Hey all! So, I got to spend this last Friday and Sunday up at Northstar at Tahoe. It’s a great destination for downhilling, with great trails that are very fun and challenging. They also have a great Downhill race series there over the Summer. On Sunday I raced the third race in the series,Karpiel to Pho Dog.

Then I was up in the gate. The countdown; those 6 sounds you hear in your sleep.
Beep beep beep beep beep BOOP
And I pedal off the line, feeling like a dragster as I hit the shifts effortlessly while I crank out the speed, before I drop gearing in prep for getting out of that corner as fast as possible. And then I repeat this all the way down the hill, mixed with some gut wrenching sections where I will myself away from those brake levers, using every muscle in your body to guide the bike though the rocks in the perfect line, an inch either ways throws me into the trees at this speed. Hop skip, pump, be water, flowing right over everything that is in the way.

Then I was in my element, what I’ve done for years. The pedaling. I was cranking like mad over the fire road, before drifting back into the single track. I pedaled right around the big rock hit; this was my race run. Flowing into the next pedal bit, into the Daytona berms, low and fast over the stadium jumps, and then off the ladder across the line.
I ended up in 5th and I am happy with that. A bunch of USAC Cat 1 racers downgraded out of the Cat 1 class to avoid Fabio Falls and Vietnam (very technical sections) and raced the Cat 2 course. This was very frustrating and so very wrong in my book. Sandbagging to grab podiums makes me so mad. No one should be able to downgrade because their course is difficult. If I had really been racing Cat 2, I would have been 3rd. Regardless of my finish results, sandbaggers SUCK!! Ok, I’ll get off my soapbox.

Tomorrow is the Pro GRT on Boondocks at Northstar. I won’t be able to make it, but I wish best of luck to everyone racing, especially my little Sister Avery (aka Kiddo).. I was stoked when I recently taught her how to ride Big Daddy drop on Boondocks. That was a cool sibling moment. And yeah, my 14 year old sister hits 6 foot drops. What does yours do?