Nevada City Dirt Classic #3

The final race in the Nevada City Dirt Classic race series took place on the Hallelujah and Upper Pioneer trails and proved to be a fun and challenging venue.  Racers experienced flowing fast singletrack, fun descents, and one very steep loose uphill that left everyone in the pain cave.

 

I did not feel my best on the first lap but after my first time around I was able to put the hammer down and make up some time and catch a few competitors.

I was able to hold my position and kept up a good pace especially on the physical descent from Skillman to Hallelujah.

At the end of four grueling laps and over 25 miles of hard racing I came in fourth place in the Expert 15-18 category which had some of the fastest riders in the state competing in it.

Make sure to check out next years Nevada City Dirt Classic race series!  These events are always a blast whether it is your first time racing or an experienced racer.  For more information go here.

NorCal Race #3 Laguna Seca

The third NICA NorCal League race took place at the Laguna Seca raceway near Monterey, and featured some of the same trails as the Sea Otter Classic cross-country race.  After racing State Championships here last year as well as several years of racing the Sea Otter Classic I can say that Laguna Seca is my least favorite place to race cross-country MTB ever.

  That being said it is not all bad, the course featured one fun, fast, but very tame downhill and then a painful climb back out, that includes the aptly named "Hurl Hill" after that a long fire road climb takes you to the finish that can become a nightmare if the wind picks up.


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Wind can be brutal on the fire road climb.

Even though I was placed in the very first row of racers in the start I had a bad start and was dropped by quite a few racers up the first road climb out of the start and the rest of my first and second laps I worked on picking my way through the Varsity pack with some success. 

For the rest of the race I kept up with a few other racers in my category and tryed to keep up a solid pace while battling the hot temperatures and complete lack of shade, over the five painful laps.  I ended up finishing 13th and only 8 seconds behind the top ten which was disappointing but still a good result in such a competitive category.

The only trees on course.

I am currently 7th in overall points and I am looking forward to the fourth NorCal Race in two weeks at Petaluma.  Thanks to all volunteers, coaches, athletes, and everyone else who makes these races such awesome events.  Photo credit: Doug Bedient, Rhianna Grady-Roush, and Larry Sussman.



 

NorCal Race #2 Granite Bay

The start.

For the second NICA NorCal League mountain bike race, athletes competed on the slightly rocky and sandy trails of Granite Bay.  I have the most experience racing on this course and had been training on the course prior to the race so I felt prepared for what I knew would be a hard day of racing.

The most challenging part of racing in Granite Bay is the sand, racers start on a sandy beach, then have to fight through a few loose corners, and then navigate the gigantic sand pit which sent many racers off their bike and running across to solid ground.

Sand pit!

My race started well and I was placed in the second row of racers since I was sixth overall.  Unfortunately on my second lap I was plagued by the worst back pain I have ever experienced, and by the time I finished the race I could barely get off my bike.  Coupled with the heat I feel I did not perform as well as I could have, but I still had a solid finish in 10th place at the Varsity level and held on to my 6th place overall standing.



More cowbell!

Even though my race did not go as I would have liked it to go I still had a great time at Granite Bay, hanging out with friends and getting rowdy for all the racers out on course.  It is always a cool experience to see how many people are involved in the awesome sport of High School mountain bike racing.  The next race will be held at the Laguna Seca raceway near Monterey in two weeks.

 

 

 

Photo credit: Mike Meskee.

CES #3 Livewire Enduro at Northstar

 

Stage 1 Livewire

The third stop of the California Enduro Series at Northstar Ski Resort was a blast and featured flowy bike park terrain, physical cross-country trails, and  technical black diamond runs.

Me and other racers from the NU Miners MTB Team.

The race was part of Northstar's Livewire Classic which brings their downhill and enduro race season to an end, the enduro race was well attended and had close to 300 competitors.



Stage 3 Speed Control/Pho Dog
 

Stage one was Livewire one of the bike parks most popular trails consisting of fifty 20-50 foot table tops and massive berms Livewire is also fully irrigated.  Stage 2 took place on various multi-use trails on the mountain and proved to be extremely physical, to get a good time racers had to go through over fifteen minutes of hair bleeding agony.

Pho Dog

For stage 3 it was back to the fun side of things and was my favorite stage of the day, it started on Speed Control a fast flowy bike park trail and then went into Pho Dog a mildly technical downhill run with jumps and berms.

At the end of the day I finished 9th out of 29 fast riders in the Junior Open category and was able to some good stuff in the post race schwag giveaway and raffle.

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 #1

The first race of three in the Nevada City Dirt Classic Series was held on private land in Grass Valley, California and featured some insane trails and possibly the most interesting cross-country race I have ever competed in. 

The course featured flowy downhill trails with berms and jumps to an Enduro Motocross track with monster truck tires, many log roll overs, and an old car to ride over. Not only was this race technically challenging but it had 800 brutal feet of climbing per lap that made for a super tough race.

 

Competing in the CAT 1(Expert) 15-18 category I came away with third place.  This was truly awesome and was both technically and physically challenging.  Thank you to the land owner, Ron Sanchez for letting Youth Bicyclists of Nevada County put on this race two years in row now!

 

The expert boys 15-18 podium.

 

Photos courtesy of Robert Lowe

North Yuba Trail

The sunset

Today I did an out and back on the new section of North Yuba Trail from Goodyears Bar to Downieville.

One of the fun technical sections on  N. Yuba

This new section of trail is super fun and is probably 12 to 18 inches wide most of the way and is scattered with lose rock that could send you in the N. Yuba Canyon if you don't pay attention to the trail.

My Camber and my dad's HiFi.

  It is 6.5 miles one way and if you are going to only do it one way start in Downieville and go down to Goodyears Bar.

There was a little snow.

There was some snow and we came back in the dark but this just made this adventure even more epic.  This new portion of trail was constructed by the Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship along with the United States States Forest Service.

A huge boulder in the woods.

  This is another awesome trail in the Downieville area that is still passable in the winter months.  Definitely get out there and ride the sweet piece of single track because it is a total must ride trail.

 

N. Yuba Trail

So Cal Trip Part 1

  For the past week I have been in Southern California riding some of the great trails down there.  I rode the Hazard Peak Trails, part of Backbone Trail, Aliso and Wood Canyon Trails, San Juan Trail, and the Nobel Canyon Trail.  
  Nobel Canyon was by far my favorite ride of the trip, it features some extremely technically difficult rocky terrain that keeps you on your toes the entire ride.  We started at the lower trail head and rode up Pine Valley Rd. to the third trail intersection after over 2000 ft of climbing we started the awesome descent this is the way to go if you want an epic All Mountain loop.  The trail passes through different ecosystems including Alpine Forest, High Dessert, and Scrub Brush.

The "Staircase to Hell" on Nobel Canyon Trail.

   The climb is a long paved fire-road and is not too bad if it is not too hot.  

Some snow at the top.

    The Downhill starts out smooth and we experienced snow in early January, it then turns into miles of some very chunky terrain that means hike-a-bike for most riders.

Take one.

Take two!

 This ride is awesome and can also be shuttled but climbing to the top is what makes this an epic adventure. 

getting rowdy on Nobel Canyon

Made it down!!!

 If you are in the San Diego area this is a must ride trail for expert and intermediate riders who like technical riding.