RR: Keyesville Classic

[surlygal]

Friday was great! weather was perfect. As we pulled in to find a place to call home, Justin, Allison & Steph had just finished pre-riding the DH. They were all smiles,Justin was ready to *cut us* He sure loves his new *Box* and was pleased he got to finally play around with it.

We found a great spot for camp, down past the venue along side the river, it was beautiful, but not very exciting, no venue action for us, Sounds like a pretty big STR group was there, racing and spectating.So I missed seeing everyone and the races (oh well there's always next year)We've already decided where we'll camp for next year in case I get stuck at camp again
Big thanks to the guys from Bionicon for inviting us up and showing Neil that we don't have to drive all the way up to D-Ville to get beautiful surroundings and awsome trails. We will be back up soon!

Dinner Friday night was at the Kern River Brewery, GREAT Beer and good food, Although the Fish Tacos didn't set well with the 3 guys (Neil - *showtime* Jay & Steve) racing. I'll just call it racing nerves

Like a true *Adams Family* member Nam drove the night and made it up to our campsite about 12 am and was the only one ready to party. So Nam reaches into is car to pull out his stuff and drops the ole *I forgot my sleeping bag*I thought he was kidding, but no he's was telling to truth. So after I had to wake up Madeline and pull out a sleeping bag for they guy , it was back to sleep for everyone.

Like Steve (autoduel) said Madeline sure made our Friday night rough she was up all night, just feeling crappy, boy I really blew that one! Next time mommy will listen make the more cautious choice.
After several wake up calls from Madeline (just not feeling good) 7 am came too quick for the whole crew, but needless to say Neil, Jay and Nam took their tired selves up to the venue and stated their day.
About the time everyone hiked their bikes up the DH course (no shuttles for this race) the weather changed. I was told it snowed and hailed up top and everyone waited patiently getting cold for their turn.
Madeline & I stayed warm running the heat, Maddie rested watching movies and sleeping while I packed up for the ride home after the DH race.Little sprinkles here and there but nothing more.
The weather turned as we were just about to pull out from our site, first it started to rain then sleet and then quarter size snow flakes...I've heard it just got worse.


For all those out with Dean on the 23 mile epic, I hope the weather didn't ruin your ride and that you all had a good ride and I'm sad I missed seeing ya'll but it just wasn't in the cards.



Here are the results for the DH, sorry if I forgot someone I wasn't at the venue so I didn't know and I'm posting the pictures Neil had a chance to take. I'm sure as the weekend unfolds more names and results will show themselves.
STR did a fantastic job of representing! Big congrats to everyone out there racing! and to those who were out there spectating your name calling and words of encouragement could be heard by all


Sat DH results:

Neil - 2nd in clydesdale,BTW this was his 1st ever DH race and he raced fully rigid

Jay *showtime* Shaw - 1st race ever! 1st place Beginner (sandbagger)

Steve (kanga) 2nd place sport (not sure what age group neil thought he got you on the poduim, but I couldn't find the pic)



Justin - 1st place sport 30 -39


Allison - 1st place sport
Steph - 3nd place sport (sounds like she took a nasty spill)



Dan (stephs other 1/2) - 1st place expert (not sure age)




The DH was just the 1st of 3 races of the weekend - I can't wait to see and hear how the weekend wrapped up for STR and everyone else who made the trip up to ride!

On a side note:

Neil figured he would have done well over all, the guy that got 1st in his class in the DH was on a DH bike and if he raced the whole event he'd have to ride the same bike. Neil choose to ride rigid because he races well rigid in XC. I'm sad he missed the rest of the race, but I have to say I have a Stand Up hubby! He gave up the rest of his weekend to be with his family. Thanks Neil your actions did not go UN-NOTICED!Thanks for putting us 1st

[surlygal]

Steve & the long walk up the DH




The view from the DH course


Jay taken a look before he tries the DH




No race action here, but just some fun Brett, Nam and I had at our campsite while the awards for DH were going on.

