Nevada City Dirt Classic #1

The first Nevada City Dirt Classic took place just five miles outside of Nevada City in the Tahoe National Forest on some fun wooded trails.  The first event in the three race series saw record attendance with 102 participants and many spectators and volunteers.  With Expert and Pro riders racing 28 miles with 3600 feet of climbing it proved to be a challenging day of racing.

  I hammered my way into 2nd place in Expert Men 15-18 a very competitive category that held some of the fastest times of the day.  Thank you to all the volunteers and sponsors that make these events possible!  Make sure to attend the next two events, for more information go here.

2014 Downieville Classic DH



5,4,3,2,1 out of the start gate!

After a hard day of racing on day one it was time to head up to the top of Packer Saddle for the start of the Downieville Downhill Race.  On Sunrise Trail I felt super fast and smooth ripping down the ribbon of single track with my fastest time yet. 

An off camber section on Sunrise Trail.

I went on to feel great on the very technical Butcher Ranch trail with a flawless right hand line on the "Waterfall", a large rock garden in the middle of Butcher Ranch.  After making it up to 3rd Divide Trail and passing several racers who suffered from mechanical failures, I put in a great run on Third Divide and made it to Lavezzola Road with my fastest time this year.  After sprinting down the dirt road I only had First Divide and then I was there, not so, about a quarter mile down First Divide my front tire slipped off the edge of the trail and I hit the ground hard, I quickly got up and tried to continue riding but severe pain and a lot of blood pouring out of my arm kept me off the bike, with a painful and disappointing 4 mile walk back to Downieville watching the entire field rip past me with an occasional "hey bro you good?"
    Even though my arm hurt pretty bad I did not bail and walked the remainder of the course into last place but still finishing.

Not to happy.

After a visit to the First Aid tent it was clear I needed stitches, luckily there is a clinic in Downieville that could stitch me up.

Ouch.

With a substantial laceration and a pretty good chunk out of my elbow I needed 12 stitches to get my arm back together!

One day latter.

This might of been the worst result of my season and a pretty disappointing set back but despite this, there is never a bad day riding bikes in the woods and I am pretty excited to get out there next year and try to tear it up!

2014 Downieville Classic XC

 

My Santa Cruz Solo ready for Downieville.

After racing the Downieville Classic Cross-Country for the past two years I decided to compete in the All-Mountain category this year, the Downieville All-Mountain combines the grueling and technical cross-country race on Saturday with the long and demanding Downhill Race on Sunday, competitors must race both days on the same bike and the person with the most amount of points wins.

Home for the weekend!

Ready to get up early for the xc race in the morning.

The start line proved to be very challenging and with over 100 racers in expert alone this proved for some tight passing and sketchy situations in the first stretch of the eight mile climb to packer saddle.

The expert field, there was about 80 racers behind me.

This year I raced in the highly competitive Junior Expert category, and this made for the toughest Downieville races so far, I hit it hard going up the climb trying to keep up with the competition but  suffered from a 33 pound bike, cramps, and 90+ degree heat; despite the pain I still was able to set personal records all the way up to Packer Saddle.

Almost at the top.

At the top of the climb racers take the Sunrise singletrack and than have a few miles of rolling gravel road to the infamous "Baby Head" section, an old road bed completely filled with lose rock ranging from 6in to 3ft.  I unfortunately was held back on Sunrise Trail due to slower racers on the downhill, I did my best to pin the gravel road, and then left the brakes off for Baby Heads putting down my best time and passing a few racers.  At the bottom of this wild ride is the 30ft wide Pauley Creek crossing after a quick technical climb there lies a winding technical singletrack that is Pauley Creek Trail, with many tricky wet rooty/rocky sections.  After a few miles of physical downhill the XC course rejoins the famous "Downieville Downhill", after another mile or so of chunky stuff there is a short but extremely painful climb to the top of 3rd Divide Trail.  Third Divide is a high speed roller coaster known for the possibility of reaching post 50mph speeds and the guarantee of leaving you smiling at the bottom.  At the bottom of Third Divide it is time to get inside the paincave all the way to Downieville with a few miles of dirt road and than First Divide Trail a relatively flat shale path along a Gold Rush era ditch that requires a ton of pedaling.  Once you have completed the First Divide trail this leaves you with a mile of pavement that proves for an intense sprint to the finish in Downieville!

