Race report by Wes Taylor A beautiful day in the nieghborhood.... Skys were blue, the temp was in the 70's. The Oroville Knobular is run on the back side of the Lake Oroville Dam. It is 100% singletrack, lots of switchbacks, and all down hill. It is one of my favorite courses. The course was dry and not too loose. Perfect for racing. In past years, they gave out WTB tires with race entry. Not this year :( They also ran two runs in past years and added the times. This made for a slight shift in strategy, since you had to have two clean runs to place. This year, they only had one run. And in keeping with the Knobular tradition, the organization SUCKED. I got there first thing yesterday morning (Sat, May 1) to get practice runs in before the race. I registered, gave them my $30, put on my number plate, and went on my merry way. I ran two practice runs. The shuttles were working great. Vans for people, truck/trailers for the bikes. Went up for the racers meeting just before start time and they said that there was problems with some of the numbers. They had actually handed out duplicate numbers to some of the racers (This has to be hard to do - why would they take two sets of numbers to a race?). I not only had to swap my number plate, but they made me run at the end of the day. OK, enough of that. I was happy with my run. I was hitting everything well, and the bike was working. I did miss one corner, which probably cost me 5-10 seconds, but finished without hurting myself. Last year, my run time was about 5:00. This year, ny run was in the 4:30's (my official time was not posted when I left - they had me in first place at -10:00. I bet that got contested). The best time in my category (sport 35-44) was 4:09. I am figuring that I finished mid pack or so out of 20 entered. (12th of 19) I saw one nasty crash. One of the pro women (Chris) went down. She was moving at about 30+ MPH through one of the faster sections. As she was pounding the pedals, one hit a rock and sent her flying. She missed an oak tree by about two feet. She got back up, straightened her bars, and finished the run. I talked with her after the run. She seemed OK. Had a lot of road rash, both elbos, knees, and misc, but her attitude was good. Tough gal. Marla Streb was there. She was looking very fast. After the racing ended, I stopped by the Grip Shift tent. They were the only parts manufacturer at the event. The guy in the tent was super. I asked him for some advise on my sticky deraileur. He looked at it and asked me if he could replace it. He swapped my derailleur with a 99 9.0 and set it up. Gotta appreciate that! Thanks Grip Shift! Aw yes, another great day flying the TWW colors! See ya out there. Wes.