Had an interesting race run at the state race this last weekend at Fontana, Ca. Practiced on Saturday and got familar with the course. I slowly dialed up the speed each run and started feeling pretty good considering this was my first race back since a wrist injury in January. Returned on Sunday for just 2 more practice runs, again getting a little faster on each one. I had my game plan and I knew what lines I want to take. I'm ready to go.
This is most technical section of the course. Its super loose and there are big embedded rocks all over the place. There are three different lines into this section: 1) around the rocks to the (rider's) right 2) thread down the middle of the rocks or 3) jump off the rock shelf. I chose 3):
(I'm going to respect the photographers copyright and only provide links here)
So far so good ..
okay, whats next?
Ah crap, this pole wasn't here in practice, hit the brakes!
Ain't gunna stop ..
Hello ground
and so on ...
Advil anyone??
Apparently, the line I was planning to take got changed because it was deemed a cheater line and the pole got moved to this location right before the start of the race. The pole was actually in this location for Saturday practice but not for Sunday. You could really enter this section with less brakes and hit the drop faster if you could go to the left of the rock. The problem is, if you're jumping in, you are committed at that speed and can't do much about it after that. People that were taking the middle line could make the adjustment to go right once they saw the new pole location.
I can laugh about it now because my back is finally feeling better but at the time I wasn't so happy about the unannounced course change.
Nonetheless, the mishap made for some good photos.
S
This is most technical section of the course. Its super loose and there are big embedded rocks all over the place. There are three different lines into this section: 1) around the rocks to the (rider's) right 2) thread down the middle of the rocks or 3) jump off the rock shelf. I chose 3):
(I'm going to respect the photographers copyright and only provide links here)
So far so good ..
okay, whats next?
Ah crap, this pole wasn't here in practice, hit the brakes!
Ain't gunna stop ..
Hello ground
and so on ...
Advil anyone??
Apparently, the line I was planning to take got changed because it was deemed a cheater line and the pole got moved to this location right before the start of the race. The pole was actually in this location for Saturday practice but not for Sunday. You could really enter this section with less brakes and hit the drop faster if you could go to the left of the rock. The problem is, if you're jumping in, you are committed at that speed and can't do much about it after that. People that were taking the middle line could make the adjustment to go right once they saw the new pole location.
I can laugh about it now because my back is finally feeling better but at the time I wasn't so happy about the unannounced course change.
Nonetheless, the mishap made for some good photos.
S