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Deer Valley Race Reports (long- 3 races:DS, SD, DH)

2K views 6 replies 7 participants last post by  downhilldoll 
#1 · (Edited)
The Bruise Chronicles: NORBA #3 Deer Valley
File under: "Endurance Gravity Racing", Cross-reference: "Rubber-side Down"
Deer Valley Resort, Park City, UT
Saturday, June 18, 2005

Summary: NORBA Nationals in UT. Dual slalom, PB&J, Downhill, Rinse, Repeat.
Airfare, rental car, lodging and race fees: 2 week$ pay;
Weekend playing hard and coming home dirty, exhausted, and (amazingly) uninjured: Priceless!!


It's race time again -- time for the NORBA Nationals and downhill mountain biking at Deer Valley, UT. I hear it's majestically beautiful, and note to myself that this will be the first time I've ever been to a part of Utah that has grass. As I start to pack, I realize I know nothing about Deer Valley, except what bits and pieces I have heard from others who have raced here before. Not knowing what to bring, I pack gear and clothing for every possible condition except flood and fire.


(entering Deer Valley)

In my customary "get-the-most-race-for-the-money" manner, I have signed up for three events: Dual Slalom, Super D, and Downhill. My schedule is essentially 30 hours of racing interrupted by occasional eating and sleeping. Most people do not overextend themselves like this, but I have a cycling addiction and a need for a number plate on my bike. I'm told there are 12-step programs for people like me, but then, I would probably need more like a 24-step program...

Just to add to the intensity, I'm doing all three events on the same bike. I ride a Morewood Shova that, at 36 lbs is built up quite heavy for a trail bike, but rather light for a downhill bike. With 6" of front and rear suspension, it will take me comfortably through most any sport downhill course, and with its pedaling efficiency (meaning that pedaling power is not "lost" or dissipated into the rear shock when climbing), I can use it for Super D courses where climbing is often just as important as descending. If you can only take one bike to the race, and you need a bike that does it all, the Shova is the bike to have.


(My Shova lined up with the other Morewoods at the Morewood pits)

Dual slalom
I arrive Deer Valley just as Thursday dual slalom practice closes, and will only have an opportunity to practice the course in the morning before qualifying rounds. While there are no drops, there are a half-dozen turns that are not bermed, so you will have to know just how fast you can approach, how far you can lean the bike, and where your weight should be in order to make the turn without washing out. This will be the most challenging part of this race. If there are eight turns in a race and you can do them .25 seconds faster than your opponent, that's two whole seconds faster overall. In this race, two seconds is a lot of time.


(Deer Valley dual slalom course)


(Deer Valley dual slalom course)

While dual slalom is great fun and quite challenging mentally, the exhausting aspect of it that is often overlooked is the trip back up the hill after your run. After several pushes up the hill at 7400 feet elevation, you understand that you need to look at your practice in terms of the most efficient expenditure of energy, how many times you think you can push up and still be fresh for your race, and not in terms of how many runs you want to do. The quality of your practice runs becomes much more important than the quantity of practice runs.

Friday 8:00am -- Dual Slalom Qualifiers
Friday morning on the hill, there are only three Beginner/Sport women and four Expert women. We're all glad there are seven females out here, but wish there were more of us. One of the guys practicing the course with us is Jordan Koyle, who races in a DH wheelchair. At the bottom, they attach his wheelchair bike to a 4-wheeler that tows him up the hill to the starting gate. I notice he maneuvers it really well, and he practices the red and blue courses with focus and drive. He's the only one in his class today, but most importantly it's evident he's here doing something he loves to do. I wish I had spoken to him, if only to introduce myself as a fellow rider and tell him I'm glad he's here, but when you're standing in line waiting to practice, introducing yourself for no reason sounds kind of stupid to you, so you keep to yourself. But I am glad that Jordan's here, because he reminds me how powerful this passion of mountain biking is, and how it teaches you to live fully, and not give up.

Qualifiers go well for me, as I make the decision to take it a bit slow and controlled rather than push the edge and take the risk of washing out. I qualify first, but not by much. It will be a hard fought race later this afternoon.

Friday 11:00am -- Sport Downhill Practice
I leave the dual slalom course, stopping at the pit to change out pedals and shoes for my only chance to practice the downhill course before the race tomorrow morning. The course begins with a straightaway down a dry rocky fire road that quickly detours onto singletrack and drops into the woods. You weave your way through the trees and rocks, and drop into the next section of singletrack that is flowy and fast. Soon you come out onto a fire road descent, allowing you to fly down the hill before you suddenly realize you're fast approaching the 90-degree turn that takes you back into the woods. Shut it down for the turn, drop onto the singletrack, make your way over the rocks. Emerge from the woods and ride off-camber across the mountain, fighting gravity that wants to pull you down and away from the desired high line of travel, and into the scrub brush. A switchback and small descent lead you to singletrack back into the woods, over another rocky area, and into the final 2 minutes of dusty switchbacks and occasional small climbs. It's those small climbs that most everyone with a 42-pound downhill bike will complain about.


