Snowmass DH
Published by Olivier Bock August 16th, 2006 in General
Motionbased GPS has really drummed up a fascination with course profiles and the idea of bringing real maps to the arena of mountain bike racing. Because the Norba Finals was offering FREE SUPER-D if you signed up for two events, I decided to opt for the DH.
No, I'd never raced a true DH, and I'd never even ridden a DH bike, but I felt up for the challenge and I've always wanted to give it a try. However, as a Semi-Pro XC guy I am categorized as an Expert in DH which puts me on the Pro level course.
Ok, course profiles for DH are predictable:
But profiles notwithstanding, DH is far more variable than XC in almost every way. Consider this: if your race is only 1 mile long and less than 5 minutes, how much time will you spend preparing your bike? Answer: lots. Tire selection, shock pressure, frame angles, etc. can all be tweaked for optimal control and speed on a given course and can mean the difference between 1st place and 10th.
Me? I just had to get used to riding a DH bike, period. Even better, the weather moved in and I had a laundry list of issues: mud, slick rocks, and oh, that nasty drop.
I did some course inspection on foot, in the dry conditions, and on Saturday morning I drove up to Aspen to rent a DH bike from the friendly crew at Ute City Cycles. With my race at 4pm, and practice from 2:30 - 3:30, I had only a few hours to get used to a totally new world of bike riding. Luckily for me, I got lots of help.
Downhill racers are some of the most forthcoming, encouraging people to race with. While on the outside the sport seems so intense, these are really some friendly people who love to help other riders along. First off, the guys at FOX changed out the spring in my fork to give me better travel. Then I poked around on some trails to get used to the handling of the bike, but still there was nothing to practice on like the course, which was still closed for practice.
When the course opened up for practice, I was ready to go. A guy named Scott, camping next to us, is also a coach, and he gave me tons of advice going in to this. When we hopped on to the course, I was just going to follow his lines and let the bike take care of the rest. By this time the rain had started falling.
The Big Drop? No problem! These bikes are built to handle some nasty stuff as long as you can wrap your mind around it.
In two practice runs I nailed the drop in muddy, wet conditions, and the "waterfall" section below that was no problem either. The race was another story: going from top to bottom is different than riding each section at a time. By the time I hit the Big Drop, my arms were pretty pumped and at race pace I think I hit it a bit fast; with waterlogged hands and soggy gloves it was getting hard to hold on. I landed it ok, but when I went for the brakes, my hands came right off the bars and fell straight backwards on my back and on my ass. Ouch. It took me some time to recover and get my bearings, but I managed the rest of the course to finish my first DH race. I ended up 12th out of 14 starters and learned so much about a part of the sport I knew little about.
No, I'd never raced a true DH, and I'd never even ridden a DH bike, but I felt up for the challenge and I've always wanted to give it a try. However, as a Semi-Pro XC guy I am categorized as an Expert in DH which puts me on the Pro level course.
Ok, course profiles for DH are predictable:
But profiles notwithstanding, DH is far more variable than XC in almost every way. Consider this: if your race is only 1 mile long and less than 5 minutes, how much time will you spend preparing your bike? Answer: lots. Tire selection, shock pressure, frame angles, etc. can all be tweaked for optimal control and speed on a given course and can mean the difference between 1st place and 10th.
Me? I just had to get used to riding a DH bike, period. Even better, the weather moved in and I had a laundry list of issues: mud, slick rocks, and oh, that nasty drop.
I did some course inspection on foot, in the dry conditions, and on Saturday morning I drove up to Aspen to rent a DH bike from the friendly crew at Ute City Cycles. With my race at 4pm, and practice from 2:30 - 3:30, I had only a few hours to get used to a totally new world of bike riding. Luckily for me, I got lots of help.
Downhill racers are some of the most forthcoming, encouraging people to race with. While on the outside the sport seems so intense, these are really some friendly people who love to help other riders along. First off, the guys at FOX changed out the spring in my fork to give me better travel. Then I poked around on some trails to get used to the handling of the bike, but still there was nothing to practice on like the course, which was still closed for practice.
When the course opened up for practice, I was ready to go. A guy named Scott, camping next to us, is also a coach, and he gave me tons of advice going in to this. When we hopped on to the course, I was just going to follow his lines and let the bike take care of the rest. By this time the rain had started falling.
The Big Drop? No problem! These bikes are built to handle some nasty stuff as long as you can wrap your mind around it.
In two practice runs I nailed the drop in muddy, wet conditions, and the "waterfall" section below that was no problem either. The race was another story: going from top to bottom is different than riding each section at a time. By the time I hit the Big Drop, my arms were pretty pumped and at race pace I think I hit it a bit fast; with waterlogged hands and soggy gloves it was getting hard to hold on. I landed it ok, but when I went for the brakes, my hands came right off the bars and fell straight backwards on my back and on my ass. Ouch. It took me some time to recover and get my bearings, but I managed the rest of the course to finish my first DH race. I ended up 12th out of 14 starters and learned so much about a part of the sport I knew little about.
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