This past weekend I competed in the final Jolly Roger downhill race of a 4 race series. This is actually the Minnesota State Championship Series of downhill racing. I competed in 3 of the 4 events, placed third at the first one (to Jed Olson and Thor Shellum -both far more skilled than me), then won the last 2 races. These results put me in 2nd overall for the series. I am pleased with that. Here are a few shots of the race (all taken by Dana):
I am considering changing my focus in racing for next year to specialize in gravity type events. I still plan to get back into shape and put in an honest fight in the MNSCS, but I would like to see if DH racing (possibly a few nationals) is a better fit for my skillset. The law of diminishing marginal returns reared its ugly head last year in the XC races. I was focused, trained and ate well, but only saw small incremental improvements from prior years. Let's face it, I'm never going to be able to be a top level national XC racer. I just don't have the "gene." I still enjoy the local/regional competition, but that's as far as I ever see myself going with it. I might try to get a pro license at some point, but it would really only be to say I have one.
I'm going to try to get my semi-pro USA cycling license for DH before next year. Last year I tried, but was told that I need to compete in more USA cycling DH events. The good thing is that the Jolly Roger series is a USA Cycling sanctioned series. Time to start hitting the weights again and ramp up the intensity type training.
Besides losing focus, here are a few of the other reasons why my XC bike is going slow this year:
