Lessons Learned

[Paul Montgomery]

It’s the second year I’ve made the trek up to the Sierras for the Downieville Classic XC race. Downieville is a point to point affair that starts with a three thousand foot fire-road accent and from there full gas 20 miles downhill to the town of Downieville (more or less). Once past the first hour of climbing this course rewards smooth fast descending. With only a few technical sections, the key to going fast is commitment, focus and endurance. Unlike last year, however, I was unable to pre-ride the course, as it's said "no worries"...

The starting line was cramped with all 800 riders shoehorned into a ten foot wide side street in Sierra City. Lining up twenty minutes before the start, fifteen feet behind the official START LINE banner, everything was in order. Unfortunately, at the gun the front of the field had bulged two or three hundred feet up the road. By far the slowest start I have experienced, easily losing a full minute waiting for the accordion to snap.

Once under full steam, the task at hand was to get into grind mode. Expecting to be one of the slower Cat 1 racers, I was looking forward to conserving energy on the climb with minimum overtaking off line. Sadly, the uphill conga line seemed just as congested as it had been in Cat 2, so the first thirty minutes were spent out in the loose stuff. By the end of the climb the mountain had sorted us out and it was time to get busy.

About a week and a half before Downieville, I had up-graded my faithful hard-tail with the much anticipated “Trek” SuperFly 100, full plush-pension 29er. With no time to reprogram my brain in the techniques and advantages of having a compliant rear-end (whoa), on the job training would be required. Railing through the first single-track section, the bike delivered on the marketing hype. Catch-pass-drop, repeat…oh yeah, feeling good. On to the baby-head section (so named because of the size and shape of the accumulated boulders), no problems, just point and shoot. So far, so good.

The new ride was doing everything asked of it. Now, in the meat of the downhill, I caught up with two other riders needing to get around a young Whole Athlete pilot, Kate Courtney. The two riders where able to sneak by in a sketchy technical section, no need to rush it, I thought. Recognizing this segment of steep single-track (with washed out paves) from last year, there was not going to be a safe opportunity anytime soon. So I closed up to her wheel, hoping to take advantage of any small bobble, unfortunately the bobble was mine. My front wheel hooked one of the paves and flipped me onto my backside. Damage assessment: punctured leg, punctured arm, punctured Co2 canister, a badly gashed saddle, and (re)passed by at least a dozen riders. All else intact.

Back on the bike and moving much slower, I continued to appraise the hardware and the software. Without a full tank of bravado and now riding a technical section where “rolling through” is safer than going slow, the focus became balance, momentum and staying loose. All the while, bouncing over the roots and rocks, I noticed my saddle had become wobbly. Familiar with the attachment scheme, it should survive to the end of the race. No more stopping.

Picking up the pace along with my confidence, I arrived at the fastest section of the course. The only thing to do now was release the brake levers and let the magic of over engineered carbon unobtainium take over, yee’ha. As hoped, full suspension is much easier on the legs toward the end of a long effort. Even with the prerequisite cramping setting in, I was feeling fresh and coming back to full race mode. Unfortunately, the slightly loose saddle had become very loose at speed. No stopping was the rule. Sitting on it seemed to lock it down, no problem, stay seated.

With the bulk of the crazy fast downhill behind me, the final “peddling” section lay ahead, with only one twitchy rock section that would require precision and out of the saddle maneuvering. I noticed two things immediately after clearing the rocky section. One, I had surprisingly made up the gap to Kate Courtney (again)...excellent. Two, my seat post had detonated, jettisoning all associated hardware with the saddle...not excellent. Looking back at what was left made me pause. No saddle, no bracket, only what could be described as a cylindrical die punch pointing at my hindquarters. There would be no sitting down.

Caught up in the excitement of seeing my new seat post modification, I had stopped. Mistake. Getting back on the bike and pedaling up a small hill initiated massive leg cramps. With wooden legs, my pace was glacial and I had to yield the trail to let more people pass. Eventually the cramps eased and I was able to finish, standing. Even without a saddle, I bettered my time from last year, finishing 14th in Cat 1, 45+ age group (35 competitors, all mountain and XC) and 3rd, if they had designated the usual 50-55 age group.

In hindsight the biggest mistake of this year’s effort was not pre-riding the course. Knowledge is power. I remembered a lot about the course, but not enough detail to keep me out of a ditch. Already looking forward to next year.

Thanks to Michele for her continuing support, the irrepressible Yohams and the Summit Cycles crew.

Epilogue

Congratulations to 14 year old mountain bike prodigy Kate Courtney for finishing 1st in Cat 1 Senior Women and about five minutes ahead of me.

[Carl Sanders]

Knock 'em dead ol' man!