007 DH Race Report

Race Report by Scott Schlachter

This'll probably sound stupid by I've been hesitant to post - I know a lot of people on the list had to miss this race, others chose to skip it. Only other person representing TWW was Eric Johnson. Anyhow, Jon asked so I'll post:

Rich Davis, Brent (another DHer bud), and Gary Fuchita and I headed up to Bass Lake on Saturday morning. The weather when we arrived was beautiful, and it ended up holding for the entire weekend - mostly sunny, some occasional super-light sprinkling, but overall really nice. The course was the same as last year's. I took a header on my first run down (my neck is still a little sore); which turned out to be my only dig the rest of the weekend, fortunately. It was on the 'gap jump' near the bottom (can choose to either vear right and do the big left birm, or go straight and jump about a 10' gap with a huge fall if you totally came short, but shave a couple seconds and some evergy if you hit it. I went off it a little slow, and also aimed a little too far to the right - hit the bush with the front wheel, back wheel was pretty far down the gap, and bike and I just tumbled. Got up, went back, did it again - no problem. Hit it everytime afterwards. Took me a few runs before I was comfortable with everything - Rich and I did 5 runs on Saturday - by run #4 I felt good. We stayed at Best Western, which I've come to realize is the only good place to stay up there...

Sunday, the four of us got a late start but had a good breakfast, so no Sunday practice. Amazing how much more crowded it was on race day... The race went well for Rich and I. Rich got 1st; only 2 people in Exp 44+. Seery probably would have won it. I took 3rd place (out of 14, I think) in Exp 35-44 with a time of 8:22:something. Mike Fine took first with an amazing run of 8:00! A guy (John?) from CVC (Castro Valley Cyclists?) took 2nd with 8:14, and I barely edged out another CVC guy who took 4th with less than a second off my time. Mark Weir won Pro Men, most of whom where on med-travel FS bikes, with a time of 7:26 (!!!). Henry O'donnell (16-17 y.o. kid who set the record for the Downieville DH two years ago), I think took 3rd with a 7:fortysomething. Man, those Pros are fast...

Did a practice run on Saturday with Charlie from Vision and one of his friends named Jamie who had a double-helmet-cam setup (one forward looking, one backwards looking). I'm looking forward to seeing that footage - should be totally cool. Overall fun time. The groms from Mr. E's where impressing everyone with tricks at the jump near the reg booth on Sunday. Raffled off some good prizes, mixing the raffle with the awards, but we didn't stick around for the whole thing. Every year I forget how fun the course is. And every year I vow to go back in the summer and do some exploring - I'm going to do it this year! ha ha :-)

-S

Race Report by Erik (emtnbker)

It was a really fun course. It was my first time down there, I could have used a much smaller bike than the Super8. I didn't do the jersey proud, 15th of 16 finishers in 35-44 sport. Anyway, better next year.

I'd like to go back and explore sometime this summer as well. I was talking to a Fresno resident who said that we only race the two bottom sections of the 007 trail and that there are two or three more sections above it for a total of 5,000 feet of elevation gain/loss. I saw where the upper section drops in just above the sport/beginner starting line. Looks like fun...

Later,

Erik

Back to Main Page