(Deer Valley sport downhill course)


(Deer Valley sport downhill course)

While I'm comfortable on the climbs and the rocky descents, the dusty switchbacks and loose corners will give me trouble. I wash out a couple times and take a few spills in practice. I've got perhaps one more crash in me before I really wear myself out. I decide to ride more conservatively, and save myself for the 23 hours still to go. Throughout the day I force myself to eat (PB&J, Sharkies, and E-Gel) and drink plenty of fluids (Elete water -an electrolyte replacement you add to water- does the trick for me and keeps my Camelbak clean).

At 12:45 I catch one of the last chairlifts to the top of the sport course for another run before they close the course. I stop to study the sections of the course I have trouble with, and make mental notes of where I should be looking and what lines I should take. It takes some discipline to stop your practice run, put your bike down, take your helmet off and examine a section of trail, but you thank yourself later.

Friday afternoon -- Dual Slalom Finals
At 3 o'clock, after a brief rest at the condo, I suit up again for the Dual Slalom Finals. My teammate Brian has volunteered to be my pit crew and push my bike up the hill for me (which makes me feel like a total rock star!). We head over to the course to find the pros still racing, and the amateur race delayed almost an hour and a half. We get to see some of the best dual slalom racers in the world go head to head right in front of us. From a racer's standpoint, I watch their lines closely, especially the pro women, and notice how slowly they have to go in order not to wash out in the dusty earth. I also watch the course dry out under the sun and deteriorate under the punishing tires of the pros. By the time our race comes, the course will be only an echo of the one we practiced earlier today and I'll be fighting the entire time just to stay on the bike. Normally they'd water it down between races, but it's getting late, and there will be no time.

At 5:30 pm, amateur racing begins. As I thought, the course is much more difficult now, and I'm more tired than I was this morning. I feel like my first two passes down the course are so slow it's painful, but perhaps everyone is feeling it. Lynn and I line up in the gate for dual slalom finals -- we're racing for 1st place now. We hear the starting commands begin: "Riders ready!" I anticipate the beeps and almost fall off my pedals in a false start. Out of the gate now, I chase her down the hill and almost wash out in the third corner. She crosses the line and takes the 1.5-second advantage. Brian meets me at the bottom with a bottle of water and takes my bike from me. I am really thankful he's here! I will only have four trips up this hill this afternoon, and it will be exhausting enough. I can't imagine what the guys must suffer, having to take 16 or more race runs and trudge up this hill every time!


(Dual Slalom - pic from qualifiers)

We line up for the final run. As the beeps sound, I'm first out of the gate and doing well until it comes to those dry loose corners with no berm -- the part I do poorest. Once again she inches ahead of me as I struggle to keep up, but it's not enough. I cross the line just behind her, taking a respectable second place.

My teammate PapaJohn has waited for the end of my race and joins me at the awards ceremony. The rest of the team are getting showers and heading for dinner. I'm so hungry I look for any food, having given most of mine to Jared's mom at the pro dual slalom finals. Thankfully it's common to walk around at a bike race asking complete strangers if they have anything to eat, and soon enough I'm handed a Clif bar by a merciful spectator.

The women's awards are often called last. I used to be one of those who would ask the announcer if the girls could be called first, but then last September at Mammoth, I watched Mike Copithorne who raced wheelchair class wait patiently as all the other awards were called out before the announcer finally got to his name. Most of the people had already gone by then, so there were very few people around to cheer him. He was all smiles when his name was called, and gracefully accepted the medal placed around his neck. I made a note to myself never again to complain about when my category would be called.


(NORBA Deer Valley Dual Slalom Sport Women)

After awards and my little moment in the sun on the podium, PapaJohn and I find the rest of our teammates downtown having dinner and drinking beer (no surprise there). As soon as I'm finished eating, I'm ready to head back to the condo. I've got two races and 14 hours to go. I collapse on the couch at 10pm, not even bothering to pull out the hide-a-bed.

Saturday morning -- Super D Race
I awaken thirty minutes before the six o'clock alarm goes off, after a restless and somewhat sleepless night. Super D practice is at 7am, with the race at 8am. Since I missed practice yesterday when the Dual Slalom race ran late, I have not seen the whole course. I've been told that it's a fast fire road descent down and around to a climb back up to the start of the sport downhill course, where it follows the course most of the way down, then turns into the woods for what seems endless switchbacks to the bottom. I'm confident enough with my practice on the sport course that I opt out of practice for Super D, not wanting to exhaust myself before the race. I get to the top of the course by 7:30.

