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05-23-06, 11:51 AM
Well, the weekend finally arrived for our Bicycle Butler Beacon Blowout downhill race. Due to the cancellation of another race in our state, our little grassroots effort was also going to be the NORBA Washington State Downhill Championship. Talk about a responsibility to live up to!
On Thursday, we’d driven all the rebar and set the PVC stakes. On Friday, some of the guys strung the marking tape (I had to work my ‘real job’ that day).
Saturday was the first BIG DAY - - registration and practice all day. We only had 40 pre-registrants, so I was nervous. The sky was pretty dark and the rain forecasted for the overnight hadn’t materialized. We no sooner got the gate to the park opened and got awnings and tables set up when the lightning and thunder cut loose and it POURED buckets! After the initial onslaught, the rain let up to a steady drizzle that lasted all morning. This is supposed to be the dry side of the state, but you never would have known it.
Only a handful of people registered in the morning and we did our best to keep the rain off the paperwork and stuff. The weather finally broke some midday and gradually dried things out. More people started showing up to register and practice and I was finally able to get out myself and make a few runs. We didn’t have shuttles for this race, so it was a 15-20-minute push to the start at the top of the ridge. I still have three rings on my bike, so I had fun pedaling (and making the other DHers gawk) as far up the access road as I could before it got just too steep.
With the rain, the dust was completely quenched and the course condition got better as the day wore on. By 5:00, registration was closed and the course shut down for the day. In all we had 125 entrants - - enough to ensure that we would at least break even on the event. 200 would have been better, but we were reasonably pleased. Rather than having late fees for late registrations we went the other way and rewarded the pre-registrants with a barbecue Saturday evening.
Sunday was race day. Gino and I went to the top with rolls of tape and walked the whole course checking for stakes and rebar out and to restring any tape that got torn down. I got in one final practice run that I did probably 3/4 -7/8 race pace and felt real good. At that point I could have gone back up and done one more run, but I didn’t want to over-practice and I felt like I had most sections fairly dialed; I just needed to add speed.
We shut the course down for practice at 9:30 and at 10 the runs began. It was a two-run format with the times combined for a day’s cumulative that determined placing. When both runs count, consistency is definitely the name of the game. My first run was up at 10:45, so about 10:15 I started pushing up. I should have started earlier - - I was sweating like a pig by the time I got to the top with only about ten minutes to get a normal pulse and breathing back. Note to self for next run: push up early and chill at the top.
Then it was time to GO. The first half of the course is the ‘new’ Beacon course with lots of rock drops and jumps. The course drops away from the top stair-stepping down a 5-foot roll-down and two small 3’ drops. Right after that, it veers left and you pop off about a 6’ gap-drop to a dirt tranny. After you clear that, you chatter down more rock faces down to the first larger stunt: a six-pack of doubles with about 14’ gaps. The first one is pretty easy to clear with all of the momentum coming down the rock face. We ribboned it off wide after that so people could either take the direct line thru the next two doubles or swing out around the and set up for the next big gap jump - - the Twisted Sister. It’s a big right-hand berm with about a 15’ gap that throws you into a left-hand berm, so you kind of have to hip it and turn mid-air to clear it properly. Otherwise it throws you to the outside of the landing berm. For only about my second time ever I hipped it perfectly and touched down in the midlle of the tranny and railed the berm. Woohoo! Then, the course jumps over to the ‘old’ Beacon course. The most notable feature of this is after a drop that goes about 5’ to a flat landing. We made the expert line cross straight across the flat to a new step-up on top of about an 8’-high rock. The launch is a dirt ramp that is ‘ant-hill’ shaped and about 5’ high and set away from the face of the rock about 3’. You have to carry all of your speed from the drop, get in a couple more pedal strokes across the flat and go full-bore into the face of the ramp. As long as keep your nerve and all of your speed, it throws you up and across the gap and right up on top of the rock - - the coolest feeling! From there, you go 20’ down a sheer rock face, through the rockgarden turn and then the sprint across the bottom to the finish.
My first run I got a 2:02, 12 seconds ahead of my friend and fellow 50+er Arnold. The second run was an effort to ride clean and error free, but try to get in those precious extra pedal strokes on every section that I could. Once again I hit the major stunts cleanly (but still with not quite enough speed and finesse to launch all three parts of the six-pack. Hey, I’m an old guy – give me a break). I hipped the Twisted Sister again :D and just really laid down the pedaling strokes when I could. At the bottom I knew I must have gone faster, because I was completely winded and spent. Turns out my second run was a 2:00 flat. I was surprised I’d only made up two seconds; but I bested Arnold’s second run by 7 seconds, so that left me solidly with the win AND the 2006 Washington State Downhill Championship for us ‘old-and-brittle’ guys!
There’s no rest for a Chief Go-Fer, though. After all the awards were handed out (gold, silver and bronze medals provided by NORBA - - because it was the championship - - and all of the cool schwag prizes were distributed, then it was time to break everything down and get it loaded back up in Gino’s trailer. What a great weekend. I got to experience the makings of a whole race from start to finish, plus got to throw down and race on the ‘dream-course’ of my own imaginings. I hope we do it again next year!
