My husband Roger and myself headed out early Saturday morning. Had our ritual breakfast at IHOP in Carpenteria then on to the venue. There were 5 cars in the lot when we got there and nothing but the registration tent. No vendors, no food, not many competitors......Oh well, we put on our happy faces and registered any way. Roger opted not to race DH, but paid his $10 for the shuttle and opted to practice with me.



My plans were to race my Foes 4x bike for both DH and DS, but I had a small block 8 on the rear and my clipless pedals. Plus the suspension was set for the BMX track. So after one run and a very stiff left knee that didn't want to bend, I went back and got the DH bike. The only reason I even brought it was in case we had time to go shuttle Tunnel. So off I went on a small bike course with my big bike. It definitely was easier on my knee and gripped in the corners much better.



5 practice runs, some food and water and off to the race. There were about 60 competitors total including 4 women; 2 Pro, 1 Expert (me) and 1 Sport (Heidi who is an Expert XC racer on the Velo Bella team). I had 2 good runs and was happy with my race. Racing by myself and has become an all to often occurance. I definitely need to make some changes for next year. I may have to start racing the 50+ men.



After awards we opted to practice the DS course instead of shuttling Tunnel. To our suprise, Ed the course builder had added some sweet jumps and had lengthened the course. Brad had a blast and looked really good. This was his 1st ever attempt at Dual Slalom.



We stayed with a friend in SB, so we got to sleep in Sunday since we were only a few minutes away from Elings. We woke up to cloudy skies and low hanging fog which hung around all day. DS practice started out slow as Ed had problems with the sprinkler system having an air pocket, so he had to water by hand. The 1st few practice runs had to be taken slow in the over watered berms so as not to damge them before the race.



I was a little disheartened when I found out that Karen had opted not to race DS after all, so I was the only woman. I toyed with racing in the Expert Men 40+ class but decided to save that for next year. So, since there was only 1 in the Pro Men class (our buddy Orlando) I asked if I could race with him, so that added some spice to my day. He ended up beating me by about 8+ seconds so the second round they talked him into an 8 second handicap so I got to start in front. He ended up passing me but it was fun to have someone else on the course with me. I just hope someone got some pictures of that!!!!

Last weekend we attended the California Golden State Downhill Championships Race #4 at Woodward West.  The course was completely different from Race #2 and quite dry and dusty.  Fortunately they did some work on the course Saturday night which resulted in some pleasant changes for Sunday's race runs.

I was fortunate enough to get to race ex Pro "Jill Hamilton" who rides/works for Haro. She got me by 6 seconds in both runs, and she made me work harder to keep up. I hope to see at the November race and at the Winter Series in '09.

So I ended up in 2nd place for Race #4 and 1st place in the overall. The jersey is SWEEEET and I will enjoy wearing it!!!

Thanks to Don Jackson for putting on a great series and thanks to all my fellow racers and Sponsors, it wouldn't be the same without your support!

Finals at Mammoth, Labor Day weekend!!

This was my 1st race back since surgery and my plan was to be healded and ready to race. I love it when a plan comes together!!!

We had a great time at Brian Head riding and racing! We met up with friends on Friday and did some riding and then hit up the DH race course for some practice. I think we ended up getting in a total of 7 or 8 runs that day.

On to Saturday with Thunderstorms in the forecast. We had Dual Slalom practice at 9am, then qualifying at 11am. I ended up qualifying 4th of 4. Then a quick lunch on off to DH practice at 12pm untill 3:30pm. Then Dual Slalom practice again at 4pm. We got 2 runs in, 1 on each course and then cometh the rain, thunder and lightning. They put a hold on practice and then decided to run the Pro DS finals before ours. We ended up starting at around 6:00pm. It was overcast, cold and windy. The rain held off for runs 1 and 2 which put me in the running for 3rd or 4th. The rain started up on my 3rd run and the conditions were slippery as the first layer of dirt stuck to my tires. I got beat in the 3rd run but had a good 4th run and ended up 3rd. And in the overalls for the series I ended up 4th. Not bad for my 1st year racing DS!!

The forecast for Sunday was not looking good. So we checked the weather and decided to take raincoats, good call as it rained on us during DH practice at 8:30am. We got in 2 practice runs and felt pretty good. Since the chair takes 1/2 hour to get you to the top we only had a few minutes to relax and then back up the hill for the DH finals which started at 11:00am. Unfortunately I must have burped my tire during practice and didn't notice. When I was warming up a little boy asked me if I knew my tire was low. I had Roger look at it and he said, "it's fine". So off I went. I felt confident, but not quite as fast as in practice and was a little too conservative, but I was smooth and dialed all my lines as in practice. The bottom half of the course had dried out since the morning rain so it wasn't as tacky as during practice. All in all I was happy with my run and I ended up winning my class.

We packed up the condo, at lunch then headed back for awards. I got my medal and then hung around for the overall awards to collect my 1st place overall series plaque and winner's jersey!!!!