This feature was a lot of fun to write. I spent most of the day wondering around Seven Springs talking to these mountain bikers and hearing their stories. Something I just noticed recently when I reread this one was that one of my interviews was Floyd Landis the now deposed Tour-de-France winner from last year. I don't remember anything about the interview, but I do know this guy has been at it for a long time because this story was written a while back. It's unfortunate that he has had such a big fall and has become the poster child for doping.
By ALAN FOSTER
Daily American
Picture live action figures with colorful body armor and shoulder pads on mountain bikes. Power Rangers, Zord, Megaman, maybe Zoltar, you know the genre.
Then throw mud on them. Lots of it. And in the background put on an Areosmith CD with Stevie Tyler screaming, and the base set to the limit.
You ain't at a tea party for the local library club. You're at Seven Springs this weekend for hard chargin', in your face, Chevy Truck NORBA (National Off-Road Bicycle Association) bike racing.
The place has a medieval feel with dueling knights everywhere, but in this case half of the knights are women. Bike racing is just as popular with the ladies. It is a NASCAR gathering, with out the engines. The gleaming vehicles here are high tech, two-wheel wonders that can cost $5,000.
"I like the competition, it's an individual thing, and after a while you get good at crashing," Floyd Landis, 23, a pro rider from Ephrata said. Landis has been a competitive rider for almost half of his life and now is a sponsored rider who travels the circuit. He says it's not a bad life. This year he has been to Big Bear, near Los Angles, now at Seven Springs and will soon be off to Red
Wing in Minnesota, then to Canada and Mammoth, Georgia. Sponsored riders fly to these places on the various companies they represent. Landis said the bikes have come a long way and the gears and chains are not as affected by mud the way they used to. "Flat tires are still a problem though," Landis said.
Caught on the massage table Melody Haas from Durango, Colorado said she has been a pro for about a year. "It's fun, one heck of an adrenaline rush, and a challenge." Her massage therapist Micki Beaver from Greensburg said she works on about seven patients a day during a four-day racing weekend. "They get tight leg muscles, lower back pain, shoulder cramps, problems with wrists and forearms. But the lower back pain is the most common problem," Beaver said.
The commercial connections at an event like this are everywhere. If these athletes were not on bikes, they would be on skis or surfboards, and with only the best equipment. There are T-
shirts with names like Dirty Girl, Smorgasboard, Daisy Dirt, Speed King and No Fear. The prime NORBA sponsor , Chevy Truck seems a little out of place with the likes of Subaru, VW, and Volvo. The VW Beetle on display was yellow and had a price tag of $18,000.
Even with the commercialism and the physical pain there is a sense of community among the 1,800 participants. It is one sport where the players still vastly outnumber the spectators and can be seen for free, something unusual these days.
The Seven Springs event continues all day today and winds up tomorrow with the pros strutting their stuff.
