RR: Santa Ynez Valley NMBS#3 Dual Slalom

[BobBurnes]

OK, so it's no Sea Otter EPIC dual slalom course, but it is fast, it's got flow, and it's got some of the best lines I've
experienced!
Doing it for the STR family in the non-pro classes is Denmother, Troy D'Elia, and Bob Burnes (I'm sorry if
I've forgotten anybody!)
The track is only about 22 seonds long, but like I said, it's got some great flow to it and you can't help but
smile from gate to finish.
Morning practice came and went and with temps hovering in the upper 80's low 90's with humidity
bringing up the real feel temp to about 98 degrees, we spent a lot of time downing liters of water
and fluid replacement drinks when not on the course.
Troy raised the bar early when he cleared the big quad in the middle of the race course and with the bar raised,
the carnage began.
More than a few riders went down in that section and more than a few bikes met their end in the quad
as person after person gave it their best. Though in the end, the quad jump would be a wasted effort.
Qualifying came around and Denmother and I were up in front. We dropped out of the gate and went in to the course with
the pedal on the floor and the dirt screaming for mercy.
I've found my riding groove again (After a few weeks of BMX and finally oh finally coming home with some wins and
two straight podium runs!!! I'm still not where I was, but I've dropped a few bad habits!) and I was carving up the berms
Into the quads and I jumped 'em in twos then popped out of the section and into the next with a nice table top/hip jump.
Clearing that I manualed the triple.
Nancy was taking the track out with some smooth riding of her own, but her first run wasn't her best run and she knew it.
Nancy was out for blood on the second ride.
Troy ate the track up like a starving fat kid in a twinkie factory...or me left in a Krispie Kreme...I digest....
Troy ate the track up in the first run, but the jumping of the quad proved to be a slow way 'round. He put in
a good time, but he'd need to push a bit harder if he was going to stay in the game.
Up for the 2nd run and Nancy was having none of the tracks shaningons....or however you speel that. She wasn't having none
Out of the gate and down the track Denmother showed some skills and took nearly 2 seconds off her time!
I was determined to qualify so I smashed through the gate (That thing is so slow...)
I pedaled through the berms and hit the quad, then went into the lower portion of the track faster than I'd gone all day.
the bottom of the track near the finish line is a flat sharp turn to the left that's loose powder dirt. The red line,
the line I was currently in, has to swing really far to the left to make the turn. I made the turn, but I
found myself all the way over in the blue line and way off course. It put a second onto my time.
Troy's second run was blazing! Instead of jumping the quad, he manualed it like a pro and shaved a few nano-seconds off
his time.
We all three pressed into the finals tomorrow!
Troy: 6th +.99
Denmother: 3rd +2.34
Bob Burnes: 12th +1.68 (Barely sqeaked in there!!!! The cut off was 12th!!!)

[mechmann]

I am interested in seeing what bob posts after what happened today.

I think it sucks that they didn't take care of their racers better than that!

[sdyeti]

Awww...come on...you gotta give the details!!

Originally Posted by mechmann

I am interested in seeing what bob posts after what happened today.

I think it sucks that they didn't take care of their racers better than that!

[mechmann]

So not much for RR's here yet, might as well add a brief copy of mine.

Showed up.

3rd DH (Got beat by myself, put in a killer freaking time despite my crappy skills and horrible luck)

Supported "The Rocketship Formerly Known as My Wife" as she decimated the XC field.

Drove home.

Somewhere in there I spent a ton of money that I don't really think was worth it. I did get to hang out with great people though, so maybe it wasn't so bad.

[denmother]

What an awesome weekend!!! Friends, fun and lots of riding!!! Got there early Friday morning and grabbed some grub at Ellen's Pancake House with the D'elia family. Then headed over to the venue to register and get dressed for DS practice. We put up the canopy at the bottom of the DS course and set up shop. Met up with Bob Burnes and Troy and got in some good practice runs. Ate some lunch and then headed out with Rog for a few DH runs (no I didn't race DH this weekend). It was f'ing hot, so I cut out after 2 runs. Rog did one more and then came to watch us practice. He has been sick since last Sunday so he wasn't feeling too good.

Changed pedals and number plates and headed back over to the DS course for some additional practice and then qualifying. I ended up qualifying 3rd out of 6. Kayla, a 15 year old bmx racer since age 7 got the #1 spot and Joy got #2.

