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My first night DH race!

Lil Manimal

Chimp
Dec 23, 2007
8
0
Second Grade
**Manimal Prologue: I have been asking him, for about three weeks now, to type out his thoughts on the Fontana Icycle Night Dh Race from Feb 2nd. He FINALLY got around to it tonight and put down a FEW words ;) He typed the whole thing himself and i just copy/pasted from word into RM. i'll follow up on what he missed about the trip after his words. **

This is how it all started.
My first practice run my dad had to sprint to catch up.
On my test run I almost went over the edge of the mountain because I have never ridden with lights before.
On my race run I went to fast and went over a log and almost went into the creek. I hurt my wrist a little when I crashed but my friend Aaron taped it up for me.
This was my first night race and I had a lot of fun and didn’t even get too cold.
**now, his comment about having to sprint to catch up isn't exagerated. I let him get about a 5 sec headstart during practice and i lost sight of him. when i did catch up to him i thought his brakes were broken because he was so friggin fast. i kept waiting for him to fly off the mountain on the corners but he just pinned them and kept going full speed. we had to stop 2 or three times per run so he could rest his hands...they get awfully tired trying to work a v-brake with a non-vbrake lever. (rear disc mount is in the works and should be ready by the march 8 DH race at clemson :thumb: ) he only had one crash on his first run and that was because i didn't warn him in time to slow down before an almost 180 degree, off camber turn that has a tree in the middle. he pile drived the tree and said, "i'm ok" as his helmet was bouncing off of the tree :rofl: he took a nasty spill on his race run right after the finish line when he couldn't stop in time. went OTB down a little ledge and smacked into another tree. he gave that , "this really hurts" type of scream that only parents know and he babied his wrist for a few hours. aaron, (downhill66) wasn't racing and took him back the cabin to tend to his wrist :thumb:
anyway, i had a decent race as well, i think i got 16th out of 36, not too bad considering in only had one full speed practice run because every other run i was following noah ;)
we all had a blast at the afterparty and noah had no problem making friends while i attempted to finish a half cup of beer...but that didn't work out.
so the ICYCLE kept it's reputation and remains one of my favorite races of the year, especially since it was relatively warm and dry this year :thumb: (last year was watery mud until start time and then the trail literally turned to ice :eek: )

i only had time to snap a few pics and the vids i tried just didn't turn out due to bad communication on my part. here's what i have as far as pics go:

ready to roll

railing through the last and muddiest switchback on the course

of course we had to pause for a team photo on the way home sunday morning (from L to R: downhill66, lil manimal, manimal, haromtnbiker)
 

steve owens

Chimp
May 22, 2008
75
0
Hendersonville,N.C.
Nice pictures. I haven't had a chance to ride the icycle race. I have no excuse though,I'm only about an hour and change away. Nice looking fork on the hotrock. my six year old is riding the same stock bike right now.Gives me some good ideas.....
 

CraShRyDer7

Monkey
Feb 1, 2008
132
0
franklin lakes
its awsome when you see kids that young riding. its awsome, theres some kid that rides at the mtn i ride at and he owns me at all freeride, but dh i just speed by... ya!