Downieville Classic 2017

Downieville is a race never to be forgotten. As we drove down the twisty road into Downieville, I was reminded of the fun times at other races and knew this weekend would be added to them. Walking through the little town of Downieville, which was completely engulfed by the race venue, I got a sense that this was a more enduro/downhill slanted race even though I was racing cross country. We picked up our race packets, toured the town a bit more, and then headed to the campsite to get situated for the race the next day.

Saturday morning I woke up feeling jazzed for the race! We drove down to Sierra City (where the race started) early to beat the abundance of cars and racers showing up for the 9:30 start. Soon I was kitted up and following my dad and sister through the mob of racers waiting at the start line. I got to the start line earlier than I expected, but I was soon glad when all of the other expert men and woman started to squeeze into the start chute. This was my first point-to-point race, first time starting with so many other racers (351 registrants), and I was going into the race blind. I had not pre-ridden the course, or even ridden any trails in the area. It was a little nerve racking, but I knew if I stayed confident in myself as a racer and raced my best I would do good. The racer next to me gave me the first bit of encouragement when he looked at my hard tail bike and told me he raced his hard tail last year, and would never want to do that again. I smiled, but couldn't help feeling like he may be right, and a hard tail is not the bike for this course.

Three, two, one, go! and we were off...or at least the first multiple rows of the 351 racer expert group were moving. I had to wait around 30 seconds after the race started before I could move forward, and boy was that fun! I started in what felt like the middle to rear of the field and started weaving through the massive group. The race started with a 8 mile, 2800 ft. climb, it was all dirt road and, for the most part easy to pass people on, the rest of the race except and few small climbs was downhill (about 18 miles and -4000 ft.). I felt like I was flying up the climb, I knew it was my strongest area in this race so I kept passing everyone I could. Once the downhill started I began to get passed by the all mountain racers I passed on the climb. The single tracks were dusty and as more traffic passed me I was forced to follow my wheel, wherever it went, because I couldn't see the trail with all the dust being kicked up in front of me. The descent seemed to go on forever! After a 3 mile section of loose and rocky road we crossed a creek and some muddy sections, dropped down multiple rocky hills, crossed a couple bridges, traversed more dusty hillsides, and ended up on a paved street in Downieville. I followed the racer in front of me through town, so that I would go the correct way, rode through the mini slolam, crossed the finish line and was handed an cold water bottle full of water. I had finished! I did not know how I placed, but I was just happy to be done. I was tired and I could feel a million different worn out muscles in my body from that long descent.

I waited to see my dad and sister finish, ate some lunch, and went to find the results to see where I had finished. By the time we got to the results there were only two names posted from the expert category and I was one of them! I finished second in the expert woman 30 and under! After we finished looking at the results we headed over to wash off in the river and watch Ron's House of Big Air River Jump. After that we headed back into town for the podiums that both Genevieve, my sister (3rd in expert woman 30 under), and I were a part of!

Downieville mounted up to be a better race than I expected, and I plan on being back to race it again!