Thanks Brett & Nam for hanging out with me for a bit, it was nice to have the company

Nam drinking his 1st beer in the year 2008



Brett messing around on a little pump track we had above our campsite

[Wrecker]

I thought it was a bit early to see RR from Keysville. Hope Maddie feels better soon!!!

[1080P]

Lots of fun, nice to meet some of the OC and SD crowd. Indeed , it was snowing during weigh in for the folks racing multiple events at the top of the downhill course. MORE SNOW during the awards session. Most exciting racing from a spectator point of view? Definitely the Short track events. Elbow to elbow passing, great visibility for the spectators, all within earshot of the announcer.

Kanga has got some great photos of the event. I hope he gets a full report in for folks to read by the time they get to work Monday morning.

[dirtmistress]

Can't wait for the reports gang!
Looking forward to it!

[sdyeti]

Ohhh...I will have the full write up tomorrow morning!!

Just got home and am going to bed

[project_d]

Sounds like an Uber fun time, Justin. I really wish I could have been there. I missed all the Fontana races, and now this one. I'm REALLY itching to race again!!! Good work to all!

[dstepper]

Originally Posted by surlygal

For all those out with Dean on the 23 mile epic, I hope the weather didn't ruin your ride and that you all had a good ride and I'm sad I missed seeing ya'll but it just wasn't in the cards.

Tracy I am sorry I missed you and Neil both times we came thru the race site. Also very sorry with the confusion leaving Bret behind. Our ride was excellent...we got rained on, hailed on, snowed on, sunshined on, charged by a bull and we saw two bobcats. It was a very long 23 miles.

PIC: The locals (jfsh & danophoto) leading a helping hand.


Dean

[kanga]

Mechmann... it was a pleasure to stand next to you on the podium.

What Justin forgot to mention was the one who smoked us both and took the all-mountain sport division was 13 years old, Ryan Geiger, the Bionicon rider from Flagstaff! While Mechman and I were in different age categories for the individual races, there are no age categories for all-mountain race.

It was a really great weekend. I learned a lot, laughed a lot, and had a great time. The vibe was great, the weather a constant unknown. Even moments before each event on Saturday we didn't know if we'd have sun, rain or snow.

The Downhill:

I got to play on snakepit for the two days before the race, and I rode a lap of the xc course each day as well. But what I didn't do was a downhill run from top to bottom... had I done that I'd have realized how much flat pedaling there is before you actually get to the boulder garden. I only did one run down the Dutch Flat course, then saw it on the ride up before the race.

Waiting at the top for the DH start was cold! It drizzled a few times, tried to turn to snow, but never really turned into a full rain. It was a great vibe, and things went relatively smoothly. 1080P was doing the weigh-in for the all-mountain.

When my turn came I took off and realized I had been freezing cold and had no chance to warm up for the pedaling effort, and it was a lot of pedaling!

Course 1, Dutch Flat, has several short steep climbs and I never seemed to get into a rhythm through them, but once I got to the final DH I was able to let loose and use all the travel I had. 2:53

Course 2, Snakepit, was even more flat pedaling with a few minor rises, before dropping into the boulder garden and the slot, then the swoopy 4wd road to the bottom. Lots of fun. There was only one injury on the DH and that was in the snakepit, and not a serious one. I think the victim just wanted the Kern River Brewing beer more than the ride to the hospital!

My combined times put me in second for my age in the DH sport class.

During the afternoon the weather went from cold to colder, and the rain turned to snow flurries during the DH awards. After the awards I remember running to my car and wrapping myself in my sleeping bag for ten minutes before changing my tires for the short track.

Steppie and crew did a token appearance in the afternoon, before riding out into the unknown (weather) with JFSH down the Kern Canyon trail.

