Sunday, August 20, 2006

RACE REPORT: CCCX DH #1

Since I couldn't get out of some home obligations to get up to Tahoe for Sky Tavern, I got up extra early this morning and set out for the Monterey debut of the CCCX Downhill (CCCX DH #1). And I wasn't disappointed.

We had about fifty racers (pure guess on my part) one hundered racers signed up by noon. Although we were all assigned start times, by the time the start rolled around, they were quickly scrubbed for a first-come, first-served policy. The organizers just wrote your start time on your racing number and then sorted it out at the bottom. Suprisingly, this worked really well -- they had results posted promptly and accurately.


The course a mix of flat out speed and loose turns. After the considerable hike a bike to the start line, you queued for your countdown. The course went straight down a fireroad across a few waterbars (there were a lot of these all through the course) from the starting line. Then left onto singletrack through a reverse S curve, back onto the fireroad with a hard left and up a hellish 100' climb (that no one was in the correct gear for). That section basically decided the race as far as I was concerned. To finish it out, there was a sharp switchback, then screaming down a fast and loose left bender to the finish. It totaled out to 1.61 miles with 879' drop with 129' of climbing.

Click on the picture to get a larger view where you can see the course more clearly. The course is also on Google Maps.

My run started well considering that it was my first downhill. I cruised down the fireroad at 25 MPH, but had to brake hard for the S curve. I ran a little off course there, but recovered to charge uphill. Unfortunately, after I crested the hill and got back onto the singletrack, I made a poor line choice (following the hub deep rut) and washed out. Picking the bike back up, I tried to make my time back but that just led to a sloppy missed turn. Undaunted, I got my composure back together to at least look fast through the final bender towards the finish line. My 05:30+ time put me 3rd in my class when I left (some people may have still been on the course). The fastest time I saw was 04:11 by one of the pro/semi-pro guys. It was getting late and I need to get on the road for my 3+ hour ride home before the awards were past out.


A cool race all the way around. I haven't seen any results yet Results are up here, and here are my pictures from today (I've added a few since this afternoon; Some even have preliminary results):
CCCX DH #1
Aug 20, 2006 - 34 Photos
Congratulations to Curtis Beaver who won the Semi-Pro/Pro event with a scorching 04:11 ride. Other notable sub 04:20 times included: Jimmy Amaral (Pro / 04:17), Erik Barton (Pro / 04:19), Jeff Kendall-Weed (Pro / 04:19), Micah Mozal (Expert 19-34 / 04:17) and Nicholad Barton (Expert 19-34 / 04:19).

UPDATE (08/22/06): Some more pictures have been uploaded:
Pictures from the practice runs: http://bikeguy.smugmug.com/gallery/1797806
Pictures from the actual race: http://bikeguy.smugmug.com/gallery/1797527
Pictures of Awards: http://bikeguy.smugmug.com/gallery/1801133

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought the course was seriously railing today at the CCCX DH. Speed was there and the lose sections were very tricky and I made it down on my run with only one slide out~

That was so cool to race on a well marked course with some really fun sections! Thank God those guys put on that race! And they had the times for your run right at the finish.......it was sweeet!

Got a medal to show my wife by finishing third!

See Ya at the next one!

I think that course dropped 1000 feet>>>??

/k said...

I think that course dropped 1000 feet??

I ran with my GPS on today and will post the results as soon as Motionbased.com comes back from its outage.

Anonymous said...

HEY THANKS FOR THE PHOTOS! AND THE UPDATES AND ALL THE STUFF YOU DO ON THIS BLOG!

Anonymous said...

Nice. Glad you posted a link to your blog. It is one of the better Norcal blogs that I have seen. Also, thanks for the pictures. You snapped a good one of me #707.

Anonymous said...

Great report and what a cool phoot of the course!!!!!! that is a serious hill!

there were 98 racers total.

I am sure this number will grow for the other races, as the riding in this area is very nice for training and racing!

NorCal is lucky to have races back in action, and i look for a NorCal DH series next year mixing in some other events.......