Downieville Classic 2018

[Mark Gibson]

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 race the DH, then you have to enter the “All Mountain” event which combines both days of racing, and ranks racers on points–based on their placing each day (1 point for 1st, and so on, so the lowest number of combined points wins). What makes this even so great, and such a unique challenge, is that you have to race the same bike both days, with no swapping of tires, parts, etc. So a bike optimized for a XC race is not going to do as well on the DH, and vice versa. Getting the balance right is half the battle, but some calculated risks have to be taken, and the chances of a flat or mechanical on these trails is high.

This year I was riding my Trek Fuel EX, a lightweight 130mm trail bike which pedals quite well, and with a 140mm Pike up front. I felt this bike was right around the sweet spot for this type of racing. Unfortunately, I had destroyed my rear wheel just a few days before the race, and so the only wheels I had available were my very lightweight XC wheels, and I was worried that they would not survive the weekend. I had to use quite high pressure to avoid rim damage, which made for a less than ideal set up, but at least the light wheels should help on the climb.

The wildfires across N. California were also presenting an issue, with smoke drifting into the area and apparently becoming quite heavy in the days leading up to the race. I planned on making a decision the morning of the race on whether air quality was too unhealthy to risk it.

I drove up the evening before, and stayed in Sierraville, a small valley town between Downieville and Truckee. The air there was pretty bad, getting trapped in the valley, and I woke up with a serious headache on Saturday morning. However, upon reaching Sierra City for the start of the XC race, although there was some smoke in the air it wasn’t too bad, so my race was on.

I got in a too-brief warm up, and lined up near the back of the pro field, next to Carson Benjamin, and we chatted for a while. We started, and made our way up about a mile of paved road before hitting the beginning of the “trail of tears” climb. This is a long, steep, exposed, dusty loose climb, which goes on for around 5 miles before a brief respite of some undulating terrain and then more climbing as you approach Packer Saddle at an elevation of 7,200'. In previous years, this was pretty much the top of the climb, and from there you’d head down Sunrise (a flow trail) before descending a fire road and then briefly climbing up to the “Baby Heads” section. This year, the event added more climbing, with elevation reaching around 7,500', along the newly opened (to bikes) PCT trail starting at Packer Saddle. As we climbed, I was conscious of the fact that this would be a long race, and I needed to leave something in the tank for the next day, so I made sure my heart rate stayed in Zone 3, and did not go into Zone 4. Using this approach I felt reasonably good the whole time and put out a consistent effort the whole way up, although noted that my time up at Packer Saddle was no faster than the last time I raced, which was a little disappointing as I had felt stronger coming into this race than I had the last time.

After around 5 miles of the PCT trail, it was time to bomb down “Baby Heads”, so named for the similarly sized loose rocks that cover this trail and make traction hard to find. My drivetrain felt a little off, and I dropped the chain a couple times on some rougher sections, losing some time here and there. Shifting then became a problem, with the gears skipping and ghost shifting. I stopped briefly to try and figure out if there was any reason for this, but didn’t see anything obvious, so kept on going. A couple of racers passed me during the times I stopped, but I had also passed one or two on the way down so did not think it made much of a difference to my placing.

After getting down to Pauley Creek, I knew there was only one short climb left (up to 3rd Divide), so tried to put the hammer down, but my legs and body were surprisingly very fatigued already, and I just couldn’t really get up to the speeds I know I can reach on these trails when I’m feeling good. The climb to 3rd Divide was especially tough and I felt like I was riding through sand I was going so slow. I hit 3rd Divide and just tried to be smooth rather than fast, wanting to protect my delicate wheels, and avoid any mechanicals or flats. I eventually reached 1st Divide, and did my best to hammer out the last couple of miles, but could not find that extra gear. I rolled into town and through the finish line in an unimpressive 2:28. But, I was feeling good that at least my wheels had held up fine, and I set off to get something to eat and figure out how to fix my shifting issues before the next day of racing.

I woke up on Sunday morning, and all the smoke had been blown away by favorable winds. I love the DH course, and always think that the race on Sunday makes the suffering the day before worthwhile. I got up to the top early, around 8:45 am and was able to get in a really good long warm up, which I needed to spin some of the fatigue out of my legs from the day before.

Racers are sent off in 1 minute intervals. I set off a minute behind Macky Franklin, which was good–he’s blazing fast on the DH, so I knew I would not catch him and have to negotiate my way past. Justin Graves was a minute behind me which was also good as he would be unlikely to catch me so I wouldn’t have to slow down to let someone by.

I set off, and almost immediately caught my foot on a rock, un-clipping my shoe and sending me off balance. Great start! I got back on it, but was almost trying too hard, and lacking fluidity did an average ride down Sunrise. I made my way on to the Butcher descent, which is the most technical part of the course, including some fairly rocky sections which again I was not really feeling like I was flowing on. I hit the waterfall section and made it through with no issues, and then finally started to feel like I was getting into a groove. After getting to the bottom of Butcher, I felt like I rode Pauley Creek trail well, and then hit the climb to 3rd Divide, not knowing how my legs would feel with all the fatigue in them. I put the hammer down and, unlike the day before, this time I actually felt quite strong, and even set a PR on the short steep climb. I had a good, fairly smooth run down 3rd Divide, and felt like I maintained good speed along 1st Divide and into town. I finished in a time of 52 minutes, which was 2 minutes off my goal time of 50, but I was thankful that it was at least a clean run with no issues, which is a rarity for me when riding these trails.

At the end of the weekend, I placed 20th in the Pro Men All Mountain category, ending up one place behind Carson. Jim was 10th place which is pretty impressive.

All in all, this was a good weekend of racing and I’m thankful to have been able to compete once more in this incredible event.