Race Report Calif Gold State Race #2 @ Woodward West 4/9-10

It was cold, it was fun, it was too short (Pros did it in 58 secs)!!! Left early, don't know what our times were or how we placed. Lots of carnage and some course holds. No pics, sorry!

 

Had a great weekend! It was really cold! We got to Saturday practice at 8 am and there. Was still ice on the moist parts of the track.

Will post a better RR later with video of some of STR's finest!

 

Ya it was cold! my arms and face got too cold on my second race run waiting in line on hillside too long, stamina had went down.. didnt do great on second run.. whoever crashed and injured his back hope hes ok?

 

Got there at 6:45am on Sunday. Everything was frosted over. The ice plants were actually icy. Got 6 practice runs in from 8am to 10:30am. My first practice run was sketchy as the grass and rocks were either wet or icy. I had arm pump by the time I got to the bottom. My practice runs got progressively better as the course dried up.

Run 1 was clean and I had a "wow" moment. After the rock roller (or massive double for the pros/experts), I pinned the left burm. It felt like my bike was horizontal although I'm sure it wasn't. I came out of the turn with my front wheel up and pedaling. I know that's what I was supposed to do, but I've never been able to do it before. It just felt really really good.

Run 2 was pretty clean. I fell off line 2 times but managed to avoid disaster. Run 1 was 1:20.50, Run 2 was 1:20.78. Talk about consistency. Last year, or the year before last, my runs were 0:00.01 apart.

In the ZA class, 3rd place beat 4th place by a whopping 0.67 sec. 4th place beat 5th by 0.98sec. Talk about close. Good times, great weather after 9am. So stoked to come away with 4th.

Hope the Sport Class racer that hurt his back is ok. Could have been any of us.

 

Fun time and wanted to drop in to send out healing vibes to all those that went down hard. Heal up.
Anyone looking for pics from Andy (Bluefire) will have to wait just a bit. He went down as well and rung his bell pretty good. Heal up soon Andy.

 

Really fun weekend as always.

Friday: Was able to get there Friday night just in time to ride the hanger. Not too much I can do on a BMX bike but still fun to try.

Saturday: Decided to race the chainless race. Practiced all day Saturday. (so no pictures) I figured if I was already racing a ghetto chainless race might as well make it a full ghetto race. Switched to the flat petals and slipped on the moccasins. Did one more no chain moccasins practice run and felt good.

Race time: Set up my camera in the turn after the first roller/jump. Shot till the first beginner came through then handed off the camera to my mom while I ran up to the start. Had a great run all the way until the spot we dropped into the little berm right before the jump section near the end.

Wish I could tell you what happened but all I remember was getting sketchy in that section then waking up in the truck on the way to the emergence room. From the stories from my brother, spectators and medics I was able to piece the story together. I was knocked out for about a minute, after that i woke up but want unable to talk correctly and answer questions like when my birthday was. The first thing I actually remember was 30 minutes after the crash, sitting in the truck going to the emergency room, and about an hour after the crash my vision finally stopped being blurry.

CT scan looked ok and I was back on my way with a bottle of vicodin and a really bad headache

I got back just in time to go the hanger and watch. Doc said no more bikes for the weekend. Watched and shot a little.

Sunday: Woke up late and made my way to the race course just in time to shoot the race. Even with the headache I think I was able to pull off some decent shots.

The kid that went down second run was right in front of me. I forgot his name but he was an L class rider. He could straighten his legs, move his toes and squeeze his hands. But had really bad back pain. From the pictures it looks like his left knee almost touched his right ear. I have the whole crash sequence but will not be posting it until I know how it is and he contacts me.

I should have all my pictures online by this afternoon. If you have any questions let me know.

See you all at the next race in Fontana

 

Glad you are ok Andy!!!

 

Everything is online. Let me know if you cannot find yourself.

www.BlueFirePictures.com

 

can you post Cameron's crash pictures

 

anyone have a video of the course? didn't get to go but would love to see what the course was like.

 

Cody. Im waiting to here if he is ok and if he cares if i post them or not. I dont want to have public pictures of a kid who went down really hard and have them online without him knowing.

 

Now thats a true Photographer!

 

Its really killing me I had to miss this one....

 

I will take the cold over the heat any day! Short, but fun course. Woodward is one of my favorite races of the year, due to the fact that everyone is hanging out at the top. The Incycle team had its ups and downs this race: Adrian out due to injuries from crashing on Saturday, Edmond broke his scapula in the chainless race, everyone else who raced on the team did ok. I ended up 8th in the chainless, 5th in Vet Pro, and 1st in Clydes.

 

Ok, so here's my mini race report.

Sat: crazy cold, got runs in. The course progressively got faster and smoother. Watched a few people crash on that first double. Chainless race was fun and I ended up taking 4th place!

Sun: a lot warmer, good runs and then race time! Watched the pros all the way to N cat then walked to the chute to get my race on. Ended up taking 8th with my combined time. 9 seconds off 1st so each run, was like 3.5 - 4.5 seconds slower than first each run. Had to wait for a little more than an hour for my second run because of that kid who may have broken his back. I saw what was left of the bike he was riding and I hope he's not as trashed as it was!

On to the videos!

My dh race runs!
[video=vimeo;22274298]http://vimeo.com/22274298[/video]

Denmo tearing it up!
[video=vimeo;22286057]http://vimeo.com/22286057[/video]

Ryan Honeybourne took first in his class!
[video=vimeo;22286313]http://vimeo.com/22286313[/video]

Goodtimes!

Part 2 later today!

 

That looks like a fun course! Basically almost like downhill BMX!

 

My buddy Erik shot this

[YOUTUBE]uploademail[/YOUTUBE]

 

[video]http://www.pinkbike.com/video/190657/[/video]

For what it's worth, I stumbled upon this video over on another forum; is anyone is this video?

Looks like a super fun course. Cheers!+ Reply to Thread

 

I see many familiar faces in that video!

 

Part II

My 4th Place Chainless DH

Ryan's 5th Place chainless!

Ryan's First 1st place in EXPERT DH!:bang::bang::bang::clap::clap::clap::clap:

Matt got second in Expert DH!


Ridetolive32 (Jaime DelTiempo)

[video=vimeo;22287231]http://www.vimeo.com/22287231[/video]

Matt

[video=vimeo;22286922]http://www.vimeo.com/22286922[/video]