Downieville

[Michael Koppe]

 As many of you know I broke my foot over a year ago and was non weight bearing for 4 months. Subsequently I wore a boot for two months and wondered if I would ever be able to return to sports. I have torn my ACL, ruptured my Achilles tendon, torn my quadriceps etc. but this was the worst injury to date. The technical name for the injury is a Lisfranc fracture/dislocation which varies considerably in treatment. Unfortunately my injury required surgical fusion of the damaged bones with titanium bone plates and pins. Normally I like titanium, but I prefer it on my bike. Recently my bike is becoming more like me (carbon) and I am becoming more like my bike (titanium). Soon I will be one with my bike.

 As a rehabilitation/personal goal I wanted to return to bike riding and racing and peak for the Downieville. I began to ride around February of this year. After 4 months of crutches, I felt liberated and grateful while riding. Jim, Shiloh, and Bill got my bikes in order and I focused on riding. I decided to use a trainer (Matt at Whole Athlete) in order to provide direction and accountability. In the past I had never really trained, since in my age group (60+) as long as you had a bike and a pulse you had a chance. I got to experience building a base which meant riding a road bike in the rain  on occasion-not exactly fun. I did enter some races along the way, but did not perform very well. I still avoided risk and ironically I crashed more because I was being conservative. Not exactly positive reinforcement.

 So after 4 months of training I am at the start line for the Downieville XC race in the 55+ category. They call it the senior grandmaster category I think. Sounds like it should be for chess players. There is no Cat 1 or Sport category, just old 55+ mountain bike riders. When I won it 4 or 5 years ago there were only 5 riders or so. Today there at least 17 riders in that category, but they are mixed amongst the masses at the start. You look for old people but it is not like they are zombies and easily identified, so you tend to ride your own race and hope for the best. I rode a decent race with a few bobbles and suffered one minor crash due to obscured vision from dust clouds. I usually cramp on the uphill sections of the downhill, but this time I felt good and pedaled across the finish line with a time of 2h 46m which is 3+ minutes faster than 4 years ago when I won it. Unfortunately I missed 3rd by 15 seconds, but at my age I was happy to cross the finish line with a bike and a pulse. I look forward to building upon this next year. Mike

 

[Jim Hewett]

Good job!  You were the sole Summit racer this year.  Thanks for representing us well.