The field is huge, and Team Big Bear is overwhelmed at the turnout. Used to a few dozen racers for the entire Super D race, the throng of 230 of us surprises everyone. I see people I'm used to seeing at many of the races and usually chat with, but this morning I'm tired and not my usual sunny self. I'm quiet, like I am before downhill races, knowing I'll have to focus more than in a casual cross-country setting. I hate racing tired, because that's usually when I get hurt.

The women go off first, and we line up according to our seed times. We will go individually at 20-second intervals. In Super D, there are no classes but Pro and Amateur, with the Amateurs divided by age group. All women age 30-39 race each other, be they Beginner, Sport, or Expert, Cross-country or Downhill racers. Connie, an expert downhiller who raced dual slalom yesterday lines up behind me. She's on a lighter bike than me, and will likely catch me on the climb, but I intend to chase her down the hill, even if it is just for a dust sandwich.

It's my turn, and I pull up to the line painted in the dirt where I'll begin. The beeps go off, and my race begins! I hear my name called as I take off down the hill, "Go Laura! Go!" and I smile on the inside as I try to maintain focus. The Shova is a much more responsive bike than I'm used to, and any slight movement might cause me to lose control as I fly down the rocky fire road towards the left turn at the bottom. I realize just in time that I've got to shut it down almost completely to make this turn, simultaneously downshift and begin the nasty climb in front of me. I don't get far before I realize my energy would be better spent pushing the bike up the hill than exhausting myself trying to pedal the rest of the way. I make this decision too soon. I should have gone just 10 yards more.

I push up the hill, my heart pounding already. It's not long before I hear Connie coming, and she seems to motor up the hill with no trouble at all. Well, ppppthththththtttt. I begin running with the bike, get to the top, then jump on and go. I descend the fire road and reach the top of the sport downhill course. I'm back in my own element. The worst is over. I begin the descent onto the singletrack. Bwwwuuuhahahahhaha! It's smooth. I remember all the lines I'm supposed to take, and actually take most of them. Although I bobble in a couple of places, it's mostly due to fatigue, and recognizing this, I make an extra effort to stay focused and look ahead.


(Deer Valley early morning Super D race shot)

As the Super D course leaves the sport downhill course and drops into the wooded singletrack switchbacks, I think the race is almost over. Little do I know I have another 3 minutes of switchbacks and will be almost dizzy before I finally cross the fire road at the bottom. When I realize I'm through the descents and have mostly level earth to cover, I take it as fast as I comfortably can, trying to stay relaxed and watch for fast-approaching objects like trees that will grab my handlebars. I see the finish line and stand and pedal, hearing my name called along with my time. Thirteen minutes and 48 seconds of torture with some really fun and at times scary moments in between. Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!

Saturday: Sport Downhill Race (noon)
I have one more race to go -- Downhill begins at noon, and according to the seed list I'll be one of the first racers out of the gate. I have about two hours to rest, so I lie down in the condo and prepare for the final leg of my "endurance gravity race weekend".

Since I'm paranoid about missing my start time, I'm up at the top of the course early. Just past noon, all the girls are called to the start and we're lined up in our seed order, and the beeps that signal the start of the race begin. I inch toward the gate as racers ahead of me take off at 30-second intervals, and soon I'm between the metal barriers, the next to go off. I hear Patti verify my race number with the official over the radio. "Fifteen seconds," she says to me quitely. I nod, and rest my elbow against the barrier, hands on the handlebars, and clip into the pedals. The beeps count down the final 6 seconds, I stand on the pedals and turn the crank as I hear the last beep sound, pushing my weight over the front tire and launching myself forward. I hear my name called as my fellow racers cheer me on, their voices fading as I pass into the woods.


(Deer Valley on the Sport Downhill course)

I'm in the zone, focused and listening to myself... "Pedal pedal pedal, down and around the rock, drop into the descent, through the center of the trail, hit the switchback and go! Look ahead, break before the corner, lead into the switchback with your shoulders, three pedal strokes here, watch for roots and rocks, and for Pete's sake, slow down on the fire road before that wash-out turn!" So it goes to till I hit the dusty switchbacks at the bottom and the small climbs, when I hear that inner voice wheezing… "Shoulda... trained more... need to... start running again... Whoah! Tree!!! Focus!! Look ahead, break before the corner, lead with your shoulders into the switchback…"

I emerge from the woods down the small descent and make the right hand turn that leads me toward the finish line. I stand and pedal with all I have, wishing I could jump the 6-foot wide rock bed ahead of me, but knowing I'll just have to relax my arms and roll over it. Over the rock bed, it's stand and pedal to the finish! As I cross the line, I hear the announcer call my name and comment, "There she is; I don't know how she does it! Laura Drexler with a time of 8:10 leads her category!" How to make a girl's day in one easy lesson. What a great thing to hear! Although I feel like it's a really slow time, when I look at all the times, mine is the 3rd fastest overall for Sport Women. I can live with that.

