Race Report- Downieville Classic MTB

by Chris and Justin Peck

This was the 20th year of this two-day MTB race in the Sierras that has an XC race on Saturday and a DH race on Sunday.  The XC has 4,000 of climbing and 5,300 ft of descending over 27 miles, and you are required to use the same bike setup for the DH which has 4,700 ft of elevation loss.  This rule is enforced with a bike weigh-in each day to make sure that people don’t bring out their long travel bikes with heavy wheels for Sunday!

With temperatures over 100 degrees at the finish, hydration would be critical and Justin and I were lucky to have Heather in the feed zone with cold bottles and ice socks to stuff in the back of our jerseys.  We both used some trail tires from WTB that had more thread and a thicker casing compared to typical XC tires since dust kicked up from other riders would hide some sharp rocks.

The town which has a population of only 290 people really gets behind this event and the festival has food, sponsors booths, and a Saturday evening competition of bikes jumping into the river!  (Photo below and you can find more on YouTube)

Men 50-59

On Saturday, my group was the 3rd start wave of the day behind the pros and 19-40 expert age group.  This made it somewhat easy for me to keep track of my competition on the initial 3000 foot climb and I made it over the top with just one 50-59 competitor.  I let him lead the initial descent which was super dusty since we were catching riders who had started in earlier groups.  But once we dropped to lower elevations, the visibility improved and I was able to stay fairly close to him.  My plan was to attack on a 400 ft climb about 2/3 of the way through the race but he led up this climb as a super high pace where I was struggling to hang on.

I committed to an attack on the final single track section just four miles from the finish and was able to sprint into the lead as we came off a dirt road and entered the single track.  The track had some rocks with a ravine on the right so I had to be precise in my line choice while trying to go full speed.  I succeeded in taking the win by just more than a minute!

Sunday’s DH was just less than an hour of fun and the lower section was shared with the XC.  I was fairly quick while keeping the rubber side down and finished fourth which put me in 3rd place overall.  I was happy with the result and especially pleased with the XC win in my second trip to Downieville over the years!

Pro Men

This was my third year racing Downieville, and after a strong start to this season I hoped to finally pull off a podium at this home race. The pro field had several experienced and skilled riders, but I knew I would be one of the fastest on the climb. I decided to run heavier tires and a bigger fork, hoping that the weight penalty would pay off on the two downhills.

The cross country went off early in the morning, which was good to get out of the way before the peak heat later in the day. It would take us about 45 minutes to climb to the top of the mountain, and I knew this was where I could gain time on the bigger riders who could descend even quicker. No one went out too hard on the pavement, so when we hit the dirt road I went to the front and tried to push the pace. I succeeded in exploding the race, but then Andrew attacked on the steep section and I couldn’t follow. I dropped back to 6th and was on the limit just trying to hold steady power, regretting my choices of running a heavy fork and tires.

After picking up a much needed cold bottle and ice sock from my mom in the feed zone, I started to come back to life. I caught up to Sandy and Carter, and worked together to power across the flat fire road at the top. We sprinted each other to lead the descent, and I ended up second wheel in the dust. Carter and I battled each other all the way down the descent, and after passing Lachlan we were in the race for second. Unfortunately Tobin caught us in the last single track section and launched early, but I sprinted as hard as I could through town to come across the line in 3rd!

Happy with my result in the cross country, I just wanted to put together a clean run in the downhill for a chance at the overall podium. I was excited to rip the descent with a 130mm fork and knobby tires despite suffering to get them to the top in the xc the day before. I had fun on the upper half of the descent, perfectly executing all of the lines I had practiced in our pre-ride on Thursday. I sprinted up all of the short climbs at the bottom of the track, trying to keep my average speed up despite not having as much power as the bigger riders. I came across the finish in 46:30, 8th place in an extremely tight race with the xc and enduro guys just a few seconds apart.

My two results were good enough for 3rd in the all mountain “world champs” overall! I was stoked to put together two clean races without any flats or crashes, and accomplish my goal of landing on the podium. Now for a few more weeks of training before my next big races in the second half of the season!