DOWNIEVILLE - WIN!

SOO...this weekend I was up in Downieville racing the DH and the XC for the "All Mountain Pro" category. Well my main goal was to win the DH and break Marla's record (of 46: something minutes) I was not so concerned with the XC since I have not really been "training" for racing, just riding (and not riding a lot... climbing, backpacking etc. you know.) I had gone up to Downieville last weekend to get some training on the course and to learn the course. Since it is 15 miles long and 45-50 minutes there is a lot of course to memorize. I had done 4 runs last weekend, and was not too confident in my abliity to break the record. To make a long story short: I drove back up Thursday night, (after readjusting my fork, and this turned out to be KEY in my performance. I had had WAY too much air pressure in my fork the last weekend and it made the suspension very stiff on a very rough course, so my arms were just getting trashed, and this made it dangerous... tired arms = sloppy riding = crashing and crashing on this course (wearing no dh protection, because on the duration of the course) with speeds around 40mph for a lot of the course is NOT A GOOD IDEA) did one run Friday which turned out to be an Awsome run! I soft pedaled all the climbing sections and rode the dh sections fast. I was now completely psyched and confident. TO the point that the next morning at the top of the mountain I was telling a few people that I would get 45 minute run. Well I got a time of 44:52 breaking Marla's record by almost 2 minutes! I finished 4 minutes ahead of the second place girl. Marla ended up flatting 4 times, which was a bummer, because I wanted her to have a good run, so it would be a fair win for me. Marla has, you know, a beautiful 2 and a half month old baby girl, so her fitness is still not at her best. We had a great time hanging out for the weekend, joking with each other about the races. She put rocks in my shoes before the DH start and her hubby Mark was trying to mess with me saying stuff about what might be wrong with my bike (but I knew he was joking the whole time.) The weather was beautiful, the North Yuba river (or the Downie river) was, as always, clear cold and refreshing. So the next day (Sunday) for the xc I woke up feeling fine but not great, my legs were a little tired from the dh. But I raced and ended up getting 3rd! This xc race is totally "old school" starting out with a huge climb (8 miles I think) took me 1hr 20 maybe? A long climb. I just stayed within my limits and didn't worry about what anyone else was doing. Once on the dh portion of the course I started picking people off, which was hard because of the dust and all the dudes, but I made my steadily by and once onto the DH course that I knew well from all my 6 runs, I really started making time. I ended up passing 3 pro girls that were ahead of me and almost catching 2nd place on the line (Jamie Whitmore a pro X Terra tri girl.)I finished the xc with a time of 2h 21 minutes for the 28 mile course. Much to my surprise I finished very close to Katerina H. from the Luna team, and my main competition in the "All Mountain Pro" category, Abbigale Hipply,was nowhere to be seen. so I ended up convincingly winning that as well! I won $300 for the DH, $100 for 3rd in the xc, and $250 for the All Mtn. Not bad for a weekend of riding my bike in the beautiful Sierra foothills!
-Rachel