Monday, March 24, 2008

Downhill #2: No longer under the radar


Well, this past Saturday was the second of the spring downhill series. Zach and I showed up sporting new team colors of our recent sponsorship, Family Cycling Center in Santa Cruz. Its nice to be supported by a shop, but it was a new experience for me. I felt all the more "visible" in the yellow jersey, and I think I had grown accustomed to cruising just under the radar of that scene. With visibility comes the potential for your times and finishing standings being tracked, and for a while I think being low profile allowed me to finish wherever and feel okay about it, as if I were only riding for myself. But, with advancement come the notice of others, and if I'm not comfortable with that, then I don't think I deserve to be up front! So armed with that thought, I dawned that yellow jersey (which I'll remind is the color of victory in the Tour de France!) alongside Zach and hit the trails!Practice was not smooth. The course was very dry and pebbly, and it seemed no matter how much air pressure i took out of the tires, they just wouldn't hook up. I was experimenting with a new pair of Kenda Nevegals (thanks Kenda!) and i just don't think that is at all their strong point. I'll remember to set those aside for the more loamy races. Two practice runs consisting of both wheels sliding every which way left me quite nervous for the first race. The sun was pretty strong that day, and i felt tired even from the two runs...not to mention the two hikes up to the start! I felt nervous as Zach took off on his run a minute before mine, and I watched him accelerate down the fireroad start. The first race went great, though I made more than a few mistakes. There was one turn that came off the first fast fireroad that, no matter how much effort, I couldn't manage to keep my wheels from sliding out. Though I never crashed, i did make a lot of dust and take portions of a second off my time. The rest of the course was about the same, dusty lines, and deceiving corners. I finished strong and took 3rd in the Expert Class and 2nd in the Hardtail Class. Very pleased!Zach took very strong runs aboard his two very different rides. It has to be hard to reprogram from a plush heavy full suspension to a light hardtail single speed, and I have to commend him on turning in such similar fast times! After all the times were counted, Zach finished in at 2nd in the Sport Class and 2nd in the Single Speed Class! All in all we hit the podium four times in the top 3!As for now, my downhill schedule will take a break in lieu of midterms, a trip to New York and a speed climb of Washington Column's South Face with Stacy. It will ramp up in a big way in early April with the Sea Otter coming up, and I'll be scrambling to get practice time in on Dual Slalom courses, as that is the event I'm putting the most effort into! There is an XC race next weekend, and I hope to see the whole crew out there. Dusty is in Moab right now, exploring the trails around slickrock. I'm hoping he comes back with good photos and stories to post here!

Thanks for reading! Here's the link for results.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Downhill Season Opener!

The Downhill season kicked off yesterday with a bang! A large sized crowd was on hand for the opener of the Spring Downhill Series at Toro Park. The course was short and very fast with some great technical sections. The dirt was fairly dry and pebbly so picking tire pressures was the name of the game today, and
mixing that with some very high speed sections higher up on the
course it was a challenging and exciting course. Signing up in the morning cold, I watched the organizer write a big capitol "E" after my number, signifying "Expert" and my nerves started to run wild. I started to nit-pick my practice runs, brakes, the dirt, my helmet, food, everything!

Dusty running to a 6th place finish

Me making my first run as an Expert

Practices went fairly well, and I made my fair share of mistakes I had hoped to make early on. Zach was sporting his newly purchased single speed Santa Cruz Chameleon, and had entered the single speed class for the first time. As well his main Trek was outfitted with some shinny new improvements! One thing I love about downhill racing is illustrated by the following. Zach and I spent a significant period of time before our first run looking over a section near the end of the course that involved a rocky fast turn leading into a bump-up that, if you weren't in the right position, pitched you straight at a tree. A number of people had hit the tree that day one guy separating his shoulder, so it seemed like an good place to put some attention. After scoping all the lines possible, and considering all the technique variants we could use to cleanly make it through this section and not hit the tree, it was decided that we needed to just "make it happen". There wasn't any type of planning that was going to make this go any better, it just takes relying on your ability to improvise on the spot. Turns out the closer you came to hitting this tree, the faster you went through the turn. So testament to the sport, the name of the game is: you can't plan it and if you want it you gotta risk it. Worked out great I'd say!

Zach's 2nd place run in the Single Speed class

Results at the end of the day were outstanding. We took a total of five metals from the day. Zach took 2nd in the Sport class (a class he's likely to win this season) and 2nd in the single speed class, beating the entire field of riders except for the one who designed the course! Dusty finished in at 6th in the Sport class, a screaming improvement from last season. Our buddy "coach" Craig was out today, and turned in a 3rd place finish in his category. As for me, my first race as an Expert landed me in 4th place. As well I took 2nd in the hardtail class. My Chameleon is a jack of all trades. It may not be flashy, but I built her from scratch and it fits me like a glove. Thanks Dad and Stacy for coming out to support! The cheering on the side of the course make such a huge impact. Congratulations to my Dad on his 3rd and 6th place finish the same day at the Hollister Vintage Motocross! As usual, feel free to leave comments when you read! Thanks!

Results:
http://cccx.org/dh/2008/race1/2008_CCCX_DH_Race1Results.shtml

Monday, March 3, 2008

Rough Start...

The season hasn't gotten off to the best start for me so far. From getting sick and not being able to race a couple weeks ago to completely bonking out in the race Saturday, it's been a bit disheartening. It's hard not to project poor finishes out onto equipment and course condition, but to be honest "old yeller" was running great for a 10 year old bike, and the course couldn't have been better, with hard packed moist loam trails lined by green grass and oak trees. Perhaps the mixture of not being trained well enough and dehydration contributed to this past races poor finish, but whatever it was requires more attention to fix!

The life of a student isn't quite conducive to maintaining the training levels of a competitive cyclist. But as the days lengthen, the amount of time on the bike will increase and with that I hope to see lap times decrease. Speaking of the life of a student, my institution conveniently scheduled a mandatory 3-weekend course over two of the upcoming downhill races... So, my excitement has been dampened substantially...

For the rest of the guys, the season seems to be starting extremely well so far. Saturday, Dusty put in a very strong finish, beating his previous time for this course by 5 minutes, and inching to within 20 minutes of the leaders, who, mind you, are about to move up to the pro class!
Unfortunately Zach wasn't able to race Saturday, but the race prior he maintained a great pace and put in a strong finish! These guys are great to race with.

Welcome Stacy into the blog content, as she deserves the gold star for finishing 6th in her first EVER race, less than ten minutes behind the leader. Her nerves were quickly dispelled when she saw the results posted, confirming that she is a much better rider than she gave herself credit for! Congratulations Stace, we look forward to more races of trying to keep you from eventually beating all of us!!
Upcoming race is a Downhill at Toro Park on 3/9. As much as it pains me, and no matter how many times I double-check the calendar, it looks like I'll have to be passing it up for the sake of graduating in December. This seems like a harbinger of the kinds of sacrifices I may have to make in the years to come...

Results: http://www.cccx.org/mtb/2008/race3/2008_CCCX_MTB_Race3_Sport.shtml
More Photos: http://em.scottmosherphotography.com/g/xc311&gallery_page=&gallery_all=&view=1&photo_page=1#photo_s