Ride Report Southridge RR 1/12 - 1/3

trust me i would have quit too.

i was just waiting at the waterfall section, getting sick of the wind. i wanted to just go down and wait in my truck.

 

Dh

Sunday Justin and I took off from casa de DenMo and once we got on 15 we noticed it was EXTREMELY windy...

I wasn't feeling particularly confident about DH. I got probably 2.5 runs on Saturday afternoon before dark. I didn't know the course in my head at all.

Seeing the wind definitely made me feel even less confident. The last time we'd tried DH in the wind Justin got a concussion and we went home early.

We got our official number plates (my are there a LOT of SRC members this year!) and wrist bands, and up the hill we hiked.

It was windy. I put my head down and just tried to endure. We got up top... and started down. I followed Justin and learned a few new lines. I probably held Steph up the whole top half, and barely held on to Justin's "slow" descent.

I just didn't feel comfortable. The wind was bad, but not that bad.

Up we hiked again for one whole run down the hill.

We ran into Winston (in a Charger jersey today!) and Tani heading up at the halfway point, and down we continued. I felt I had that section down pretty well. I was slow near the finish line, but the rocky section I felt okay. I knew the line.

We got into the shuttle line and for the first time all weekend managed to not to have to hike up the hill!

Got up top... it was a bit more windy. I didn't feel really good about the course, but figured it was as good as it was gonna get.

I should mention that we had a great tail wind on the wall. Everyone was really excited.

Steph and Justin waited in line for another shuttle run, but were turned away since they were going to load pro's. I started listening to the beginning of the Charger game on the radio.

At just after 10 the shuttle line for race runs stopped moving. Jason and Tani and few other guys stood there for at least an hour. I finally heard that someone had gotten hurt on the course and the paramedics were trying to get to them.

Adrian came over and thought it was Sarah because supposedly it was a Path jersey and pink knee/shins. But, I'd seen Sarah get on the shuttle with Nancy and Steph and racing hadn't started. Then I worried it was Paulina, but she had said after my last practice run she was satisfied with her last run and was done practicing.

Eventually Joy said it had been her friend that was racing I think Sport? A broken ankle, but otherwise she was fine.

They started loading up the shuttle again around 11, maybe a little later. I turned off the Charger game at halftime. Standing in line Winston came over and asked if I wanted the score update. It was 14-10 Chargers and the 3rd quarter. I was SO excited.

Eventually I got on the shuttle. I started walking up the hill. I couldn't move. My 42lbs bike started to fly out of my hands. It's a freaking anchor! Finally I made it past the gale force winds... and it was just windy up top. There was no relief. Sitting behind some rocks I was just getting covered in dirt. It was everywhere.

I checked out the course reroute. Joy and I were sitting there with Justin and I realized they were calling us up. I barely got my gear on and got in line, and off Roger went. I was 2 after him.

I fell in the first corner; slid out. I had trouble getting myself picked up and with absolutely no momentum turned the corner to the headwind climb. I couldn't even keep my bike straight. I had to put my foot down and move the bike to where it was going straight. I had to put a foot down in another corner... I made the reroute section okay.

I went pretty slow through the saddle and just got blown all over the place. Up to the left and my front tire stuck in a rock. I had to waddle up the hill. I pretty much felt done after that. It was either crazy headwind or crazy tailwind through the rest of the upper section pushing me all over the place.

Joy passed me on the fire road. I managed to keep her wheel for part of the rest of the descent, through the rock garden...

When we hit the wall I was completely buffeted by a headwind. I could barely move. I stood up and tried to pedal and felt like I was going nowhere. I was so tired and done by the last little hump I was hardly moving.

I never got a chance to congratulate Joy, but she did really well despite the horrid conditions.

I had a really bad run. I didn't mind that she beat me, but the fact that I did so poorly really kind got to me. Not sure I even can learn much from the experience... It was really luck of the draw yesterday. Some had horrible head winds, some didn't.. Some didn't get 60 MPH gusts, others did. It was crazy.

I rode back to the truck with Roger... and once I got my helmet off I thought I heard something about the Chargers on the loud speaker. I saw Dan in his car and heard the radio.. "Dan, are you listening?! What's going on?"

He runs over and goes, "WE WON!!!" I was SO happy. I managed to forget about my horrible race run and called my mom really quick (she was watching, but we are HUGE fans). It was awesome. We beat the Colts! OMG!

Then with my Guinness replete with Charger bottle cooler in hand, Roger and I headed up to watch some others descend.

Yo Adrian!



Justin




This was a wind gust/sand storm.. not kicked up from the rider





I see a Path jersey come around the corner...
GO!... Winston?" Since when did Winston wear a visor?! Sooo confusing.



I was so messed up by the time Maxwell came through I was stuck on Winston's name.

I missed getting photos of Maxwell and Eric The gaps were HUGE between riders. What was going on up top?! There would be 3 riders about 5 seconds apart, and then like 3-4 minutes before anyone else came by! I was fixing my hat and goggles when they rode by.





Frankie!!



Lots of riders close together...



The latest and greatest Fontucky race gear!!







