Wow, what a busy last few weeks. Earlier this month I raced in the Downieville Classic. If you are unfamiliar with this event, it is a 29 mile point to point cross country race with 4500 feet of climbing and over 5500 feet of descending. The weather was good, not to hot, and there was no shortage of talent on the starting line. 90% of the climbing begins from the gun as you ascend for close to 50 minutes.

The start from Sierra City


Once the race was off, a pack of 10 or so of us found some breathing room on the rest of the pack. It didn’t take long for riders to fall off the back as the stronger riders, led by Adam Craig, moved to the front and picked up the pace. My legs were feeling OK, but only that. It wasn’t until the 25-30 minute mark that they started to come around but by that point I was in no-man’s land. Once cresting the climb at packer saddle (elev. 7070) I found myself sitting top ten before hit the first bit of single track.
After a 5 or so minute section of fun single track we hopped on to FS road 93-3 for another 25 minutes. At this point my legs showed some vigor and I began to move up through the field. It was at the start of first gnarly section of double track that I was fortunate to follow Thomas Frischknecht through the infamous “Baby Heads” section. Following close to Frischi’s wheel, I made it through (as smoothly as possible) the baby heads section as the fun began on many of the epic downhill sections Downieville is notorious for.
With a course that suited me, I ended up finishing 7th on the day at 2:03:18 and 3rd in the Pro field. Thanks to all at Yuba for putting on such a fun event and Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship for all the work on the trail system, you will certainly see me out there next year. It another fun bike trip with the Gaston family and already looking forword to next year.


Near the bottom of the course heading into town


A Fat Tire post race beer


Nice work Corey and Shelly, putting in some solid finishes