Bountiful Bomber (BB)

The BB was my first race of the season, meaning Downhill (DH) mountain bike racing. I missed the first local race of the season at Lava Hot Springs in Idaho due to work and lack of preparedness, oops!

It was my first race in the Expert class (it goes Beginner, Sport, Expert, Pro), and I was really nervous since the Experts ride the harder courses with the Pros, and they are usually quite a bit harder. In this case, the Sport course shared about 80% of the Pro course and was thus still pretty hard, but still the Expert/Pro course was more difficult. Did I make the right choice? Would I hurt myself? Could I even ride the harder course successfully? Would I have times that are embarassing for an Expert? Would I be miles behind my competitors? Was it too soon to upgrade - it's only my second season racing, and only my third summer on a mtn bike? Thus was my state of mind.

Went up for practice the Monday before the race (holiday so was off work), and found a scary steep course, lots of loose sand on steep hills with sharp turns, big rocks, and ATVs all over the place. My first practice run down I thought "Holy Shit! There is NO way!" You could lock your brakes and still be going downhill with your wheels not turning....and that's on the shared course! (If it had been this course for my first race as a beginner last year, I'd have never raced again. Nowhere is it a beginner trail.) Scared the shit out of me the first run down! Then, started to get more confident, learning a lot about skidding, steep sandy turns, balance, speed control, TIGHT trees, and the importance of letting go of the brakes.

Practice on Wednesday resulted in two flat tires, which prompted me to upgrade my bald tires (almost slicks!!!) to more burly tires, which I needed to do anyway.

Saturday's practice resulted in a spectacular crash, with me tumbling about 20 feet down a steep section littered with very large rocks, the bike bouncing off my back. As I tumbled, I thanked my lucky stars for body armor as my ribs bounced off a boulder, and for a full face helmet as my head bashed into various rocks, and for elbow guards as my elbow cracked into another rock on one of the tumbles. Got up and walked away from that one with a few bruises, a knot in my calf, a sore elbow, a destroyed rear brake rotor, and sideways handlebars.

Fixed the bike Saturday night, with enormous help from Brad and a friend's drill (the rotor was on WAY too tight), iced my calf 5 times and got a rub from Brad, and was ready to go Sunday morning.

Sunday - took one practice run since before I raced, I wanted at least one safe solid run through the gnarly section where I fell. Didn't happen - got a flat in the upper tree section and had to walk a mile or more out. Which turned out to be a good thing - by the time I got to the bottom my calf had loosened up greatly and I could walk a lot better, and thus ride a lot better.

Then, the race. Lots of sitting around, first run for me after 1:00pm, second run after 3:00pm. 90+ degrees out, plenty of sweating in all the armor and helmets and gear. Chatting with friends. Chugging Redbull. Swapping stories. Discussing bike brands. Etc. Settling nerves. Talking smack.

Originally set my goal at under ten minutes. Until I heard that my friends had times of around 6 minutes last season - then, considering they are Pros or at least have Pro times, I revised my goal to breaking 8 minutes.

Came in with a time of 7:20 on my first run, including two pretty sizeable crashes, so for my second run (it's a best of two runs format) set the goal of cuting 20 seconds and breaking the 7 minute mark. Came SO CLOSE too! Right near the bottom, I took a curve too high and couldn't make the next turn, and went off the trail. Had to grab my bike and push it back up onto the trail - and came in with a time of 7:03! Damn! If only I hadn't mised that turn, I'd have been in the 6 minute range. Still, a 17 second improvement between runs is no small feat.

Very satisfied with my time though, considering that I beat the Sport class girls by 30 seconds to 3 minutes, and their course was shorter and (a bit) easier, and also considering that the Pro girls beat me by a minimum of 40 seconds and a maximum of 61 seconds (they were all within 20 seconds of each other).

So, the short and long of it is: I'm right where I should be. VERY glad I upgraded to Expert - it would have sucked to win Sport class by well over a minute which is what it would have been and is called sandbagging. Racing a lower class just because you know you'll do better and place higher.

Pictures to come - Brad got one shot of me only (my camera sucks and takes 5 or more seconds between shots, by which time I was gong) and that shot also sucks, since it was right as I was riding off the trail at the bottom. You know, the place I missed the turn and lost my 3 seconds. (No offense Brad, and thanks for taking the shot! Just my bad timing. Grin.)

A professional photog was taking pics though, so if he got some good ones, I'll buy the digital version and post it up here.

Oh yeah, so I won the race in my class, since I was the only Expert woman. Had a good chance of still winning if there were competitors, with how I was exactly between Sport and Pro, but then again, one of my friends races Expert (though she should race Pro 'cause her times are the same as them) and is out with a hurt knee, and she'd have kicked my ass if she had raced. Anyway, either way I'm stoked about it all. :)