MSC #6 - Full Tilt in Telluride Recap

So we learned two things this weekend..... Super D points don't count toward our Team's Gravity points and Bigfoot is alive and well in the San Juans throwing large rocks at unsuspecting riders. For those of you that don't know what I'm talking about, I was nearly killed by something crashing onto my head that destroyed my helmet on the Village Trail in Telluride (see the last picture in this post). I had riders directly behind me and in front of me and no one saw anything except the aftermath of me flipping into the trees. The worse part is no one can figure out what it was! The good news is that the x-rays of my vertebrae showed no signs of compression fractures. Be very careful in them parts!

Back to the race... The weather was rather unpredictable with heavy rain and thunderstorms at some point everyday. The dirt would go from dry to mud to hero dirt and back to dry. The rocks in the woods were down right scary when wet. We got a pimpin' condo that was within a 9-iron shot of the Gondola and had a nice garage that made it easy to rebuild two forks over the weekend and store all of our smelly gear. Everyone was super stoked with the place except for the fact we had to be out by noon on Sunday which proved to be a PITA. People in attendance were, Myself and Amy, Matt and Elizabeth, Mike and Kyra, the Landis Family, Jesse T, Jesse squared, Chris R, Andrew, Adam, and Kazzy. Everyone raced at least one race except for Myself, Kyra, Chris R, and Elizabeth.

Race Results:

• Mountain Cross (4X) - This was a pretty exciting course. 4 individual berms out of the gate, then only 2 in the next turn, then one in the next. The other awesome aspect was the fact that you could see the entire course if you stood in a good spot which is pretty unusual for most tracks.
  
• CAT 2/3
• Kazzy got knocked out in the first round and ended up 17/19.
• Matt blew everyone's socks off by making it into the small final and churned out a 8th out of 17. Hell yea Matt, you really are out of retirement! Now get back to training!
  
• CAT 1
• Mike also made to the small final. He was so disappointed with his first run, he had no idea he made it to the small final and almost missed his start! Good thing he made it because he won the small final with a killer pass in the middle of the course putting him in 5th out of 9 racers
• Pro
• Eric had yet again another solid race. He was very surprised when he made it to the small final. He ended up 7th out of 12 and said "I think I finished right where i belong at this point." Eric, I know you got more in the tank, don't be satisfied just yet!
  
• Super D - The trail was entirely "No Brainer" with the exception of a muddy uphill run/ride with the bikes that started directly to your left as you got off the Gondola.
  
• Women 19+
• Amy was the only person to race SD. She was on the fence about it, and had she known that SD points don't count toward the team's points, she probably would have raced DH. The entire team came out to watch Amy race and cheer her on. When I say she was stuck behind two women, I mean stuck! She was basically running into these women in every turn because Lindsay Yost doesn't know how to corner a bike at all and wouldn't move out of the way. When Amy got to the bottom she was fuming with anger and said "I'm never racing a SD again!". Turns out she was wrecked right off the start and that girl's handlebar went into Amy's spokes breaking one of them. Amy was the last girl of the line and still pulled out a 3rd place finish! You rock Amy! We all know you should have won!
• Downhill - The Cat 2 course was basically the old World Cup course with the exception of the drop onto the ski slope. They were routed around to the right of the drop to meet up with Pan coaster for a short distance before meeting back up with the WC course. The Pro/Cat 1 course was similar, but did include the drop onto the ski slope and then continue to the grove of trees on the other side for a brand new ultra steep section with lots of roots. It then met back up with the final section of the the old WC course. The winning pro time was 2:55 by Chris Boice just for a reference point.
  
• CAT 2 Men 30-39
• Jesse Squared and Kazzy came in neck and neck taking 6th and 7th place. Jesse took the win and managed to edge Kazzy out by only 3 seconds.
• Adam Lavender was on a brand new (to him) Commencal Supreme DH. He just finished building the bike on Thursday and threw down a killer run on Sunday landing him a 2nd place podium finish. It was probably the pro fork rebuild by myself on Saturday night :-)... I'm going to keep telling myself that regardless
  
• CAT 1 Men 19-29
• I know Noah isn't on the Grassroots team, but he might as well be. Noah turned out a 19th out of 26 with a 3:18 and was throwing down mad style as usual.
• CAT 1 Men 30-39
• Jesse T has been ringing in the points for the team this year and this race was no exception with a 3:23. A 4th out of 12 will help the team nicely in the standings. Good work man!
• Pro
• This is kind of a flip flop deal between Eric and Andrew. Eric had a bomber qualifying time of 3:03 and Andrew got held up because someone crashed, thus Andrew was going to be starting 1st and Eric was going to be starting towards the back. Well the race run was the opposite. Andrew came down with a stellar time of 3:13 putting him in 20/28, and Eric front-flatted in the 3rd turn, landing him in dead last ... 28/28. Eric rode it all the way to through the finish line.