Whoosh! That's the end of mountain bike season flying past at warp speed.

   For all intents and purposes, 2012 DH racing is a wrap! The last 3 weekends have gone by so stinking fast I can hardly keep track of up or down (or keep my wheels on the ground for that matter)...Somebody sped up the earth's rotation without letting me know and it's really been messing with my balance lately. Racing on Boondocks--already 2 weeks ago at this point--at least I stayed on my bike, but couldn't keep it on the trail. That bobble cost me probably more than the 2 seconds I lost to first place on that run, but I pedaled madly and stayed off the brakes more than ever in the lower sections to make up a decent amount of time.  After screwing up I managed to stay focused, and definitely would have beaten my Pro GRT time if the finish had been in the same place.
   The Tahoe Fat Tire Festival at Squaw Valley the following weekend brought even more fun and excitement; I had just replaced my brake rotors that were bent and rubbing with brand new ones, which just happened to rub even worse, like riding with your brakes on. Crap! I'm not exactly a mechanical genius, in fact I'm kind of scared to mess with my bike too much because I seem to always make it worse, so I just decided to ride Kit's bike for the race instead. The course was a whopping 3 miles long with a good amount of pedaling, and the only techy rock section was at the top and not really that bad at all. That made it easy to decide on a 30 lb 7-inch travel bike without perma-brakes over my V-10. I took one practice run before the race and decided it was good enough, never mind the suspension was set up for Kit (and being air I could have easily changed it). But I didn't. Probably would have helped a bit...Midway through the rocks I put my front wheel in the wrong place and went OTB, not a hard crash but a slow topple that cost some time. I hopped back on and got going, and things were smooth until farther down in the woods I snagged a pedal on something and found myself in the dirt again. Got a little mad and pedaled harder, but not quite enough to catch Tasa, who finished about 8 seconds ahead of me. Despite my inability to stay on the bike during the race, it was a good event overall. The festival atmosphere always makes bike racing more fun, and being able to race on a new trail in the spectacular setting of Squaw's mountainous terrain is pretty neat. Hopefully the event makes a return next year, with a real DH course, and maybe a dual slalom or something!
  Finally there was the Tara Llanes Classic this past weekend. The race I was second in last season, by not a whole lot, so my goal this time was to be second again and under 2 minutes to World Cup racer and BMX Olympian Jill Kintner, who obviously was going to win unless her bike had serious mechanical failures. Oh, and I wanted a CLEAN RUN for once! Only out of three goals were met this time: in an effort to "conserve" energy, I took it way too easy on the flat, winding Flameout trail section. What the heck! That didn't do me any good. Then after greasing through the main rock waterfall and gnar section on Sticks & Stones, I make it to just above the last rock garden on the lower trail and spectacularly wad up in a dusty rut. Seriously, I have no idea what even happened, just wound up filled with dust in every orifice and shaking my head. I shook out as much dust as possible and continued on, dirt trickling out of my helmet and goggles the rest of the way to the finish. I wound up in third, just a few seconds off of second place, and barely under 2 minutes from Jill. If I had either pedaled harder (oh the irony) or not crashed it would have been a sure second place--if I had done both pedal and not crash I maybe would have been well under 2 minutes back. Oh well, that's what I get for trying to be smart and strategize--better to just pedal till my legs fall off! My friend Shanna who beat me rode hard the whole way and had spaghetti legs at the end, she definitely earned her giant check! I got one too, just a little bit smaller, but it will still help me fix my bike and get it running better for next year.
   Also a shout-out to Kali for replacing the busted visor on my helmet, probably good that I waited till after the race to do that or else I would have needed 2 of them! And my POC body armor has performed spectacularly this season, keeping me un-injured through the many times I've sampled dirt. Last but not least, Loeka Clothing for keeping me well-dressed in some snazzy gear--unfortunately I've put holes in just about everything this year with my many crashes!
   I'll wait till next time to ponder how I felt about this season as a whole; my patience for sitting here is wearing thin and I need to get outside for a bit before going to the dentist this afternoon...