Nevada City Dirt Classic #2, California State Championship Series, Berms for Days

[Jim Hewett]

The three Nevada City Dirt Classic races comprise the California State Championship series for 2017.  I placed second in Pro class at the first of the three, and traveled to the second for more series points. 

This one was on the trails of the Sanchez family property near Nevada City, the location of the weekend before's TDS Enduro.  I had never raced there, but I figured that any course on these trails, even XC, would involve some spicy stuff, so I outfitted my Trek Top Fuel with a dropper post.

Again, it was a small Pro field.  Seven or so of us lined up for a noon start.  Cody Schwartz, who placed first at the first race of the series, was there.  Nathan Barton and David Duncan would also be threats, though not for the series, as they were not at the first race.  I noticed I was the only racer in the field with a dropper post.

We rolled up to the start line and the start whistle blew abruptly, sending us flying down the initial fireroad section.  I was out in front, and maintained that position as we turned right and climbed the short steep road to the top of the hill.  I dropped my post and got the hole shot into the first singletrack descent.  I tried to recover from the effort of the start by riding smoothly on the berms and jumps, controlling the pace and getting my first real race-pace look at the course.  We wove around the trees on the slightly dusty, hardpack trails, and after a bit I slowed to see what damage I had done to the field.  It looked like only Barton and Duncan had been able to stay in contact, though a little behind.  I maintained the pace, trying to keep some flow going in the tight turns and on the short climbs.  We reached the powerline fireroad section and the mid-lap climbing began.  Barton attacked and Duncan went with him, getting away from me a little bit.  I wanted to punch it and stay with them, but my legs did not really want to go into the red.  It was not long before I made the turn at the top of the course and we started another long section of tight, woodsy flow trail.  I was able to close to them without a lot of effort, feeling blocked by Duncan on the type of trail where it looked like I had an advantage over them.  As the climbing began again, they pulled away a little and I had to back off.  They passed through the finish line on the first of our four laps about 15 seconds ahead of me, with a lap time of close to 20 minutes.  Pretty fast, and probably not sustainable for any of us.  I watched my heart rate and tried to keep it reasonable as we started out for #2.

 For series points, Cody Schwartz was the real concern, though I could not see any racer behind me, even on the longer straight sections.  The lead two had gotten slightly out of sight, but I was seeing some wisps of dust and knew they could not be far.
After making the turn at the top of the course, I eventually caught Duncan and passed him on a climb.  He seemed to be having shifting issues.  I pushed hard and got well away from him pretty quickly, moving into second place.  I believe I came through the finish area about a minute back from Barton as we started on lap three.  Halfway through this lap, where the course doubled back on itself, I clocked myself as 1 1/2 minutes behind Barton.  If I was going faster than he was on the down bits, it was not fast enough to catch him.  By this point, I was becoming familiar with the features of the  course, so I tried to ride fast and smooth, jumping where appropriate (an abandoned car table top) and leaning the bike through what seemed like hundreds of berms.

I was unable to catch Barton, but stayed well ahead of Duncan.  Second place again.  Duncan came in third, which put Cody back at fourth, probably putting me in the lead for the State Championship.

[Philip Mooney]

Nice work, and awesome you're in the lead for the state championship!