Mark Gibson's Page

This is probably my favorite race of the year; and one of the best weekends of racing out there. I had missed the race last year through injury while doing a practice run the week before, and so was glad to be back in Downieville racing again, injury free, and feeling in good form.

The Downieville Classic consists of a cross country race on the Saturday, and a Downhill race on Sunday. Some racers choose to ride the XC event only, but racing the DH only is not an option. If you want to…

This was my 2nd time racing this event at Wente, a beautiful ~2,000 acre Boy Scout Reservation just outside Willits. Last year I had won my category (expert 40+) but only after battling through a pretty disastrous 1st lap with a flat tire which left me at the back of the field and playing catch up all day. I had eventually taken the lead at the beginning of the 10th lap, and held on to complete the 10 laps in 8 hours 11 minutes. This year my goal was to finish 10 laps in under 8 hours in…

It's hard to believe that we have had 6 weeks of shorty races, and the series is over for another year (its 10th year). I'm really going to miss what has been a super fun regular mid-week race and the boost it has given my fitness. It's been great hanging out with regulars, getting to know people, and taking lots of crap from Mooney! I'm stoked to have been able to make it to all 6 of the races this year, having missed a couple last year.

This being the final race of the series, with…

The number of racers attending this week was down slightly from last week. This was partly because a lot of the High School racers were taking it easy ahead of State Champs this Sunday. However, there were still a few of the fastest NorCal kids out there, with Sean Middleton of Redwood and Robert Raffo of San Rafael amongst them. Bear Dev rider Toby Coughlan would also be there battling; and enduro rider/skills coach Ian Massey turned out too.

The previous week's race had us riding the…