Went to Gino's after practice for pasta with Craig, Ian, Craig V., Bob and his wife and the D'elia's. Then off to the hotel to register. Then went down to the pool and jacuzzi and hung out for a while. It was nice to chill and cool off after being in the heat all day. We did cannon balls, synchronized swiming and basically acted like fools. It was relaxing.

Saturday we got to sleep in since Rog's DH practice wasn't until 10:30. We went to Mother Hubbards for some good chow and then headed to the venue. Had to park in the south 40 since we didn't get there until 8am. Found a spot in the shade near the end of the DH course and proceeded to watch DH practice. Did some heckling and waited for the races to start. Ended up moving up the hill as the shade kept moving and then cheered on the DH racers. Got some pictures, did some more heckling, and tried to stay cool. I swear it was at least 30 deg. cooler in the shade. It had to be at least 100 (the new said they were having record high's and normal temps were usually in the 80s for this time of year). Roger ended up 3rd in his class. Troy ended up 7th. Bobby 3rd in his class, Justin 3rd in his, Alex 7th, Hunter 2nd.

Alex



Bobby



Roger



Justin


Hunter



We also got to meet Kit (wrxid) and his girlfreind Kim? and got to watch him race. He slipped a pedal on the 1st jump at the finish and almost crashed but was able to pull off a clean save. Good to meet you both!!

Oh, did I mention that the turnout was quite small for both racers and vendors. It was quite the laughing stock as far as nationals go including the DS course and the DH course. Oh, we also heard that one of the Pro XC women had to be helipcoptered out on Saturday due to heat exhaustion.

Ok, so off to DS practice and then the finals. The course was great during practice because they had watered it down. I had one run that was so fast (for me) that I actually manualed part of the rhythm section. Doug and Roger tried to get me to jump the table top and I tried and finally got it once but was pedaling faster than I was comfortable with.

Troy





Denmother







Denmother & Bob






Then came the finals. I got 2 byes because the person I was supposed to race got hurt during practice so 1st, 2nd and 3rd qualifiers all got byes. I then raced Joy and she beat me both rounds by less than 1 100th of a second. On a 27 second course, how many pedal strokes is that? I ended up 3rd overall and was happy with my performance. I know better now what skills I need to work on......Troy ended up 1st in Jr. Ex and Jonathan ended up 1st in Expert 19-29.

Troy



Denmother and Joy








Consulation Round, Denmother & Kelly



The Pros were waiting to practice so we had a lot of spectators and cheering. It's so much more fun and encouraging when you have lots of people watching your entire race and cheering you on. Getting a "good job" and thumbs up from the likes of Rich Houseman, Leigh Donovan and Melissa Buehl really make you feel good about your racing efforts!!!

Then we got to watch the Pro/Semi-pro DS race which was quite entertaining. Oh, I forgot to mention, my mentor, Leigh Donovan has come out of retirement and raced DS getting 2nd behind Melissa Buehl.

Me and Leigh



I got a few pictures of the Pros racing.

Rich Houseman and Orlando



Melissa



Leigh



Ian



Christine and Barry



Jonathan



And then we all headed over to the awards. It was getting dark fast and we were all starving.












We collected our awards and then headed for home. Stopped in Goleta and In n' Out (yum) and then back on the road. Finally got home at 1am. Great weekend!!!

[2wheel_lee]

Thanks for the RR. Sounds like your DS skills are progressing very well!

So, since it may be a while until Bob can post (he has a long drive back to Vegas), what happened with Bob? Is he ok?

[Wrecker]

Justin needs to change his name to something like "cliffhanger" for his last post....details, pics, something!!!!!!!!!

[mechmann]

Originally Posted by Wrecker

Justin needs to change his name to something like "cliffhanger" for his last post....details, pics, something!!!!!!!!!

allison pretty much covered it

i typed up a full length version of my RR on my sponsorhouse page but knew that allison would get most of the information in her post.

[2wheel_lee]

Originally Posted by mechmann

allison pretty much covered it

I'm not sure if you meant about Bob Burnes. She only said that she chatted with "Burns." I want to know what happened to Bob Burnes! Is he OK???

[sdyeti]

Congrats to everyone who raced! We were there with you in spirit

[mechmann]

Originally Posted by 2wheel_lee

I'm not sure if you meant about Bob Burnes. She only said that she chatted with "Burns." I want to know what happened to Bob Burnes! Is he OK???

he is ok. he might be a tad Burn (ed).

