Downieville Classic all mountain

[shiloh]

A good finish last year earned me a chance to preregister for the all mountain class.  It can be tough to get in so I took advantage and signed up. 

The race start had changed from a mass start of the combined pro and expert classes to separate starts for the two classes.  This made me think I could roll up the start line just a few minutes before go time, and still have good start position.  I was wrong. I ended up abut fifteen rows back from the line which I'm sure slowed me down about 1 minute overall. About 45 seconds in Will Curtis yelled out to me from the side line, my dad is beating you. Next year I'm muscling my way to the front line.  As soon as the pack spread out enough I went all out to pass as many people as I could before we hit the dirt.  Looking up the long fire road climb I could see where the front of the pack was.  They must have been two minutes ahead of me and there were around 30 riders between me and them.  I rode as hard as I knew I could handle and prayed that I wouldn't crack.  At the top of the climb I estimated that I had worked my way up between 15th and 20th place.  And I was glad to feel that I still had a little pow in my legs.  

I almost died about 3 times descending through the baby heads, but somehow kept upright.  I hit the first creek crossing, the cool water felt nice for about 5 seconds then my legs began to cramp.  I contemplated weather or not the muscle would tear form the bone if I continued to push hard.  So I eased my pace a bit and soon recovered.  I passed around five people throughout the rest of the decent, and got passed only once. At the bottom I looked over my shoulder to see If anyone would challenge me in a sprint to the finish line. Thankfully I saw no one.  I put in a hard effort just in case and crossed the line in fifth place. Better than I thought I was doing but I know that with a better start position I could have been in third or forth place.  

While warming up for the down hill race the next day I could tell that my legs had not recovered yet.  The muscles that had cramped were still sore, and what wasn't sore was mush. There is something about downhill racing that puts major butterflies in my stomach. Funny though, they quickly flutter away as soon as I leave the start gate.  

Off the start line I had about 8 seconds of sprint in me before I had to slow down, catch my breath, and let my legs recover.  Thankfully downhill races are mostly downhill.  On the flat bit of fire road after Sunrise trail I got passed by  the guy who started behind me.  Damn  it, I am 8 minutes into this race and I'm already behind by at least 1 minute.  Well there was nothing I could do about it so I decided to relax and finish the race off as strong as I could.  I passed one rider on the climb up to third divide, he looked completely defeated.  I flew down third divide, that trail is fast! and didn't see another rider until I hit the pavement. I rode hard to catch him and as I approached he looked over his shoulder.  The look on his face said, i do not care that i am being passed. I spun into the finish line 9th place.  I thought I would do a lot better in the down hill than that.  Checked my Garmin top, speed 48mph.  I hope to get into the all mountain again next year, that was fun.