Athlete Profile: Brian Smith

Summer Vacation: Racing a Road Bike Across the Country

by Janit Stahl

How many people would say yes to riding across the country on a bike when they had say, a couple weeks, to prepare?

The only person that comes to mind is Brian Smith, a professional mountain bike racer that was asked that question the first weekend of June, just two weeks before the start of the Race Across America (RAAM). Last year Outside magazine named the Race Across America “the world’s toughest race,” and Brian, who says he is “always looking for a challenge,” apparently found one.

Brian has been a professional mountain bike racer for four years, so he has been training at a high intensity, but in quite a different manner. “Mountain bike racing is a power sport, with a lot of quick climbs followed by a descent,” says Brian.

Members of Team Vail/Beaver Creek, a team captained by Zach Bingham, contacted Brian at a mountain bike race through the racing community grapevine. Bingham, who had done all the prep work for the team — from arranging for support vehicles to volunteers — contracted hepatitis while training in Mexico. Unable to compete without a fourth man for the four-man relay event of RAAM, the remaining members — Mike Janelle, Toph Leonard and Jimi Mortensen — met Brian through connections with his wife Jennifer’s professional mountain bike teammate.

A member of the Trek/VW Rocky Mountain team, Brian had only recently purchased a road bike. All of the racers on the Team Vail/Beaver Creek team, sponsored by those resorts, are mountain bike riders. Despite what many would consider a disadvantage, the team was at RAAM record pace for the first half of the race. They covered 3,052 miles in 5 days, 18 hours and 15 minutes — a 22.5-mile-per-hour pace! This year’s race included 110,000 feet of vertical climbing (7,000 more feet than the previous year), and 150 more miles than last year’s event. The team finished about 6 hours short of the RAAM record mark, but won the four-person men’s division by a five-hour margin.

“I was surprised to see that Brian did RAAM. It’s such a different sport than mountain biking and he excels at a shorter distance,” says Bob Marcellus, a long-time acquaintance of Brian and his family. Bob, who managed Inside Edge bike shop in Glens Falls for 18 years, says Brian was always a dedicated rider. As a young teen, Brian participated in time trials organized by Inside Edge at Crandall Park. “He had great success in those trails and I don’t think he has peaked,” Bob says. “My speculation is that Brian will have a long career because he has the passion and is continually improving.”

Brian Smith grew up in Queensbury. His primary sport in middle school and high school was track and cross-country, but an iliotibial (IT) band problem kept him from excelling in running at Western States College in Gunnison, Colo. His college had a competitive mountain bike team, the WSC Wheelers Club, so he decided to join in 1998 during his last semester. As a rookie, Brian still qualified for the NCCA Nationals in Reno, Nev. and placed 18th out of about 250 riders. While in Gunnison, he also met his wife Jennifer, who was attending college and is now a professional mountain bike racer. She was also his biggest supporter when the decision was made to take on RAAM.

Employed as a residential community support specialist for adults with disabilities, Brian “let them know right away that I’d be racing and I’d need to take weekends off.” That arrangement has lasted for five years, as he has gone from expert classification, to semi-pro, to professional. He does, however, run out of time-off by the fall. “It makes it hard to visit my family in Queensbury at Christmas,” said Brian.

Brian will be coming to the region on August 27-28 to compete in the NORBA National Mountain Bike Series Finals at Mount Snow, Vt. Last year’s Mount Snow visit included the NORBA cross-country race on Saturday, followed by a win at the Garnet Hill Xterra off-road triathlon in North River. “I didn’t do too well on Saturday,” he says, “but it helped open me up for the triathlon that was my first Xterra win.” The off-road triathlons like the Xterra series are his next challenge. He would like to be a top five finisher at the Xterra U.S. Championships as well as be on the podium for U.S Mountain Bike National Championships. In early July, he is also racing in the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup competition at Angel Fire Resort in New Mexico.

“RAAM was the ultimate challenge — it is the toughest thing I’ve ever done,” Brian says. Although his training is not geared toward ultramarathon bike racing, he feels he might do it again if asked. “If I had the opportunity I’d try it again. The team and volunteers were so supportive that they made it fun; it was a great experience.”

Team racers in RAAM all have a different strategy, level of support and sponsorship. At the minimum, a team requires about $15,000 and 10 volunteers to participate, which includes travel, three or more vehicles, food and people to cook, drive, massage and communicate with the racers. Riders “leapfrog” from bike to support vehicle to the recreational vehicle for rest, food, showers and massage. For Team Vail/Beaver Creek, the four-person team broke into partners, who took turns doing 5-7 miles at a time for a couple hours while the other pair rested. During “night pulls,” longer jaunts of up to five hours were expected of the riders.

With a couple of weeks hindsight, what Brian remembers most about RAAM is “The intensity of the race,” he says, “there are so many volunteers that support the teams, but the break times seemed so minimal.” With hot temperatures out west and high humidity in the east, Brian adds that he “had never experienced heat like that.” The warm weather and the lack of sleep (often just minutes at a time), wore down his body. Riders ate up to 10 meals a day to keep up with the caloric demands of riding round-the-clock.

Although participating in RAAM has gained Brian some notice due to the incredible demands of the event and how he came to participate, he remains a competitive professional mountain bike racer. As he recovers from RAAM and prepares for his next event, he is already planning for his NORBA and Xterra races in the near future.

If you’d like to keep updated on Brian’s results throughout the season, visit www.trekfactoryteam.com and click on the Rocky Mountain link. For more information about RAAM, visit www.raceacrossamerica.org.

Janit Stahl lives with her husband and three children in Gansevoort. She is a member of the Skidmore Community Rowing Club.