This past weekend was the first event at Vail Lake, the Hillbilly Bike Bash.
I took off at 6:15am Sat morning and made the 3.25 hour drive to lovely Temecula, CA, packed to the gills with race and camping gear.
Venue:
Vail Lake is pretty cool! They've got a ton of campsites, a huge private lake, waterslides, and RC car track and a ton of trails. Whats not to like?
Track:
The DH track was in a word "loose". Really loose sand and silt with random loose rocks. The course was 100 gravity driven, none of the usual flat pedaling section stuff. Parts were quite steep. There were a couple wooden drops and a double near the finish. Pretty cool track and had a neat flow.
Pits:
Moongoose, Turner, Intense, THE, Division 26, Yeti and more all had booths. There was a great industry turnout fersure
People:
This is what I love about our sport, the coolest folks around! Met a ton of folks and saw more old friends. Finally got to meet the man behind the kinematics, DW was there kicken back some cool ones and watching the show.
Antics:
The hillbilly games on Sat night were freakin hilarious! Toilet seat horseshoes, bobbing for pigsfeet and tire racing. Miranda was commentating over the PA, making nicknames for folks in the competition. If you didn't camp out, you missed out!
Race day:
It rained a little overnight and morning practice had me pretty excited about some extra grip in the silt, but it dried pretty quick. Still, the lines had burned in pretty good over practice and it was time to rail. Strong, cold winds made the wait up top very chilly. My run was a mix of good and bad. I had the upper course pretty dialed and I was off the brakes, but two really sandy turns caugt me off guard and might have cost me some time.
Results:
Well, there were some issues with the timing After waiting around for a while EC said it was gonna be another hour to get something, so I decided to head out for my 3 hour drive home. Turns out the problem was more extensive and he's still trying to get it sorted.
Opinion:
They need more events like this, it was a freaken blast. Major props to EC and everyone who helped put this event on.
I took off at 6:15am Sat morning and made the 3.25 hour drive to lovely Temecula, CA, packed to the gills with race and camping gear.
Venue:
Vail Lake is pretty cool! They've got a ton of campsites, a huge private lake, waterslides, and RC car track and a ton of trails. Whats not to like?
Track:
The DH track was in a word "loose". Really loose sand and silt with random loose rocks. The course was 100 gravity driven, none of the usual flat pedaling section stuff. Parts were quite steep. There were a couple wooden drops and a double near the finish. Pretty cool track and had a neat flow.
Pits:
Moongoose, Turner, Intense, THE, Division 26, Yeti and more all had booths. There was a great industry turnout fersure
People:
This is what I love about our sport, the coolest folks around! Met a ton of folks and saw more old friends. Finally got to meet the man behind the kinematics, DW was there kicken back some cool ones and watching the show.
Antics:
The hillbilly games on Sat night were freakin hilarious! Toilet seat horseshoes, bobbing for pigsfeet and tire racing. Miranda was commentating over the PA, making nicknames for folks in the competition. If you didn't camp out, you missed out!
Race day:
It rained a little overnight and morning practice had me pretty excited about some extra grip in the silt, but it dried pretty quick. Still, the lines had burned in pretty good over practice and it was time to rail. Strong, cold winds made the wait up top very chilly. My run was a mix of good and bad. I had the upper course pretty dialed and I was off the brakes, but two really sandy turns caugt me off guard and might have cost me some time.
Results:
Well, there were some issues with the timing After waiting around for a while EC said it was gonna be another hour to get something, so I decided to head out for my 3 hour drive home. Turns out the problem was more extensive and he's still trying to get it sorted.
Opinion:
They need more events like this, it was a freaken blast. Major props to EC and everyone who helped put this event on.