Absalon staying on top

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Defending Olympic Champion Julien Absalon(Image credit: Gunter Hauspie)

By Gunter Hauspie

Julien Absalon:No. There is no better training location than the Vosges. For road training, I come to these high summits. The roads are good, and not much traffic. Mountain biking, however, I do closer to home. I begin at my front door. The mountains are 800 to 900 meters high with many short climbing sections and descents and technical singletrack. The mountains are wooded, so [there are] a lot of tree roots as well. Altogether, a very varied itinerary. At higher altitudes, the parcours becomes more monotonous, rougher, and in winter, inaccessible and too cold for training rides. I travel 210 days a year. Nowhere did I find a better mountain biking region than my Vosges.

JA: Yes, because of the snow here, from January to March. I went south, indeed. But in normal circumstances I can train on the Vosges Mountains even in winter. As soon as the snow had disappeared, I came back. It's no use to train in ideal conditions, when during the competitions one has to ride in bad weather anyway. Besides, the Vosges are centrally located between Belgium, Germany and Switzerland. Most MTB events occur here.

JA: No, I'm on schedule. I planned two peaks this year. The World Championship in Val di Sole in Italy on June 22 and the Olympic race on August 23. The other competitions, I'll participate in them, but they are not essential. I won the first three rounds of the World Cup, which gives me an advantage. It allows me to skip some rounds if I so decide. It will be a long and difficult year. For example, one week after the Olympic Games, a stage of the World Cup will be held in [Canberra] Australia.

Jeff Schalk made it two in a row when he won the Mohican 100, round two of the National Ultra Endurance (NUE) Series in Ohio. After a tight battle with his Trek / VW team-mate Chris Eatough, Schalk finished first. Eatough was second and Sam Koerber, the brother of elite women's racer Willow Koerber, finished third. In the women's race, Betsy Shogren threw her hat into this year's 100 mile competition and won the race. 24 hour solo ace Rebecca Rusch finished second while Michelle Stoppard ended in third.

Stop number two took the competition to the rolling hills of the interior of Ohio. The town of Loudonville hosted an early morning start with over 300 racers being led out by a police escort toward the city limit sign and the first and only prime of the NUE series. Over the next 14 hours racers took a five-county tour through some of the best singletrack, farm roads and rails-to-trails the country has to offer.

The lead group was eventually whittled down to Schalk, Eatough and Koerber, who was having a stellar day on the bike. Koerber lingered a bit longer at an aid station and lost contact with the two Trek riders. With under 30 miles to go, Schalk knew he had to make a move before the last eight miles where Eatough would have an upper hand in the technical singletrack. He did just that and managed to hang on to the end.

Women's winner Betsy Shogren (SoBe / Cannondale) didn't blast off the front in first place. She chose a steady pace for her race. Starting out in fourth, where she stayed for awhile, she slowly moved her way to the front. After catching Michelle Stoppard (Visit PA), she proceeded to pick off Cheryl Sornson (Trek/VW) and Rebecca Rusch (Specialized/Red Bull). Those two hung off the back to almost aid station two. At that station she saw her husband, who was racing in the 65 mile race, and was suffering from a little leftover illness from earlier in the week.

Nick Waite (Trek / VW) and Theresa Richardson (SoBe / Cannondale) won the elite men's and women's 21 mile cross country events at the 20th edition of the Massanutten Hoo-Ha! just outside of Harrisonburg, Virginia last weekend, while Dave Weaver was the fastest singlespeeder. In the 33 mile XXC, Daryll Prillamen and Sue George won their respective categories. It was a gorgeous early June day for all racers, who were treated to technical, rocky trails which were in some places lined with blooming mountain laurels' pink and white flowers.

Only 22 seconds separated the top two elite women's finishers Theresa Richardson and Johanna Kraus (Velo Bella / Kona) in the most exciting race of the day. Richardson started out fastest and assumed an early lead on the first climb which was a mix of fireroad and singletrack. Behind Richardson, Kraus followed in second with Susan Musante in third. Musante caught Kraus after a technical ridge section on the first lap, but the two exchanged places again soon after. Both the elite women and men would complete two laps.