper did well again and Jay rode his Specialized Hardrock.

The next morning I joined  team coach Christopher Herndon and Johanne at Sycamore Cycles in Brevard.  We grabbed some lunch and then completed an epic ride on the rock infested trails in Pisgah National Forest.  The next day Chris and I spent some time working on a new downhill course and then took a few runs riding the new trail.  My new Specialized Demo downhill bike smoothed out the rough spots and powered down the steep sections of the course. 

I was thrilled to be able to meet my fellow teammates and ride with my Coaches on my new Specialized bikes.  I am excited for my first race of the season and have another chance to ride with the team.