The snow capped mountains were so pretty all weekend



DenMother and Roger (great hosts, riders, and friends!)



Dan (Man Gone Podium) and Dino (is he talking? Again?)



The Pro's with their checks (Kovarik and EC will be out again in two weeks - especially when they're making like $250 for a day!)



Pro women's podium



Dan got 3rd in Vet Pro!!



Steve in 2nd



Troy D'Elia in 4th



Albert in 3rd and Syd?? No, Teague in 4th



Tani got 4th



Roger



JT in 5th



Justin in 2nd



Slim Jim rockin' it in 4th



Dan Lorek in 1st



RacinJanson in 2nd and Robo Anchor Dan in 3rd!!



Paulina 1st in her class (I think she's adorable)

 

They missed me again

 

Andy aka Rut

Sarah-Sauce

Gilbert -Gil Caz

Jon-Ridehard

Dan 440

Dan floating in the wind !!

 

a friend at work started a new site lastimages pro men and woman, semi pro and vet pro are up, he said the rest should be up tonight.

 

I think

 

Yep, Santa Cathy got me a TLD D2 Carbon for Xmas. (I was a very good boy.)

I couldn't bare to take the visor off of it. Very comfortable/light helmet. It doesn't feel like I'm wearing a full face.

Plus I was getting PM's from over jealous riders threatening to blow up my chainstays if I didn't run a visor this season. Something about unfair aero.

Edit: After the race Mutz told me it confused him too.

 

http://www.socaltrailriders.org/forum/trail-talk/12717-southridge-pics-results.html#post181745
Can a mod combine these threads please if that is OK....not sure where to post pics be handy to go to one thread. Thanks
Great pics all!!

 

No photos of me, Chris??

 

My Saturday morning practice for the DH race went really well. I did 4 runs of the top section, each time getting progressively a bit better. I ran the lower rock garden 3 times and called it for the day. I was feeling really good and excited for the race the next day.

Sunday I had been looking forward to having a fellow competitor in my race class, only to find out she had gotten hurt during practice, a broken ankle I heard. It was too bad, I remember seeing her up at the top with me earlier that day for practice, just a few hours before she got hurt. I hope she's OK and wish her well! We need more ladies out there, not fewer. :bang:

In the middle of my race run I was nearly blown over 3 times. I actually pulled to the side and contemplated pulling out as I let several other riders pass me. It was crazy! It was frustrating, because I walked a lot of technical sections that I had ridden the day before and that morning because I didn't trust myself doing it in those conditions. I ended up getting back on the bike and continuing to the finish, but it was sure tough. I'm glad, at least, to have finished instead of pulling out in the middle like I wanted. I'm pretty sore this morning from my endo in Sunday morning practice!

Thanks to the STR gang who was there on the sidelines - CC, Dino, J_Simms, Sharky, you all have NO IDEA what your support on the course and afterwards meant to me!!! You guys are the BEST! :clap: I think I heard Tani yell my name on the lower rock garden??? Thanks!

 

More of the Incycle Boys

Jason runs the DH team-JfromLV

Adrian-Foesnasty

Marty-Mottmcfly

Steven

Ed

Frank-DHshuttlemonkey

Lor

Joe (Jason's Bro)

 

It was nice meeting a few STR peeps this weekend... SDYeti, Roger, Denmother, Allison, Mechmann, Dino, Carla... Sorry if I forgot some names C.R.S.(can't remember sh*t) kicks in every now and then.

Tani thanks for the Stella & the Sierra Nevada... I owe you for the next race.

Great job to all riders who survived the day... much respect!!

Congrats to my friend Jesse for placing 3rd (Sport 27-34) in his first race ever.

 

FRIDAY
I drove out to Fontana on Friday afternoon to become familiar with the 4X track. Sharky was already there, and we rode the 4X course a couple times. The lower section of the course was just rebuilt, and so the dirt was extremely soft - almost unrideable. Otherwise, the course was generally in poor condition with a lot more exposed rocks after the rain washed away the dirt.

Sharky rode her new (to her Nicolai), but she was a bit challenged, because the gearing was set up too easy. Despite that, she rode the top section of the course faster than I saw some of the women (and some men) ride it on Saturday.

After a couple runs, I concluded I wasn't going to get much more out of practice and Sharky wanted to go check out the DH course, so we drove to the cul-de-sac and pushed up. The course was freshly taped, but few people had ridden it. The corners were all flat and off-camber, with absolutely no signs of berms yet. Because I only had my 4X hardtail with me, I just rode that on the course. I was pleasantly surprised that the bike felt ok for the course. I even felt that it may be an advantage in some sections of the course.

SATURDAY
Because the SRC website said registration for 4X closed at 9, I was there at 8:30 to register. The 30-foot line took over an hour - much worse than the DMV. When I got to the front, they said that 4X registration would have been until 11 or 12...but they didn't tell anyone.#-o Thanks guys. Although I signed up for DH, they didn't have the number plates for us. #-o

4X racing wasn't supposed to start until right after XC...then until right after XC awards...then until right after Super D...then until right after Super D awards. Since I didn't know what the heck was going on - and neither did much of the staff - I had to stick around. They never announced anything until they announced "RIDER'S MEETING NOW!!!" It was total mayhem, as if they've never run one of these events before.

