So this weekend in Charlotte, NC we had a very unique event: The "Rumble in the Concrete Jungle" at the US National Whitewater Center. They emptied the competition channel of water and set up a "downhill" course through the channel (and up and around, etc). Each participant got to do several practice runs and then two timed runs (best run counted towards your place). Some friends and I mountain bike for fun during the winter months so this seemed like a good idea at the time. Unfortunately, crashing is inevitable. John (jbnc77) crashed and hairline fractured his elbow. Luckily, he is going to recover quickly.
All that being said, it's really fun to get out and do these (extremely unique) events and we are really lucky in Charlotte to have a facility like the USNWC; as far as I know nothing quite compares (their long term plan is 100+ miles of trails; currently at 13-15 I think).
So on the second downhill timed run is where Mr B took his nosedive. I fortunately stayed on two wheels (albeit going quite slowly) and made it to the "Short Track" event, which was a 40 minute race where each lap "started" at the beginning of the DH run, went through that, and then wound around the gravel path surrounding the channels at the WWC. Each lap was a hair under 3 minutes I believe. THAT was extremely hard, but extremely fun as well.
https://vimeo.com/84006038
Heal quickly, jbnc77
All that being said, it's really fun to get out and do these (extremely unique) events and we are really lucky in Charlotte to have a facility like the USNWC; as far as I know nothing quite compares (their long term plan is 100+ miles of trails; currently at 13-15 I think).
So on the second downhill timed run is where Mr B took his nosedive. I fortunately stayed on two wheels (albeit going quite slowly) and made it to the "Short Track" event, which was a 40 minute race where each lap "started" at the beginning of the DH run, went through that, and then wound around the gravel path surrounding the channels at the WWC. Each lap was a hair under 3 minutes I believe. THAT was extremely hard, but extremely fun as well.
https://vimeo.com/84006038
Heal quickly, jbnc77