Just across the finish line, that was a tough one.

Although I was not able to beat my last years race time of 2:28:56 I still had my fastest time of this season at 2:35:08 and finished 11th out of 18 of NorCal's fastest junior racers.

Nevada City Dirt Classic #3

The third and final Nevada City Dirt Classic took place on the extremely dusty and slightly rocky Upper Pioneer and Hallelujah trails 15 miles outside of Nevada City in the Tahoe National Forest. 

Rock garden time!

The course proved to be challenging and with PRO/Expert racers doing four laps it turned out to be a little bit of a pain fest, despite the grueling and steep climb out of the headwaters of deer creek there was still many ribbons of velvet singletrack winding through the forest to enjoy and the long lose rock garden on Upper Pioneer is always a good time.

The CAT 1 field heads out.

For me I hit it hard the first two laps, and was feeling great, but as I rolled around for the third time fatigue set in and by the fourth lap I was suffering from back pain and could only push on slowly.  After almost of 28 miles of dry, loose, pain I still managed to be first in the Expert 15-18 category and the day was an excellent training session.

Having fun through the rock garden.

The final race of this  awesome series not only featured great riding but also the long awaited raffle of your choice of full suspension Specialized mountain bike as well as other great prices from all the event sponsors.  Additionally riders who got on the podium all three times got free entry to next years race series.

Thanks to all the volunteers and sponsors who make these races possible, especially to Jet Lowe who is the driving force behind YBONC and the Nevada City Dirt Classic.  Also a big thank you to Rob Lowe who always comes out to take amazing photos of the race and makes them available on his website free of charge.  Looking forward to next year!

Nevada City Dirt Classic #2

The second Nevada City Dirt Classic took place in the Tahoe National Forest on the Pioneer and Dascombe Trails just a few miles outside of Nevada City, this race was also a stop in the Sierra Cup race series.

This race was extremely dusty and on the first lap you could barley see your hand in front of your face let alone the trail ahead of you.  The two favorite features of the course were the "half pipe" a fun sweeping bermed section that dived in and out of an old road bed, and a steep rooty downhill section that went into a drainage and proved challenging to get up and out of on the other side.

Unfortunately for me my race was plagued by two flat tires and proved to be a game of catch-up for the rest of the race.  After a bad start where I was left at the back of the entire expert field I finally worked my way up to a racer in my category, my thought that I might have a shot at doing well were soon smashed as the rear end of my bike began to weave around and I knew I had a flat.  I fixed it but not before the entire sport category had passed me.  After this I put in a hard effort and managed to catch the end of the expert train, after passing dozens of sport racers.  I soon caught a glimpse of my competition and felt a wave of hope for my race but unfortunately, I again heard the soul crushing hiss of my rear tire punctured again. I had no more tubes and I had no idea what to do, running with my bike to the top of the root section, I rode down with a completely flat tire where a friend who was posted as a course marshal was able to lend me a 26 inch tube, I forced it around my 29er rim, got my tire on, and was able to rip another lap and finished the day fifth in junior expert.

There is still one more chance to get in on the fun of the Nevada City Dirt Classic on July 12th on the Hallelujah and Upper Pioneer trails 15 miles above Nevada City.  Go here for more info:http://ybonc.org/events/dirt-classic/

Photos courtesy of Robert Lowe and Jared Mickel

My Summer Season

For this summer my main focus is the Downieville Classic All-Mountain race, an infamous technically challenging and physical event with a grueling cross-country on day one and a gnarly and pedally downhill race on day two. I will also be competing in the California Enduro Series and my local race series in Nevada County the Nevada City Dirt Classic.
Here is a video of my shredding a local trail, filmed and edited by Matteo Piezarri.