[denmother]

Originally Posted by 2wheel_lee

I'm not sure if you meant about Bob Burnes. She only said that she chatted with "Burns." I want to know what happened to Bob Burnes! Is he OK???

Bob thought he qualified but didn't check the qualifying results after the protest period. He ended up getting cut and didn't find out until race time when they didn't call his number.

[mechmann]

pretty funny, but if you look over Nancy's right shoulder, allison is spectating in her pink Hammer kit, and i am on her left snapping shots of denmo on course.

[Foesnasty]

mechmann......u nailed it.... it was a hot and expensive weekend, and I blew a corner.... got 7th.... oh well,,,,, can't wait to do it again.... it was nice to chat and hang out with friends.....Mech, it's to bad you got bumped I ride better when your chasing me......

[BobBurnes]

Oh, I was livid.

The race results were posted and the line was drawn below my name, which cut two riders from the 30+ catagory. It's true, I didn't stick around for the 15 minutes (But now that I know, I'll be sticking around.) and I should have qualified faster (something I'll be working on-chasing a clock for the next round), but the ultimate problem didn't lie in any of those problems which were my fault and something I need to work on, it was with the officials running the program.

Here's the story.

14 riders showed for the 30+ expert. 12 were qualifed for the officials to race the following day in the finals. When 3 of the 12 riders saw their names, they went to the officials and said, "Hey, you guys made a mistake and put me in the 30+ crowd when I'm in the 40+ crowd. See...here's my USAcycling card."
"Oh, no worries," said the officials, "We'll just move you guys out of the 30+ and into the 40+."
Which left me in 9th....and you can't race DS with 9. So, I was out. However, this wasn't posted anywhere on the course, tent, or web site. I only found out when I showed up at the gate, all pumped and primed for some DS action. My number was skipped over and I was left standing at the start a bit confused, fairly angry, and all dressed up with no place to go. So...even though I wanted to drop kick somebody, I rode down to the officials tent to get some answers.


Now, there are riders who throw helmets at less, curse rant and rave up and down the course. Spit at the officials, UCI and organizers alike, and give a few middle fingers, all the while embarassing themselves, their sponsors, and their families. I very much wanted to express my confusion and anger in unproductive and unprofessional ways to include throwing a few rocks and creatively using a fairly nice bamboo stick I'd found, but I knew this wasn't going to get me anywhere. I'm not saying, "Oh look how calm Bob is. What a good boy..." I'm just sayin' I wanted to force choke a fool or two, but people were watching.

In the end, the organizers said it was their fault. They'd made a mistake not posting the results on the boards or tent. (Which I did check when I got to the track.)

I couldn't understand how something like this could slip past them. Update the sheets, post the brackets BEFORE the race time.

The apology was accepted, but it doesn't satisfy the competitor in me who wanted to line up on the gate and race.

There were some lessons I learned that I'd like to share with everybody:

1. Wait the 15 minutes by the results tent. When organizors leave, confirm everything is good to go. I didn't do this. My bad.

2. Practice racing the clock to increase your qualifying chances. Once again, my fault. I failed to see this as a part of the race and I won't make this mistake again. After all, had I taken it seriously and gotten into the top 5, I wouldn't have had any problems and this would be a more chipper report.

3. If something jack up happens and you get the shaft on the gate-don't act a fool. People are watching. Sponsors are watching not to mention your friends and family. I actually got some pretty fat kudos from two of my sponsors and the UCI dudes for not blowing up and they said, "Even though you didn't race today, you really represented your sponsors very very well. You attitude and how you approached this issue was very professional and was one of the chief reasons why we took it upon ourselves to really dig into this matter and get it resolved." (UCI) and "Bob it's totally understandable that your pissed, but man...you really handled this like a pro and we're proud of you. As far as I'm concerned, that's better than a 1st place podium." (661/Royal/Sunline)

So, the next time you find yourself in the submissive bent row position with folks lining up behind you, take a breather, gather your thoughts, then go approach the problem. You never know who's watching.

I was really bummed out and while I was excited for Troy and Nancy and I loved watching the pro's race, I just couldn't shake the feeling-I really wanted to race and I felt cheated, by me and the officials.

Luckily I've got 3 NBL races this week. I'm going to go hate **** those guys on the gates/course and get some agression/race tension out.