This was my second time racing but my first time racing the entire course (2011 was shorten by 8 miles due to snow) The weekend started off with heading up on Friday morning and meeting up with a couple friends Brendan, Ja and Joe and take in a 2pm shuttle with Yuba Expeditions, Joe and Brendan both rented Bronson's I brought up my Blur TRC and JA rode his Turner "Burner".
Pretty much the whole week leading up to the race I was a bit worried about how I would do, so prior to our run I made sure I drank a cold Sierra Nevada before getting into the shuttle and that followed by a sweet trouble free run down the hill with friends was the best thing I could've done! all my worries were gone! One of the my favorite things about riding Downieville is the way it relaxes you! it's almost like the trees soak up all the stress we live with in the bay area! (Heavy I know:)
 |
| Yuba Expeditions are the "Bomb" |
After a flat free rubber side down run we headed back to the "Stone" house and swapped riding gear for swim trunks and grabbed some cold ones for the river across the street. After a relaxing dip we went into town and had a awesome dinner at the Grubstake followed by some drinks at Wills place.
Joe headed home that night so the three of us headed back to the house and Brendan and I got our bikes prepped for the race.
 |
| Ja's Grubbing looking Steak!! |
 |
| The gang Friday night at the Grubstake |
 |
| Relaxing at the river |
 |
| Me and my buddy Will |
 |
| The Blur TRC race ready! Yes I was near the bathrooms! :) |
Saturday morning we woke up and started our preperations and loaded up the car for our ride into Sierra City. Ja dropped us off and headed back into town to check out the scene and give his shot at the Shimano casting competition. Brendan and I did some riding around to warm up and I also attempted to see how many times I could go bathroom prior to the start! Jeez I didn't think I drank that much water (Beer) :)
 |
| Pre race and feeling the Lycra! |
 |
| Brendan pre race ready |
 |
| Pre race lineup |
We lined up on the hill along with the rest of the crowd and at 9:40am our class (Cat 2 34-44) was off! Brendan and I talked about hanging together for the race but the way people single file due to the small race line it wasn't going to work out. We held together on the road till we hit dirt and we pretty much were on our own after that. The climb was better than my previous time racing and I was able to make progress thru the traffic making small passes when the opportunity presented itself.
One of my worries the week before was my gearing on the blur with a single 34t on the front of my XX1 set up but I couldn't imagine having anything smaller as it was perfect for the climb! As we came close to the false summit I saw my rammer friend Forrest taking pictures at a sweet spot and I was looking forward to having "The shot" for my garage but unfortunately the person in front of me slipped a tire and the train came to a halt at the spot of "The shot" so my hopes were shattered as I ran past Forrest to remount and continue up the hill:( I'll try again next year:).
 |
| "The Shot" oh well next year! |
So After the 8 mile climb to Packer Saddle I was rewarded by a cool shot of Tecate beer from the spectators and headed down Sunrise, Sunrise was a train of 3 of us just recovering from the climb but we had a good flow so no one was complaining. As I hit the bottom and merged onto the fire road to Pauley I noticed a little cramping in my quads so I took a Salt Stik capsule and continued on the fire road, this is a area where I will need to step it up next year because I found my self "cruising" more than "Racing" probably thinking of survival at this point as we had 19 miles of racing left. As I we headed into "Baby Heads" I felt pretty good but I kept it conservative with my line selection as this is a pretty popular pinch flat area and even though I was running tubeless some of the rocks are pretty dam jagged and I didn't want to take any chances but after looking at my Strava when I got home I had a PR after all so not bad:).
So I finished baby heads and crossed the creek and headed down Pauley. This is a trail I had never been on before as I normally cross the creek and head up the hill to Big Boulder so this didn't help me on my "Flow" but I managed along with a single file line of 4 riders and made into back into familiar territory as we connected back with Butcher.
From Butcher I headed to the bridge and the famous climb up to the top of Third divide in a conga line of 20 riders at a snails pace but my hamstrings were starting to make some noise so I kinda enjoyed the break. Towards the top of the climb just as we passed the "Rooster" the guy in front of me slowed down even more and decided to loose his breakfast on the side of the trail! Guess he was letting it all hang out:).
I made it to the top and had a pretty nice run down Third and passed a couple riders without issues and headed down the fire road to first and again I found my self "crusing" and not "Racing" but the end was near and my run was trouble free so why change it now. On First divide things got a little crazy as I had a guy decide to run his knee into the side of the hill at a sketchy section and I pretty much try to run my Noby Nic up his ass! So I demounted and ran past him and got back in line with the group and hit lower first and at the picture corner I made sure to "Look" good and not have my mouth open like most my shots are:) from there I made it to the pavement and this time I pushed it to the finish because I new It was over and there was a beer and a river with my name on it!
I finished with a time of (3:07) and placed 33 out of 58 riders in my class. Not great but not bad for my first time racing the entire course. I learned a a lot for next year and I had a trouble free run and had a blast doing it so no reason to complain!
Plus it's riding in Downieville what can be better than that?
Cheers!
