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Trek Dirt Series - Fruita, CO

Lauren

AKA elemmac
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I attended the Trek Dirt Series women’s MTB camp and skills session in Fruita, Colorado this past weekend. Fruita is an amazing little town, the trails were awesome, and I’m already looking forward to my next trip there (whenever that may be). Sorry, didn’t take too many photos during the camp itself.

Each day consisted of a morning skills session and an afternoon ride to practice everything you learned in the morning. On day one, they broke us off into groups and we went through “stations”:
- Balance/stance
- Breaking/descending
- Straight line riding
- Front wheel lifts

These stations were kind of the basics of mountain biking, the things you don’t really think about, but the things that allow you to ride smoothly. Breaking down each skill was helpful and gave me little tweaks in my riding that will make me more fluid and more efficient. Braking was the big “ah ha” moment for me. The amount of control you can obtain with just using your front brake, and using it correctly was a crazy concept to me...I learned I rely on my back break WAY more than I should.

We took a break for lunch, and they called off our groups for the afternoon ride. I got put in a group heading to Mack Kokopelli, and the new(er) Hawkeye trail. This ride was going to be an up and back on the same trail.

We had quite the span of abilities and physical fitness within the group. However, our coach did an awesome job of giving everyone an opportunity to ride in front of her so she could watch you, and give you tips along the way. We stopped at more obstacles than I anticipated, and really didn’t get too far up the trail. I wasn’t super challenged on the way up, but the coach still gave me lots of tips about riding the trail to your ability and challenge yourself even if the trail/pace isn’t your usual pace. You can always work on taking the hard line, or popping up over obstacles instead of around them.

Our turn around point had a good looking rock roll into a downhill hairpin turn. My initial reaction was, FUN! Others were not nearly as enthused. After rolling down it, my coach asked if I felt challenged in the group, and we talked about switching me into another group for the next day. I would have talked to her about that possibility anyways, but it gave me a good feeling knowing she noticed I was probably in the wrong group, and I wasn’t just over estimating my abilities.

As we rode back down, the coach followed me, stopped at a couple points and gave me tips. Then asked me to follow her, and watch. Turned into an extremely informative session, and I owe that to the coach and her teaching abilities.

At the end of the ride, we chose our skill sessions we wanted to work on the next morning. Based on which coaches were teaching which skills and the skills themselves, my coach recommended drops and then cornering/switchbacks to me, I happily agreed to those two.

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(Only photo I took during the camp part of my vacation)

The local bike shop sponsored the first evening, supplying snacks, beers and maintenance clinics at the shop. I stopped in for a bit, but was pretty beat from the day and happily retired to the AirBnB for a good nights rest.

Day two commenced with another skills clinic. They called out our groups based on what we put down the night before. I started the morning with a drops clinic. They set up three different ramps. One ramp to flat box with about a 4 inch drop, a ramp to flat with 12 inch drop and an “alligator” ramp that varied with 3 different heights.

We started on the low box, going over technique to load your suspension, push your bike out off the drop, and then pull back, landing in a neutral position with both tires. We then moved onto the larger box, then to the alligator. Even though I’ve dropped before, I’ve never really learned technique. Our coach lastly varied the small box to create a down ramp coming into the drop which added another element of difficulty. There were only 4 people in my group so we got plenty of repetition, which helped all of us to really fine tune our technique, and get one-on-one time with our coach.

We had a quick break, and moved into the second half of the morning. This is where I chose cornering/switchbacks. We started with drills that made us ride super tight circles around a cone, focusing on balance, where you’re looking and overall control. Then we moved into high speed cornering, thru a path laid out by cones. We discussed vision and where you’re looking, talked about feet positioning, and then about body positioning. Huge revelations for me performing this drill; mainly about body position centering my weight, and using my legs more.

We took a break for lunch, and the coach read off groups for the afternoon ride. I was placed in a group that was riding 18 Road, with plans to ride Mojo. We packed up bikes into a couple trucks, drove out to the bottom parking lot, dropped the rest of the cars in that lot, and shuttled up to the top lot.

The ride was amazing. The other ladies I was with could absolutely rip. The trail mainly followed a ridge line, with a couple good jumps mixed in. We stopped sporadically to discuss a jump or a drop, sessioned it, and rolled on. The coach with us was great, similar to the coach the day before, she was able to really give each person some individual attention.

We ended the ride earlier than expected, most of the group was pretty beat, but me and one other girl in my group decided to go for another short ride. We loaded bikes into a truck and got a ride back to the top as the group was picking up cars. We took Kessel down, which was a mellow, windy, smooth trail that entered an old river bed. The trail winded up and down the banks of the river, and just flowed down the hill.

Overall thoughts on the camp. Was it worth it? Yes. Would I go again? Yes. The coaches were absolutely incredible, even when there were mixed abilities within a group, they were able to cater to each person individually. I’ve never had my riding critiqued, or never broken down my technique in that way. Overall, I learned a lot from the camp, and would hesitate to do it again.
 

Tom K.

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Sounds like fun! Many pugskiers know that Trek helps me out a fair bit with my (currently on hiatus) endurance racing addiction, so this makes me proud to be associated with them.

My wife -- who does not ride at your level -- took one of these and said she learned more than she would have on her own in two years of riding -- and possibly ever.

If you ever get a chance, take one of these clinics in Moab. I suspect you would both love it and thrive.
 
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Lauren

Lauren

AKA elemmac
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My wife -- who does not ride at your level -- took one of these and said she learned more than she would have on her own in two years of riding -- and possibly ever.

That’s awesome. I can completely see that happening. This is my 8th season mountain biking, with the first couple seasons being pretty sporadic. I had way more “revelations” during this than I expected to. Wish I had done one of these clinics years ago!

If you ever get a chance, take one of these clinics in Moab. I suspect you would both love it and thrive.

Husband and I went to Moab two years ago, and I’ve had the itch to go back since. If it weren’t for a wedding in Crested Butte I would have extended my Fruita trip to include Moab again. Not sure if I’d want to do a clinic there though, mainly because there is SO MUCH I want to ride.

Hoping they add the Northeast to their schedule in the future.
 

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