Short Track:

The short track course was extremely fun. It was fast, tight, and the rain kept it packed down really well. For the duration of the sport division, we had a pretty good break in the weather. Since I was riding a 170mm travel Supershuttle for all three events in the all-mountain, I thought this wouldn't be my event so my strategy was to start at the back of the pack, and pick off as many as I could, one-by-one. I passed quite a few and lapped quite a few, but didn't know how I was doing until the results were posted. Since all the sport division raced together, 13 year old Ryan, was duelling it out in front with another teenager, both on hardtails. Mechman was on their heels, and I ended up two behind him overall in the sport division, but won my age division. Mechman won his, and Ryan took the sprint at the end to win his age division and the overall sport ST.

It was exciting stuff.... I remember pegging my heart rate to 94% on the first little rise and never seeing it below 92%.

The evening was quite nice... sitting around the campfire, looking at the pics of the day and just hanging out. For me the event wouldn't have had the same vibe if I didn't camp, though I know the weather was a big factor for many. I just love it up there.

XC:

Sunday was cold, sunny, and very light winds. The rain made the course pack down really nicely, and the trailwork the SSFTA had put in to the course over the past few months really showed. Having ridden the course twice in the past two days, I knew what was coming up and was able to plan accordingly. My race was notably less stressful than Justin's....

The Supershuttle, with 15 extra pounds in the fork and rear shock, did pretty well. I did my first lap in about 44 minutes and really found my groove in the second lap. One guy was way out in front right off the bat, and nobody was going to chase him down. Two guys hung with me through the first climb, and neither of them had seen the course, so I gave them my best description of what was coming up. I lost them on the downhill (thank you 170mm of travel!). We were already passing riders from the previous age group, and came to a choke on one of the steep climbs. The guy I had lost caught me at that point, and I saw an opening and made the push, passing the group by riding up the rut they were all avoiding. He followed me and kept up again until the downhill, when I was able to open up the gap again.

It was the Pearl Harbor drive climb where he caught and passed me. I kept him in sight until the finish of lap one. As I rode through the start/finish, Ryan had caught up to me from his age group start 6 minutes behind. He passed me and took off. I felt like I was in a better groove now, more in my comfort zone... a longer ride. The second lap was a little different... most people I passed on the rollling climbs were walking so they didn't hold us up. But then two got in front us on the downhill singletrack, and wouldn't let us pass. It ended up being a long rest that I hadn't planned for. On one of the turns near the bottom we were able to sneak by on the inside.

After grinding up the last climb on the second lap, I just had fun on the DH.... hitting some of the jumps, pumping through the rollers and really enjoying it. It is a really fun course, after all. There was nobody in front or behind me for several hundred yards, so why not! I ended up third in my age, with less than a minute between me and second, and ten minutes from first place. My time was 1:34.

During the pro event Jason Moeschler from Downieville didn't have team support, so Posthole offered and I tried to deliver. I stood out there for half an hour with his bottle waiting for his second lap, only to get word that he'd crashed hard and was on his way to the medical tent in a vehicle. Turned out he hit his head and was shaken up, but physically OK.

After that there was a lot of swag to be doled out via the raffle. Several people made off with some pretty cool stuff. The all-mountain trophies were really sweet. They'd been hand-made by John from MRA. Steph and Allison both podiumed for the all-mountain, as did mechmann and I.

We had a few people scratching their heads....Chewy Aitken took second in the Pro downhill and third in the pro-all mountain riding a Golden Willow, Bionicon's "XC" bike, and I placed in the XC and ST and the DH on the Supershuttle, their all-mountain "freeride" bike....

I hung around and helped clean up and pack up... by 6:30 the only giveaway that anything had happened was a bunch of waffle prints in the sand.... and a very tired race director without a voice.

Thanks to everyone at the SSFTA, Kern river Brewing company, all the sponsors, and everyone who contributed to the fun vibe just by being there!

It will take a while for the pics to be sorted and uploaded, but I'll add them when I can.

[surlygal]

Originally Posted by mechmann

BTW... my recap of the XC race may sound bad (it was bad) but my overall experience was awesome and the course was really fun! I hope to return next year!

