Cal State Series Northstar DH & XC Race Reports

Race Report by Scott Schlachter

Hi all,

A race report on the North* DH and SD races that Team Big Bear ran on Saturday:

This was race #6 in their Cal State Series, and they'll be coming back in September for another one. My day began with taking off from South San Jose at 4-freakin-30 in the morning, and picking up Chris Quintera (aka Scrub) in Concord. We made it up to Northstar by about 8. I got signed up for the DH and Super-D, and then headed up for practice. By the time I got the first lift line, it was huge, so I just walked/rode up to the 2nd lift (only took about 20 minutes). Got 3 practice runs in before the race, and felt pretty good. They extended the finish line down to the area to the right of all of those logs near the lift entrance, so you got to hit the big birm after the stadium jump, and times were a little longer than the Sick and Twisted course (although the rest of the Exp/Pro course was the same - top of Karpiel, to Speedcheck, to lower Karpiel). I ended up with a 4:39 and a 4:41 in my race runs, which was good for 4th place out of 7 in my class (Exp 35-39 - smaller classes than the Sick and Twisted races). One of the guys had a blown rear shock though (was right in front of me, but got out of my way each time, which was cool). Felt a lot faster on my second run, but for some reason I was 2 seconds slower - funny how that happens... TBB uses a ski-timing system with a beam at the bottom (preset start times at the top), hooked direct to their computer, so not much chance of an error. Ah well, at least I'm slowly getting faster on that course, and feeling more comfortable in the super rocky stuff. No wrecks or mechanicals this time (although I rode my front wheel both runs after going off the log near the last chute - yikes!). Mike Fine crashed a few times in his first run, and still was 3 seconds faster than me to get 3rd in that run - then opened a can of woop-@ss and blew the doors off of everyone in his second run, which got him to first place in the combined times. Norcal represented pretty well at this race - my class as well as others. I think Chris got 2nd place in Sport for his age group. The Planet-X kids all did well (freakin fast). Jamie Q. did well too, but I can't remember his place.

The Super-D was held after the second run of the DH. I used all the same gear, but probably would have been better off using my Blur. The race was one run down Flameout, all the way to the same finish line as the DH, with a small climb thrown before you got to the top of the S-turns. There were only 6 racers total for the Super-D! 3 were in my class (Men 35-39 open): myself, a guy who was tied with some other guy for 1st place in the series (who was only there for the Super-D - his wife said he could get a new bike if he won the series...), and some guy who I think was a total beginner. There was one other guy who looked fast - he was in the next age cat down. I was launched second from the last, but caught everyone but the first guy (who ended up with the fastest time). My time was around 13 minutes. The guy who was in my class for the points series ended up crashing and breaking his collar bone, but still beat the slower guy in our class! So, I ended up 1st out of 3, which actually got me on the podium (when almost everyone had gone home...), but, hey, I got a medal... :-)

I plan on going to the next TBB race up there in September, hopefully I can get some other TWWers to join me... (remember, they've got SuperSport class for those Experts who don't want to run the Expert course). They run the races pretty efficiently - posting times after each class really fast...

-Scott

Race Report by David Ambrose

Got up to Truckee about 10.30am Saturday morning and set up camp at Granite Flat which was a short 15 minute drive from Northstar. Went to check out Northstar and preride the course. Ended up doing 2 preride loops out of boredom, and a lift run. Then rode other trails in the area - just slow and easy spins. I was going to meet Scott Schlachter at the dh area but to get to it I had to take 2 lifts and unfortunately the second lift up was closed off because of the already started race - so instead I rode some of the downhill runs - good fun. Some great trails there at Northstar. That evening I just stuck around camp and tinkered on my bike and read my book and magazines. Low key but relaxing.

Sunday morning I did another preride of the XC course, plus a couple rides on the Jr Olympics course to warm up before the race. James was there too (younger guy, joins most of the TWW Tuesday rides at Redwood.) James was at the Tahoe Hopper too... he was the guy that lead Isaias up the singletrack on the climb. ;)

The race course itself was fun but had nothing exceptional about it. Overall it was actually a pretty boring course. It had no huge climb in the beginning to separate racers so the first lap was full of bottlenecks at every rocky section or whenever fireroad went into singletrack. The dust was so thick there was a hard time passing because we just couldn't see the trail... especially by the second lap!

It was a fast course, with a lot of long and gradual climbs and super fast fireroad descents. Only one short section was really very much fun - a somewhat technical section that weaved in and out over a dry creek bed with berms on each twist - made it fast and sketchy. A lot of people had accidents here, which surprised me until I overheard some people post-race talking about how this was "the best course in the Cal State series by Big Bear so far". These guys racing here were super fast (I got creamed) but it was obvious that they were faster on buff trails and most people at the event were obviously weaker technical riders. If that was the best course in the series, I don't think I'll race anymore Team Big Bear sponsored events unless A) I just don't have anything better to do, B) I really want those TWW points :), or C) I'm trying to specifically compete in the State Champ Series.

From riding other trails in the area I'm having a hard time determining why they chose the course that they did when there were so many better alternatives - more challenging (in all respects), and definitely more fun.

I made mistakes which I shouldn't have. I knew there were no hellish climbs but I still held back to conserve energy on the first lap when I should have sprinted right out of the start. About a dozen people (all the Sport cat's started together) quickly disappeared from view and I never saw them again. I placed 5th out of 10 in Sport 30-34. Places are 5 deep so I still got a medal! If I remember correctly, I was about 30 seconds behind 4th, about a minute behind third, about 2 minutes behind 2nd and 7 minutes behind 1st. I completed the two laps in 1.37.03 which seemed to be a pretty good time for the event overall.

I would say that most of the racers there were sponsored or had some sort of pro/team/shop affiliation. Most XC racers had full logo jersey/shorts outfits and most of the podiums seemed to be people like "Such and such from Team Powerbar" etc. It was a well run event with a lot of really great riders.

I did have fun, don't get me wrong. But I think Isaias' Santa Cruz ride would have been more worth it.

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