HADLEIGH, England – I hate mountain biking.
I’m the only person I know who loves to watch it instead of doing it. I’m fairly athletic. I’m fairly coordinated. I can no more mountain bike than I can pole vault. It’s the hardest, most frustrating thing I’ve ever done next to understanding Facebook and “Seinfeld.”
I tried it for the first time five years ago in St. Lucia where Tinker Juarez, Mexico’s world champion mountain biker, designed a course on which local guides take tourists. I rode about 10 percent of the course. The rest of the time I either pushed my bike up the mountain or precariously carried it down the mountain.
I know goats that couldn’t make it.
So having failed miserably at a sport that seems designed by greedy morticians, I have intense respect for Olympic mountain bikers, especially on this course here on the English coast.
The course that Fort Collins’ Georgia Gould claimed bronze on Saturday is very technical, even for her, she said. There’s one spot called, very appropriately, Rock Garden. Riders climb a short hill that’s about an 8-10 percent grade, make a hairpin turn then go DOWNHILL at the same grade over what I can only describe as a big pile of boulders.
I couldn’t hike down that with rappelling gear. The cyclists tore down this thing with barely a bobble.
This venue is also one of the world’s best for watching a mountain bike race. The start is on an elevated part of Hadleigh Farm and the stands surround the start with thousands of others watching from the adjacent hilltop.
The cyclists go up an initial hill, and disappear on the back side before cycling down in the valley in a 2.9-mile loop. From the elevated stands and hilltop you can see quite a bit of the race. This is in contrast to Beijing which was basically a run through a forest-covered mountain where the only sightings were when they passed the finish line.
It’s not the most scenic site but to the poor and destitute of 19th century England it probably looked like Tahiti in spring. William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, bought the 700-acre land to create a work farm for poor and desperate in London.
In the distance you can see the Thames Estruary and beyond that the North Sea which conveniently whisked a mild cool wind on the riders and spectators.
So this weekend I loved mountain biking – from my press seat in the stands.
