I made my 'Expert' class DH debut yesterday at the Timber Rattler DH Race at Wintergreen Resort in
Virginia. Master Expert class in this race was 30-45 year old. So I was racing many guys 10 years my
junior. I think I was the oldest one there. ;^) I finished 8th out of 9 racers in my class. Hey at
least it wasn't DFL.
Because of the tight, twisty course I raced on my Bullit but probably should've run the M1 for the
drops and the rock gardens. The course dropped 600 feet in elevation. It started with a sprint to
the woods to a rock jump, which I took the ride around. Then a short rock garden to a very twisty
section to a big off camber rock that shot you off at the ground 3 feet below. More twisties with
berms to a 6 foot drop onto a road which was too undercut to roll. (I know because I tried it once
and crashed onto the road) I had to just pop my front wheel out in the air and drop straight down to
the little bit of transition there. Cross the road into a chute straight down through tight trees.
Handlebar check!!! More twisties to a rockgarden beginning with two big boulders arranged like big
steps into more rocks. There were three rocks in a row you could jump off of finishing with a ladder
ramp over a 3 1/2 foot log which pops you up about 5 feet in the air. Whoohooo!!!! A few more turns
and more rocks and out onto the ski slope to the finish line sprint. My 32 sprocket wasn't big
enough for that.
It was the best of two runs with the winning time was a little under 1:54 and my times being 2:17
for my first and 2:16 for my second.
Practice was on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. Friday afternoon I warmed up with a couple
runs with my friends son Jordan on the sport course and then set to work on my course when some of
his friends showed up. Each run I added one obstacle at a time so I could make it down without doing
any of the ride arounds. (There was no ride around for the road drop) and was going to save the
first rock for the morning. Jordan and I came back to Richmond that evening (about a 2 1/2 hour
drive) I got up early, picked up Jordan and drove back Saturday morning. I started off cold going
down the expert course and screwed up the landing off the big off camber rock and crashed. I was
fine but after hearing the sickening sound of spokes breaking I looked back to find a 4 inch thick
log had skewered my rear wheel breaking one spoke. [censored]!!! The log was too big to pick up and pull
out and I couldn't pick up the bike to and pull it off. So I wound up holding the bike up and
kicking the rear wheel off the log. I wound the broken spoke around a neighbor and finished my run.
I was rattled by the crash and rode badly for the rest. I went back to the car and removed the
broken spoke and trued up the wheel as best I could. I made two more practice runs, with the second
being better, and my two race runs with a 35 spoke rear wheel and the Mavic 321 held up great.
Jordan finished 4th out of 8 and had a very pedally course at the bottom which made me glad I moved
up to expert. But we all had a great time and Wintergreen put on a great event.
Mike - Beginner Expert Downhiller ;^)