Jeremiah Bishop (Team MonaVie/Cannondale) and Sam Koerber (Team Gary Fisher 29er) on Day 2 on Yellow Gap (Image credit: The Living Pixel / www.TheLivingPixel.com)
Asheville local Sam Koerber and endurance pro Jeremiah Bishop battled at the first Pisgah Mountain Bike Stage race in October. The four-day race brought mountain bike stage racing to the Eastern US and was run through the mountains of western North Carolina.
"Sam and I fought to keep pace with each other," said Bishop in one post-stage video. "It felt like half the time you were riding off the side of your saddle as you negotiated sidehill root clusters."
Bishop also describes how his challenger Koerber was riding. "He's on home turf. He's riding like a salamander on that stuff... Descending Pilot Rock, with rocks everywhere, I could hear him behind me, his brakes squealing."
"The trails were tight and super wet so it was scary, which was how I expected it would be after the rain," said Koerber in another video interview.
In its first edition, the Pisgah race came with unseasonably cold temperatures and precipitation. Racers battled not only wet conditions, but there was snow at the higher elevations, too.
"I was freezing," said Bishop of racing in the high mountains. "It was beautiful, but we were wet from the stream crossings."
The videos conclude with scenese of the after party, complete with live music.
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Sue George is an editor at Cyclingnews. She coordinates all of the site's mountain bike race coverage and assists with the road, 'cross and track coverage.