I continue pedaling to cool down and take a few moments to assess my race. Did I make any mistakes? No big errors to speak of. How could I have improved my time? More rest prior to the race would have given me more strength and energy, helped me focus better and given me a better overall run. Had I not been recovering from injuries, I would not have been as concerned about holding back so as not to crash; I would have pushed a little bit more. But all told, I'm pleased with my run. Cool-down over, I pedal back to the finish line to greet the other girls and cheer for those coming across the line.


(Beginner-Sport Women group photo)

I begin looking for my teammates who will be finishing soon. PapaJohn (Sport Men 50+) comes across the finish line, weary but all smiles and a 7:07 time. Fantastic! I hike up to the top to watch the rest of the team come across. I see Brian Mungier (Beginner Men 18 and under) round the corner and come flying down the hill. We begin cheering for him as he pedals towards us and hits the rockbed. Somewhere between that final small descent and the rockbed, his rear tire goes flat, but he's almost across the finish line, stands and pedals to the end, fighting to keep the weight off his rear tire. He finishes with a great time of 5:56, which gives him a 2nd place finish. I run to find him and bring him a cup of water, but he's nowhere to be seen. I scan the finish area again, and only then do I notice the grey and white heap to the side of the trail. "Brian! You did great! Sit up and have some water." He smiles, raises up on an elbow, and between gasps for thin air tells me he flatted right before the finish line, but other than that, it was a great run.

I return to my spectator's spot just above the finish line and see Andy Becker (Jr Men 14 and under) come around the bend and pour on the heat. He finishes with a 6:27 and a 2nd place spot on the podium. We have one more team rider, our junior rider Hunter Becker (Jr Men 10 and under). We see him, a black and white smudge on the hill in the distance, as he makes the descent and heads for the finish line. He's smoking up the trail as he approaches the rock bed, rattles across it, but seems to have chain trouble! Not losing momentum, he pushes the bike a bit at a run, then hops back on and crosses the finish line. We all cheer as the announcer calls his time, 7:59! Hunter takes 1st place! As we gather round him and he gives us the play-by-play of his race, it occurs to me that I really need to step it up now, because this 9-year-old just beat my time by 10 seconds.


(BeyondBikes-NoBrakes Racing: Beginner-Sport Racers)

My races over, I can finally relax, get something to eat and drink, and watch the expert downhill race. As I stand next to Donna watching the experts come over the 6-foot wall drop, it occurs to me that I have come through this race weeknd no worse for wear. "Donna!" I turn to her, "We're all finished and we're still in one piece!" "Oh, I know! What a relief, huh?!" Both of us have given up trying to explain why you would do something that would cause "not limping afterwards" to be one of your goals.

Naturally, the mud hasn't dried on my tires, but I'm already planning the next race.

race report by Laura Drexler
 
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#2 ·
cool story

srg,

Thanks for the story. Sounds like your marathon weekend ended up rather well, not only for you but your team also.

If you are ready for the next race, I am ready for your next report.

:cool:
 
#6 ·
Sweet write-up! It was great meeting you and riding with you! Can't wait to see you next time!

Hopefully we can get some more girls out for future races. Not that I want to hike up to the top of the Slalom course that many more times, but I had so much fun - I'd love to be racing against a few more women!! :D Addie and I had both never tried Dual Slalom (or mountaincross) before - and had so much fun. I swear I'm now ambassador to this event and have been trying to talk every woman I know into trying it! (And we're headed out to the local BMX track on Monday to work on gate starts and cornering...)
 
#7 ·
Great Job L...

connie said:
Sweet write-up! It was great meeting you and riding with you! Can't wait to see you next time!

Hopefully we can get some more girls out for future races. Not that I want to hike up to the top of the Slalom course that many more times, but I had so much fun - I'd love to be racing against a few more women!! :D Addie and I had both never tried Dual Slalom (or mountaincross) before - and had so much fun. I swear I'm now ambassador to this event and have been trying to talk every woman I know into trying it! (And we're headed out to the local BMX track on Monday to work on gate starts and cornering...)
You GO Girl :)

I love reading your race reports. Wish I was there.
 
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