Wow! Glad you have such a great attitude about it! A 2nd place finish OVERALL is not a bad place to end you race weekend

[autoduel]

I met up with Neil and Jay friday afternoon and we did some DH practice. The Dutch Flat run seemed much sketchier than the snakepit. It was very sandy and loose over the rocks and had a few off camber turns. I ran a 38x19 gear and still spun out on the initial section of the 2nd run approaching the snakepit. The snakepit combined the rockiness of rattlesnake with the narrows of the chutes. The tough part was the left hander into a narrow chute against a rock wall. All my attempts ended up with me rubbing shoulders on the wall. Neil was able to clean it on his timed run and was stoked. I did fine through the rest of the snakepit on my practice runs, but when it came time to put it on the line I went in much faster than during practice and got bounced off the pedals on the rock drops. As for the chute, I tripoded on the right hander before, so I just picked up the bike and ran through that section. Good enough for a sub 4 minute run. I felt that I did much better on the Dutch Flat DH run with a 3:11. I missed the awards, but if they broke it down to classes instead of age groups I think I would have came in second in vintage. Jay in his first DH race killed it with a 1st place win in the beginner class. Congrats!

The STXC was interesting. It was raining, hailing, and snowing just before the beginner's start. Everyone was huddled in front of Justin's heater trying to keep warm. The beginner class and expert class got rained on, but fortunately the sport class got away with sunshine during the race. The course was 1/2 mile loop with a mild initial climb and mostly winding singletrack downhill back to the start. They ran the vintage class with the sport class instead of it's own group. So at the start line I took the opportunity to finger Justin's box. Just before I went off line at the first turn and took Justin out! No worries, cause he came back to lap me and proceeded to take 1st place. "On your left steve!"

The following morning was the XC race. Several more vintage racers showed up the night before just for the XC. Most were on the MTBR vintage forum. At the start we all took off at a leisurely pace, cruising up the hill until the rolling hills started. I took the advantage of bombing down some of the hills to keep momentum up. When the first extended climb started, we began to spread out. The rest of the course was very SS friendly. Much of it was rolling where you can use your downhill momentum to carry you up most of the short climbs. Only on 2 or so of the climbs I walked a portion of. I didn't get a chance to preride the course but did have a course profile taped to my bars to help me know what was coming up. There were 3 of us that were playing leap frog through most of the course. I would catch up on the steep rollers and they would pull away on the longer climbs. When I crested the last climb, all 3 were ahead. Then I hear from a spectator " big ring it!, it's all downhill!" I spun as fast as I could, but I didn't think I would catch them. Then as I crossed the road I saw one spinning on the last short steep climb. I stood up an hammered past him and pedalled as fast as I could to finish 7 seconds in front of him. That 5th place finish won me the 2nd overall in the vintage stage race by 1 point. The vintage guys were great. We all moved out of each other's way on climbs and encouraged each other. Then we gave props at the finish.

The race pace is much more exhausting than club rides. Climbs I could normally power up on the weekends were much more difficult when I'm giving 99% the whole time. I would feel good on the flats and downhills, but as soon as the climbing started, my legs would turn to rubberbands. If I had to do a second lap, I'll be doing a lot more pushing.

I had great time and am definitely going back next year!

And now for the pics:

Hammershots just before the DH run.


Neil on his rigid Salsa bombing the DH


Justin


Allison


Allison hot on Stephanie's heels at the bottom of the DH


Upchuck on his rigid Fat Chance down Dutch Flat


Some of the skilled trials riders


Some of the crazy Saturday weather


Hanging out at the STXC start


Fingering Justin's box


A disappointed Justin after the XC finish


The cool kids race, the actually went around some of the STXC techie sections!


Stephanie and Allison finishing 1st and 2nd in the stage race.


Justin placing 2nd in the stage race


And me, the only vintage stage racer that stuck around for the awards.