Yeah, I know, it's mid September and I am posting about what I did in August. It was a busy month for me with school, work, and racing, but I am finally catching up.
Whitney and I drove down to California for the
Downieville Classic "All-Mountain World Championships" over a 4-day weekend. It was a lot of driving and our time there was way too rushed, but we still enjoyed the experience. It was really great to race in a new scene and meet a bunch of people. The trails down there were rocky and gnarly. Not what I expected. I flatted in the XC and had a conservative but fun run in the Downhill. Whitney did great in her races and made everyone look a little soft on their full suspensions and 29ers. The long technical downhills made us both glad we had done so many
Trailhead workouts. Downieville racing was exciting and challenging.
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| Getting ready for the XC. The race started in Sierra City and finished in Downieville. I had to hitchhike back to the car after the race. The "shuttle" was basically nonexistent. Got pulled over by a Sheriff for riding in the back of a pickup truck. Lame. |
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| Whitney and I at Packer Saddle, the 7000 ft start of the Downhill. We camped just down the road. The course drops 5000 ft in 17 miles to the finish in Downieville. It was a race like non other I have done. |
The
Capitol Forest Classic was possibly the most fun race weekend of 2011. The 2012 edition did not disappoint. The
Friends of Capitol Forest do an incredible job maintaining their trails and putting on events. They are a passionate laid back group of people who love to spend time in the woods. After winning the race in 2011, I wanted to defend my king-of-the-mountain crown this year.
I won the XC, and finished 3rd in the Downhill behind Bellingham buddy
Lars Sternberg and Capitol Forest local super-ripper
Matt Jagger. Lots of beer, good food, and great company iced this cake of a weekend. I see this race becoming a long tradition for me.
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| 2012 All-Mountain Champ. FOCF rocks! |
The final race of the
NW Epic Series and my final mountain bike race of the year was the Capitol 50/100 miler. Last year I raced the 100 and it really hurt... a lot. I wasn't getting a huge amount of time on my bike this summer, so I decided to race the (relatively) short 50 mile.
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| Start of the Capitol 50. |
Jason Kettrick (Audi) set a fast pace the first few miles of the race, but I eventually went around him and found myself alone. The course was one huge mostly-singletrack 50 mile loop.
Sloane Anderson from Bend, Oregon kept nearly catching me on the climbs, but I was always able to pull away on the rolling and downhill singletrack. The long descent down GL6 was especially fresh in my mind after the Capitol Forest Classic two weeks earlier. I started the race with two water bottles which also gave me a small advantage, only having to stop once for water. It actually would have been nice to stop more and take advantage of the well-stocked aid stations!
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