2009 US Forces Europe Mountain Bike Series Championship Hohenfels

September 26th proved to be a beautiful day in Bavaria. It was perfect mountain biking weather, a little chilly in the morning, but the riders warmed up by the first lap of the race. The course ended up being 5km per lap, with the men held to 7 laps,and 5 for the women. The course consisted of much of the same terrain we saw at the Hohenfels race earlier this year, just condensed. The fun and fast woop de woops were seen, as well as the more challenging steep switch backs. There was a nice mix of downhill, climbing, single-track, and forest roads, and I think this was one of the most challenging yet fun courses of the year. Fitting that it should be the last race of the season.
The Men's start was promptly at 10 AM, and was missing a heavy dose of Saber Blue. John Winn was the lone Saber male racing, and was happy to see the Le Mans start left out this time. The four women competing started 10 minutes later.I felt the course was very fast, and I was not too surprised when the first male rider passed me before I completed my first lap. Not to say it was an easy course, and I heard from more than one rider that it was a little
painful towards the end. I was not aiming to break any land speed records, and was happy to finish under 2:30.
John had a nasty wreck on the 4th lap, and was not able to recover. He called it a day at 6. This was one course
that you would not want to ride injured. It was very technical at parts, and if your strength or focus was off
the chance for really hurting yourself was high. There were several wrecks and mechanical problems, but despite this
the consesus for the day was the folks at Hohenfels put on an excellent race. The weather was perfect, the course
was dry and fun. We could not have asked for a better day.
The over-all point winners were also recognized today. The Sabers took home medals in almost every category.
In Women's Open Francesca Corazza took home Bronze and I took Silver. In Men's Open Chris Vachon took Bronze and Hector Rodriguez took Silver. In Men's Senior Brian McRory took home Silver. We really missed our team mates, and are proud of their achievements. We know you would have killed it at the Championship race. I'm sure next years season will be just as successful and hopefully the Saber Cycling Team will grow.
Congrats also to Jake and Tahroma Skugrud, who swept gold in the men and women's open category, respectively.
Great job to everyone! Untill Next Year!