Hi all,
Well it was a fun weekend at the Masters World Championships. Wow, what an exhilarating yet humbling experience!
Alex Morgan of BCD Bikes (the carbon fiber DH bikes) was going to be my traveling partner and roommate for the weekend. He'd posted a 'ride needed' here on RM. Alex is a nice, easy-going guy from the Texas panhandle; and I couldn't have asked for a better person to have gone there with.
Alex flew into Spokane late Tuesday night and stayed the night out at our 'homestead.' Then we loaded up Wednesday and hit the road for a 10-hour drive up to Sun Peaks, B.C. The place we were staying was a real nice lodge (Pinnacle Lodge) that Alex discovered when he was up for the Worlds last year. We split the $90 Cdn (gotta love that exchange rate
) rate for a great room that included a real good continental breakfast (the owner is a gourmet chef)
Never having raced in a world event before, I had no idea what to expect. I didn't do as well as I'd hoped, but I didn't completely embarrass myself either. I got ninth out of a field of 12 (well, 11 actually - there was one DNS in the final).
The competition was amazing. There are some REALLY fast old guys! To give you an idea, times in my class (50-54) ranged from 5:20 to 7:22. I got a 6:52. The day's big winner, Shaums March, absolutely killed the course and took the gold in the 30-34 in 4:57
For my part, if I hadn't made three dumb, costly mistakes on my final run, I might have stood a chance at seventh (coulda woulda shoulda blah blah blah). I console myself with the little victories: surviving the HUGE straight fall-line chutes off the top; going faster than I have ever gone on a mountain bike before in my life; and pinning sections that had given me fits all weekend.
Two other PNW guys were there and repped us well: Chris Bentley, who got eight in the very hot, very tight 40-45 bracket; and Allan Beattie, who just got squeaked off the medals with fourth. Good job guys!
You can check the article and full results on Decline's site:
http://www.d1010871.domain.com/decli...article_ID=131
If you have a lot of bandwidth and want to see a vid (96 meg) shot by Alex go here:
http://www.bcdracing.com/pics/races/...tersworlds.mpg
-Doug
Well it was a fun weekend at the Masters World Championships. Wow, what an exhilarating yet humbling experience!
Alex Morgan of BCD Bikes (the carbon fiber DH bikes) was going to be my traveling partner and roommate for the weekend. He'd posted a 'ride needed' here on RM. Alex is a nice, easy-going guy from the Texas panhandle; and I couldn't have asked for a better person to have gone there with.
Alex flew into Spokane late Tuesday night and stayed the night out at our 'homestead.' Then we loaded up Wednesday and hit the road for a 10-hour drive up to Sun Peaks, B.C. The place we were staying was a real nice lodge (Pinnacle Lodge) that Alex discovered when he was up for the Worlds last year. We split the $90 Cdn (gotta love that exchange rate
) rate for a great room that included a real good continental breakfast (the owner is a gourmet chef)Never having raced in a world event before, I had no idea what to expect. I didn't do as well as I'd hoped, but I didn't completely embarrass myself either. I got ninth out of a field of 12 (well, 11 actually - there was one DNS in the final).
The competition was amazing. There are some REALLY fast old guys! To give you an idea, times in my class (50-54) ranged from 5:20 to 7:22. I got a 6:52. The day's big winner, Shaums March, absolutely killed the course and took the gold in the 30-34 in 4:57
For my part, if I hadn't made three dumb, costly mistakes on my final run, I might have stood a chance at seventh (coulda woulda shoulda blah blah blah). I console myself with the little victories: surviving the HUGE straight fall-line chutes off the top; going faster than I have ever gone on a mountain bike before in my life; and pinning sections that had given me fits all weekend.
Two other PNW guys were there and repped us well: Chris Bentley, who got eight in the very hot, very tight 40-45 bracket; and Allan Beattie, who just got squeaked off the medals with fourth. Good job guys!
You can check the article and full results on Decline's site:
http://www.d1010871.domain.com/decli...article_ID=131
If you have a lot of bandwidth and want to see a vid (96 meg) shot by Alex go here:
http://www.bcdracing.com/pics/races/...tersworlds.mpg
-Doug