After the meeting, they called the riders to the top of the hill to start staging. At that time, they started working on the gate start mechanism. It was totally hokey, and it didn't work at all. This was so poorly planned...er...not planned out at all. Because they couldn't get the "gate latch" to work (the BMX world learn they didn't work in 1983) with scraps of wood and drywall screws, they opted for rubberband starts. Lame. I had hoped that legitimate gates were going to be my edge. It was about 3:30 in the afternoon when they finally started racing.

For my class, we ran three motos, and the best average of the three motos determined finishing position. But practically as soon as we're done with our race, we had to hike back up and go again within a couple of minutes. That was a butt kicker! I was lucky enough to get the holeshot all three motos, so I didn't have to worry much. Those three guys - including a guy who raced semi-pro 4X in the UK - just battled it out. I was glad, because they slammed each other quite a bit, they said. I won all three motos, which gave me the overall win. Because the classes are not broken up into age groups, I don't want to race those young guns in expert - they're absolutely nuts. And although with some practice, I think I can dice it out with them, my older body thinks it's a bad idea.

Because 4X racing and awards ended just before dark, I didn't get a chance to ride my DH bike on the DH course. And since I haven't ridden that bike in months, I know that I wouldn't be able to control it. I just can't go back and forth between bikes for the life of me. Ironically, I felt I may hurt myself more on the DH bike than the 4X bike.

So Saturday night, I started to look at what I could do to make the 4X bike more DH worthy. Larger 8" rotors seemed like a good idea, but after changing the rotors, I found out that the Hayes calipers were the really old 68 mm size, and wouldn't fit the modern 74 mm adapters. Oh well...back to 6" rotors. Then, the rear brake lever pulled to the bar...what was up with that? So I bled the brakes - first time since about 1999. I've never seen black brake fluid before. Then I wanted to replace the 32-tooth chainring with a 34 or 36, but neither would fit the E13 32 Special SRS. I guess they got the name right on that one. Oh well...back to a 32. The only upgrade I was able to do was to swap to some larger tires. Finally...I could get to sleep around midnight.

SUNDAY
My body was beat. Most people couldn't imagine that racing three motos of 4X would take that much out of you, but it does. I was exhausted, and my whole body was sore. I made it out to Southridge by 8, only to wait in a long line for my number plate that they didn't have the day before. I got in one practice run, but I stopped many times to see the huge differences that were made in the course - the turns now had nice berms to them! I could hit the turns much faster than on Friday. But with only one run that didn't go all the way through, I never found out how fast I could hit them.

My race run was non-eventful. In the areas where I felt the hardtail would be an advantage, like many others, I was blown to nearly a complete halt. The rock jump in the saddle wasn't bad, because I think I was able to stay very low - I don't even think I left the ground. However, as I went over the rock hill afterward where you make the right, I was blown to the left of the pole...crap. After getting back on course....I was a bit frustrated that I'd go through corners going way to slowly. As mentioned, I never found out how fast I could hit some of the corners, and I lost way too much time in most all of them. Approaching the turn before dropping into the road, the tape and course markers I had remembered from Friday were gone. I was briefly lost where to go. I did do the huck that drops into the road, though. As others experience, I also faced a headwind going down the wall, and then I got lost through the last couple turns, because I didn't remember any of that, and I got stuck behind a slow person on my one practice run.

I ended up in 10th out of 18 in the vet pro class (although I don't think I'm either a veteran racer or a pro - it was my third DH race). My time would have given me a first in the 35-44 expert class, so I believe going to vet pro was still a good idea. I don't have any regrets for riding the hardtail one bit. It's hard to say if I would have been any faster on the M3 (assuming I had sufficient time to ride it beforehand). Nonetheless, I guess it shows that you don't have to have an expensive DH rig to race or be competitive DH (depending on the course, of course).

 

Found a new photo effect

Thanks to Oz/Heather for the practice photo and Ulead Photoimpact for the groovy effect (multivision).

 

Nice pictures:bang:. Wish I could of went.

 

By the way, the photographers out there went through more hell throughout the day than anyone. Compared to what they went through, my hike from the shuttle van to the top of the hill then the 3 or so minute run down was nothing. Kudos to all of them for sacrificing their bodies and expensive equipment for the sake of taking photos! :beer::wave:

 

That would be Bob Burnes - http://sponsorhouse.loopd.com/Members/RBurnes/Home.aspx

 

Not to be confused with our own SBF Bob Burns

Another shout out to all the fans and the photogs who were out there cheering and snapping pics!


You made it worth going down that course!! I can't tell you how many times I heard someone yelling my name...it was awesome! You guys put up with a lot (I'm sure you're all still finding sand in random places ).

Thanks for making our local races fun and memorable!

 

How did you know that? The photo in the profile doesn't look like him or his bike, but it's hard to tell. He was really cool, as were the other guys in the class.