Think Racing, Inc.

This year marks the 25th season that West Yellowstone, Montana has played host to cross country skiers during the month of November and Team CW-X will be in attendance. Formerly known as Fall Camp, the newly renamed Yellowstone Ski Festival takes place during Thanksgiving Week on November 23, 24, 25, 26 and 27, 2004. The event’s highlights include a series of Nordic skiing clinics, the NorAm XC Supertour races, an On-Snow Equipment Demo and an Indoor Ski Show.

West Yellowstone is THE place to start your ski season. Where else can you participate in clinics coached by former Olympic athletes and lifelong Nordic skiers, demo the latest ski equipment and accessories, and share the trails with members of the US Ski Team? The Yellowstone Ski Festival offers all of that and more!

Over the past month half the country has thrown down eighty-five bucks for a Boston Red Sox David Ortiz jersey. Now is your chance to help America’s best XC skiers chase their Olympic medal dreams and score some super-gucci National Team clothing at the same time. Team Today is selling parkas and race suits from the Salt Lake Games, national team warm-ups, hats, team autographed Holmenkollen race bibs, and more. We even raided Vordenberg’s closet. Really, where else can you find vintage Vomax Olympic jackets from Albertville or Lillehammer? If you can name it, we’re selling it.

What you need to do:

Go to Ebay. Type in US Ski Team. The items will show up on your screen. We are posting new items every Friday, and all sales end one week later. Items purchased on a Friday will be shipped the following Monday. All proceeds go directly to Team Today and the support of America’s best XC skiers. The sale will continue through November and possibly into December.

Happy bidding, and thanks for your support …

So the season slowly draws to a close, people are already in off-season mode, the weather is getting colder, fields are getting smaller, and weekly training days missed far outscore days trained. All in all race laps are at least 1 min per lap slower than just 4 or 5 weeks ago, but victories are still just as hard to come by, and just as well earned. So it was that riders gathered on Saturday October 23rd for the penultimate race of the 2004 season. A quick check of the starters revealed that although the inform and hugely improved Mike Sherry was on the start line this was definitely VisitBritains race to lose. Smilie, G-Man, K-Train, Cats Paw Four Lowe, Mighty Mo(u)ser, 3-Piece Suter, Neu the Gu and the Dodger - more stupid names than you could shake a stick at, but enough talent to ensure this season was going to end like it began with VisitBritain domination.

If you cast your minds back to March, Alex began the season by utilizing the element of surprise and riding away from his fellow racers ne’er to be seen again. Come October everyone is now wise to this tactic and no team or rider doesn’t start bracing themselves for pain and chasing when The G-Man hits the front. Well, forwarned maybe forearmed, but even advanced knowledge isn’t enough to contain Alex when he hits his stride. A lap gone and so was Alex. K-Train did by all accounts a marvellous of blocking the field without them even knowing, ensuring Alex got further and further up the road. After 2 1/2 laps a seperate breakway group began to form that could have been dangerous but for the fact Smilie and Ken nipped across to help neutralize the danger. Any thoughts the opposition had that Alex might be bluffing or tiring were well and truly quashed as by the time he took the chequered flag he had built a cushion of nearly 2 minutes. Everyone’s choice for second most improved CRCA rider of the year (sorry Alex gets that pot as well in my book) Mike Sherry took a solid second - and Smilie showed that even one ride a week is enough for him to be competitive as he took 2nd inthe pack sprint for 5th place. “For fun” the rest of the VisitBritain guys decided to line up a train for Ricky to practice his sprint - The Dodger, Gu and Mighty M took turns rotating till MM took on the Smilie role and dropped Ricky off at the Paw - where it was a nice finish to take the 2nd pack sprint. A very solid outing for the VisitBritain groujp that should solidify a 1-2 finish for Smilie and G-Man in the season long standings.

The B race was notable only for VisitBritain NOT placing for I think the first time this season. Nevermind, a good lesson learned for me, Ivry, Andrew and Jeff - don’t be so bloody lazy, sort your bike out before the race, it can be a long season, save your powder for the breaks that count respectively. Still no harm, no foul.

Right, who going turkey hunting ?

This past Saturday October 2nd saw the last important race of the 2004 season the CRCA Championships. Pre-race speculation amongst pundits picked out Rob Latannzi, Kevin Molloy and Anthony Allessio as the likely winners. What no love for VisitBritain ? The pre-race plan was to simply bust this race wide open from an early juncture and let the engines of Smilie and Mike Henson motor in a small break to (hopefully) victory. Despite executing this plan to a ‘t’ the early moves only succeeded in shedding about 1/3 of the field out the back door – never to return. Breaks came and breaks went with seemingly only one constant feature – they either featured Alex Gulla or were brought back by Alex Gulla. From the sidelines - the man appeared to everywhere! A group of 7 were clear at the bell, featuring both Alex and Mike Henson as well as 2 Sakonnet riders and enough representation from other teams to suggest that this was the winning move. Two thoughts crossed the minds of VisitBritain supporters on the sidelines -–1. Henson looks bloody good. 2. Where on earth was Alex finding the energy to keep it going ?

Not content with being in the break – Alex put the hammer down one final time up Harlem Hill to see if he could pull off one of his famous patented solo sojorns. According to eyewitness and fellow break participant Mike Sherry (riding a smart, aggressive and highly impressive debut A race) there was a point when it looked as though Alex might be gone. However the Sakonnet duo weren’t allowing this one to slip away and worked tirelessly to bring the lone ranger back into the fold.

So Summerstage for the final time and the doomsday scenario was about to unfold. The break and the main field were about to merge but far worse than that – the savage pace throughout the race now meant the entire pack were about to envelope the womens field as well. Smilie as ever had the eye of the race and quickly tapped out plan B – unleash The Moser for the final charge up Cats Paw. Threading their way through the doomed breakaway and the much slower women riders had the potential for disaster but like a knife through butter Smilie powered through with Leon glued to his back wheel. Riding like the clock had been rolled back 2 years when Leon was totally money on this finish – the VisitBritain sprinter jumped hard , daylight immediately appeared. Could it be a first Championship gold for Leon and a clean sweep of every team and individual gold medal for VisitBritain ? ….well almost. In the dying yards the man with biceps like footballs Anthony Allessio came around for a close but decisive victory. With victory gone Leon eased off just a tad enabling a surging Kevin Molloy, the defending champion to snatch 2nd right on the line. 3rd – superb performance but oh so close to another VisitBritain gold, and retribution to all those who had written Leon off before the start – silly people……..