Downieville, Mt. Snow and Wilderness 101 walk into a bar...

Downieville is everything people rumor it to be. I slept next to a smoking frog, next to a cool mountain stream and fractured a pinky in the Pixie Cross World Championships. Locals were life-stylers and the pressure was on them, so all I had to do was show up and tear it up.
I'd write more about it but I lost the huge write up and instead of procrastinating longer I'm get'n'r done. WTB hooked me up with some fresh rubber in the form of WeirWolf 2.55 tires. Thank you Dain. I now know where they excel.
Stubby (with his mobile bike repair truck) picked me up from the airport in Reno and Yuri with his Wife Vanessa grabbed me in Truckee.


Perfect traveling mates!
I was happy with myself and my times. 9th on the xc day and 9th on the Downhill with the 29er gave me a 7th overall. A little more push on the climb and a 5th overall would have been in sights. Silly sick downhill! I loved it and you should go love it too.

MT. Snow.
National Championships. Hey, I had to try it at least once. So I reached my goal of a top 20 in the mens race with a 20th spot. I'll take that considering I gave myself a mild concussion a couple hours before the start doing a super-d run. Super-D in Mt. Snow was what they said it would be. Stupid on a Hardtail. But whatever, I got a better hole shot than Craig only to have him come around me in the first single track. A 8th for the day was fine with me, since I didn't take anymore skin off.


Wilderness 101.
I keep going backwards in this race, but somehow I get to the finish faster. 1st in 2006 with a 7:30 time, 2nd n 2007 with 6:57, and now 3rd with a 6:49. Eatough and I were supposed to sprint for the finish, but I punctured at the end of the tunnel with a mile to go. We cat and moused it. I covered two of his attacks and by the time I was going to make my move at the last corner with 200ft to go my front tire was too low to negotiate the corner with aggression. when in doubt go early. Next time.

Too much fun.