On Thursday, we’d driven all the rebar and set the PVC stakes. On Friday, some of the guys strung the marking tape (I had to work my ‘real job’ that day).
Saturday was the first BIG DAY - - registration and practice all day. We only had 40 pre-registrants, so I was nervous. The sky was pretty dark and the rain forecasted for the overnight hadn’t materialized. We no sooner got the gate to the park opened and got awnings and tables set up when the lightning and thunder cut loose and it POURED buckets! After the initial onslaught, the rain let up to a steady drizzle that lasted all morning. This is supposed to be the dry side of the state, but you never would have known it.
Only a handful of people registered in the morning and we did our best to keep the rain off the paperwork and stuff. The weather finally broke some midday and gradually dried things out. More people started showing up to register and practice and I was finally able to get out myself and make a few runs. We didn’t have shuttles for this race, so it was a 15-20-minute push to the start at the top of the ridge. I still have three rings on my bike, so I had fun pedaling (and making the other DHers gawk) as far up the access road as I could before it got just too steep.
With the rain, the dust was completely quenched and the course condition got better as the day wore on. By 5:00, registration was closed and the course shut down for the day. In all we had 125 entrants - - enough to ensure that we would at least break even on the event. 200 would have been better, but we were reasonably pleased. Rather than having late fees for late registrations we went the other way and rewarded the pre-registrants with a barbecue Saturday evening.
Sunday was race day. Gino and I went to the top with rolls of tape and walked the whole course checking for stakes and rebar out and to restring any tape that got torn down. I got in one final practice run that I did probably 3/4 -7/8 race pace and felt real good. At that point I could have gone back up and done one more run, but I didn’t want to over-practice and I felt like I had most sections fairly dialed; I just needed to add speed.
We shut the course down for practice at 9:30 and at 10 the runs began. It was a two-run format with the times combined for a day’s cumulative that determined placing. When both runs count, consistency is definitely the name of the game. My first run was up at 10:45, so about 10:15 I started pushing up. I should have started earlier - - I was sweating like a pig by the time I got to the top with only about ten minutes to get a normal pulse and breathing back. Note to self for next run: push up early and chill at the top.
Then it was time to GO. The first half of the course is the ‘new’ Beacon course with lots of rock drops and jumps. The course drops away from the top stair-stepping down a 5-foot roll-down and two small 3’ drops. Right after that, it veers left and you pop off about a 6’ gap-drop to a dirt tranny. After you clear that, you chatter down more rock faces down to the first larger stunt: a six-pack of doubles with about 14’ gaps. The first one is pretty easy to clear with all of the momentum coming down the rock face. We ribboned it off wide after that so people could either take the direct line thru the next two doubles or swing out around the and set up for the next big gap jump - - the Twisted Sister. It’s a big right-hand berm with about a 15’ gap that throws you into a left-hand berm, so you kind of have to hip it and turn mid-air to clear it properly. Otherwise it throws you to the outside of the landing berm. For only about my second time ever I hipped it perfectly and touched down in the midlle of the tranny and railed the berm. Woohoo! Then, the course jumps over to the ‘old’ Beacon course. The most notable feature of this is after a drop that goes about 5’ to a flat landing. We made the expert line cross straight across the flat to a new step-up on top of about an 8’-high rock. The launch is a dirt ramp that is ‘ant-hill’ shaped and about 5’ high and set away from the face of the rock about 3’. You have to carry all of your speed from the drop, get in a couple more pedal strokes across the flat and go full-bore into the face of the ramp. As long as keep your nerve and all of your speed, it throws you up and across the gap and right up on top of the rock - - the coolest feeling! From there, you go 20’ down a sheer rock face, through the rockgarden turn and then the sprint across the bottom to the finish.
My first run I got a 2:02, 12 seconds ahead of my friend and fellow 50+er Arnold. The second run was an effort to ride clean and error free, but try to get in those precious extra pedal strokes on every section that I could. Once again I hit the major stunts cleanly (but still with not quite enough speed and finesse to launch all three parts of the six-pack. Hey, I’m an old guy – give me a break). I hipped the Twisted Sister again :D and just really laid down the pedaling strokes when I could. At the bottom I knew I must have gone faster, because I was completely winded and spent. Turns out my second run was a 2:00 flat. I was surprised I’d only made up two seconds; but I bested Arnold’s second run by 7 seconds, so that left me solidly with the win AND the 2006 Washington State Downhill Championship for us ‘old-and-brittle’ guys!
There’s no rest for a Chief Go-Fer, though. After all the awards were handed out (gold, silver and bronze medals provided by NORBA - - because it was the championship - - and all of the cool schwag prizes were distributed, then it was time to break everything down and get it loaded back up in Gino’s trailer. What a great weekend. I got to experience the makings of a whole race from start to finish, plus got to throw down and race on the ‘dream-course’ of my own imaginings. I hope we do it again next year!