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Small Pond
I flew off the 10’ foot drop into the creek denting my top tube, bending my derailleur hanger and feeling like a total ass in front of the same guy I had just passed.
By Mark Weir
This past weekend we had another one of are kick-ass local races at Skyline Mountain Park in Napa, the same venue where the world cup was held from 97-99. This race is in its 10th year and it just gets better and more technical every year. The last 2 years the race over-all fastest time was posted by me in 03 and Kirk Desmond in 04. We would be doing 3 laps with each lap7.5 miles long and 1800’ of climbing. .
At the start they group all the Pro, Semi pro, experts, and one speeds together. For the first 15 minutes we would climb up a super rocky double track till we turn right at the top on to a single track with some of the most challenging trail riding you can do at race pace. This is where the "roady big lung guy" just hates his 80mm fork, but even more then that he hates his grey tooth giving negative rise 140 stem, here chew on this!
Halfway through the 1st lap I was in 1st and Kirk was in 2nd about 40 seconds back with about 5 other guys. Then the DH came and that is where we handed out the wood. Unlucky for Kirk, he ended up ripping an unfixable hole in his tire so he was out. Coming in to do my 3rd and final lap I had about 6 minutes on 2nd but I was starting to catch some of the sport riders which would almost end my day. I had finished all the climbing for the most part and past about 10-15 people already. I was just about to get to one of my favorite section when I saw some pac fill clogging my line. I gave a couple of "can I get by please" but to no avail so that’s when I decided to take the deeper line through the creek. That was not a huge problem but on the other side was a section that people had been carrying there bike across and I was going to make it or die trying. The thing that sucked was that cholesterol was clogging my prime flow line, I was doomed from the start.
As I started my traverse across this root infested off camber, I lost contact with my skill. I flew off the 10’ foot drop into the creek denting my top tube, bending my derailleur hanger and feeling like a total ass in front of the same guy I had just passed. As I picked up my carcass and ran back up to the trail and jumped on my bike the guy said "hey you alright", I said "yes". Then he said "you dumb ass" all I could come back with is, "Right"!! I limped my beat down bike back to the finish with the use of about 4 gears and ended up winning by 8 minutes. The funny thing is the guy that I called e a dumb ass was Mike Sinyard from Specialized.. All I can say is… Right…
Bike Used: Blur XC. Fork: Fox 130. Tires: WTB XC wolf 1.95. Shifter: XO triggers and XO Carbon derailleur. Hayes EC Brakes. Seat Post: Gravity Dropper 4" drop
In the bottle: EAS Endurathon with Kick Start.
Old course record 2:08 new course record 2:01:48
The race course: 22 miles 5600’ of climbing
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