Windham Pro XCT Practice Day
In the heart of the Catskill mountains, you will find a small town called Windham, NY. It has played host to the World Cup DH and WC XCO races in the past and is the setting for this year's Pro XCT finals. The venue has been on the list as a favorite stop by a lot of DH and XC racers. This year's track will be using most of the existing world cup course, it has a lot of variety, fun and challenging DH sections, and a lot of climbing. In this heat, the climbing will make you or break you. With rain in the forecast, the conditions are unpredictable at this point, but a little rain can make things very interesting come race day.
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 Norco team riders heading out for a practice lap. |
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| Making quick work threading the needle through these rocks. |
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| A few team Sky riders were on course today. |
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| Team Luna. |
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| This long and tricky rock garden was catching a few riders off guard. |
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| A lot of riders were all smiles despite all the climbing and humidity, it's really tough not to smile when you're riding a bike. |
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| Norco riders finishing the long climb. |
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| Team Luna rider just clearing the tunnel, still more climbing to go. |
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| Putting down the power. |
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| On a long grueling climb, the heat and humidity certainly did not help make it any easier. |
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| Heading into rock drop, just after the longest rock garden on the course. |
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| Coming around, at the tail end of the descending. |
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| A casual group ride. |
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| The sun was intense today, this rider was in a hurry to get back into the shade. |
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| A few alternate lines at this feature. |
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| The Stan's no tubes guys hiding in the shadows, shade was on most people's mind today, with temperatures in the 80's and humidity in the 800% area, I think. |
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| Tools of the trade. |
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| SHO-AIR Ridebiker team pits. |
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| Fox, there when you need them. Some of the hardest working guys out there, fox gives a lot of support at national events to keep you running. |
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| Not too much mud out there today, tomorrow might be a different story. |
MENTIONS: @WindhamMountain / @JKSR
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Member since Mar 2, 2008
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XC races from other race formats, such as marathon (XCM), eliminator (XCM), short track (STXC), and relay (XCR).
Pro XCT is USAC's name for the "Pro Cross-Country Tour" -- the series of most competitive, highest-point-awarding races in the US. The series is cobbled together each year from pieces of other race series with multiple different organizers/promoters. Most people don't know what it means, as it gets very little publicity or love in the US. This year there were zero races in Colorado or the South, but we had 5 races with the UCI HC ranking, meaning they are worth a lot of points, which brought some serious international competition including some of your fast Canadians to many of the races to collect UCI points (good for better starting position and rankings).
East coast at it best, just keep moving and suck down all the water you can.
LOL!! Someone always has to jump in defense, to protect what they feel is a rebuke towards someone; rather than find humor in such a scene.