2011 Livewire Classic

Whenever someone is driving up to Northstar to get some DH shredding in I'm usually the last one to say no. But last time I chickened out of doing a race down Dog Bone (for those who don't know: that's a really gnarly double black trail), just didn't feel ready for it. But this time it was the Livewire classic and this trail is real jumpy goodness.

Doing the race with Schlachter-Factor made sure we showed up pretty late, so late in fact, that they closed the trail for practice runs like 2 minutes before we got to the top of the mountain. Now Livewire isn't too technical so at first we didn't think much of it and warmed up on some other trails instead. Then we were hanging out with the other racers at the starting line. Scott met an old friend of his and we asked him how the trail was, expecting a plain "as usual". However this dude told us that they put in a step-up to a 10 ft ladder drop and they made all the jumps lippier (for the XC weenies: that means it kicks you up high and if you're not prepared you are doing an involuntary front flip). So we kinda freaked out a bit and decided it might be good to have at least a look at this stuff.

Turned out the step-up to drop wasn't bad at all. Super solid, super nice landing, actually looking real fun. We couldn't check out all the jumps, though, since they were kinda hard to get to apart from riding the trail. Well, this just had to do. So we went up back to the start and got a bit delayed because some guy crashed and had to be helicoptered out - so much for confidence boosting.

Then it was time for the race and I was just concentrating on doing a clean run. I was unsure of most of the jumps and hit them way too slow. Some I didn't even get close to the landing transition. The drop was easy and, as expected, real fun. The last time I rode Livewire a couple of weeks ago the berms were super loose and I washed out a bunch of times so I took it slow - to slow. The berms were solid this weekend and I wasted huge amounts of time in them.

So I made it to the bottom and looked at the clock: 5:18. I knew that was bad, real bad. And sure enough I scored a solid DFL in the Experts 30-39. I think that was my first DFL, I'm kinda proud ;)

After this I was a bit pissed. So I just waited for Scott (who was equally good ;)) and then I headed over to the other side of the mountain since I had some outstanding business with the water-fall section on the Karpiel trail (I crashed there pretty hard last time). Scott was heading up to the start again to do the chainless race instead.

Cruising down Karpiel with an ease I didn't expect and cleaning the water fall with no problem my mood got better. Back at the bottom I met Scott whose chainless race wouldn't start until later in the afternoon and we had lunch.

Scott then talked me into doing the chainless race and I signed up for it as well. I had never done that before so I felt a bit uneasy at first but after mastering the first two tables I had a blast. I was a bit concerned if I would clean the step-up without pedalling but I just pumped the bike into the take-off and it went fine.
After coasting down the course with a big grin on my face I get to the finish line and it turns out I was only 4 seconds slower than in my race run (where I pedalled my lungs out), and this for an over 5 minute run, so much for the value of practice runs.

After the race was over we both headed back to the top of Livewire to get more runs in, just for the fun of it. And now, with two runs in and chains back on the bike, we were flying down this hill. I was even cleaning the long tables at the bottom and I'm sure I was at least 10-15 seconds faster than in my race run. But I guess I'll have to wait until next year to redeem myself.

And I didn't even have to go home empty handed: I won a gift card for a free pair of Maui Jim shades in the raffle - sweet.

Erik

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Kirkwood 6 hr Super-D

After having a blast at last years annual 6hr Super D of Kirkwood I was looking forward to do it again this year. My schedule looked good and a bunch of buddies (Schlachter-Factor, Curtis and Will S.) wanted to go as well, so it was on like Donkey Kong.

For those not so familiar with this event a little explanation: You take a lift to the top of the mountain, then ride for a couple of miles mostly downhill but with a good amount of uphill pedalling and repeat that until 6 hours went by.

Last year a bunch of people complained that you could actually bypass the first of the two lifts which was quite a bit faster. So this year they used only one high speed lift everyone had to take. They also had a completely different course so the whole thing was pretty much new to everyone. What I remembered from last time was that you had to do a short road loop to sort out who gets on the lift first - so I prepared for sprinting.

In the starting grid I locked the suspension of my 6" Giant Reign and got ready to kill myself. The tactic worked out and I was the 3rd on the lift. Curtis, of course, was sitting in the first one.

On top of the mountain I was looking forward to a nice descent but no, there was like 1.5 miles of climbing to be done first - in 9000ft of elevation, on loose, sandy ground up a steep trail. Didn't feel it at all in these conditions and got passed by two people immediately and the whole group just pulled away. Oh well, it's 6hr race.

Finally I got to the descent and enjoyed the trail. It was way more gnarly than I expected and I got a bit scared how these loose, off-camber switchbacks with a good amount of exposure would feel like in 4 hours from now. Later I hit way smoother single track through the woods and there were a lot of hikers - that didn't seem right. At some point I asked if they had seen other riders and they said no. Ok, I was off-track but halfway down the mountain so I continued down. Eventually I hit the highway and rode back into the Kirkwood village. Darn!

Back at the finish line they told me I'm good but they won't count my first lap. Oh well. Luckily I came there at the same time the first guys came down the right way. So I didn't have a lot of slow folks in front of me for my next lap.

After my second lap, this time on the right track, they told me that they actually would count my first lap. Apparently I wasn't the only one who made this mistake. So I was back in the game. I figured there couldn't be that many people in front of me and that I should be able to place on the podium. In the following laps I got pretty familiar with the course and it wasn't so scary after all, more like really fun. I was still dying in the upper part of the course and was walking most of the steep sections, every lap.

Towards the end the course became pretty rutted and really sketchy to ride in places. I washed out once but didn't hurt myself. All in all the rest of the race was unspectacular except for a stuck derailleur and some air loss in my rear tire.

So I ended up 6th overall with 7 laps and won the 30-39 age category. Curtis won the pro category with 8 laps (that dude is an animal) and Scott churned out 6 laps. We were all pretty toast afterwards but everyone enjoyed the race.

Good times, can't wait for next year.
Erik

PS: On the way back we made sure the Wrong Way spirit stays alive (for the veterans - note the font):

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