Race Weekend

This weekend we drove down to Weaverville, CA for a race Sunday. Saturday it was cold, foggy and drizzling when we got to the event. The 12 Hour race was in full force. That's the race Derek and I were going to do but had to cancel after injuries. So, we planned to preride the Super D race course Saturday and then race it Sunday morning. The registration said we could pedal up to the top of the course if we wanted to preride it, but that driving wasn't allowed since we would have to drive up the same road the 12 hour racers were riding up for the first 3 miles. No problem, we decided we'd pedal up. It was a 7 mile climb according to the map. The scenery was really different then anything I've ridden in.

It was the hardest 7 mile climb I think I've ever done. After the first mile of flatter trail, it became steep and steeper with no flat spots and around 2,500 to 3k of climbing shoved into the remaining 6 miles. Once we reached the top I was a bit skeptical because as I peaked off the side of the cliff it went pretty much straight down with lots of rocks and ruts. I dropped my saddle, zipped up my thermal vest and started down. For the first mile or so I was behind the saddle with my sternum actually resting on the seat. That's how far I had to get back to keep from going over the bars!

Here is the starting...I felt like I was in Costa Rica or something with the interesting scenery.





Top of the climb - start of steep decent down into the depths of the earth.




Fast flowing singletrack further down at the bottom.





Once I made it through that the course opened up into a fast twisty singletrack through the trees...plenty of mud and puddles to splash through as well. It was a bit over a 6 mile descent with LOTS of pedaling. We finished in time to take hot showers at the High School, make ourselves some sandwiches and wash it all down with some good beer while we watched the racers come in for laps of the race. Ahhhh, it was good to not be racing.



Camping in the rain was interesting. All night long it sounded like we were in a giant popcorn popper as rain pelted our tent. Race day arrived and after a treacherous shuttle ride up the same trail we had somehow ridden up the day before, it was time to race. My legs were really tired from the ride the day before and I just wanted to play it safe. Off I went through the steep chute, huffing and puffing, pedaling hard and pushing on. The last part of the 6 miles has more ups then I remembered and my legs were completely dead. It was all I could do to keep moving and I was tired. Sadly, there were no other females doing the race so I was really racing just against myself. Guess what, I won!

Campground views:






Whiskeytown Lake



Pretty flowers.