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You are in harms way, again!!!!
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Entry Date: 10/3/2005
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Wow, I am totally exausted. It is 3:00pm and I just did call into work , cough, cough, sick. Of course I was supposed to call before 8:00 am, but I was unable to wake up and unwilling to stop dreaming of this past weekends "Reading Racing, Dureya Downhill"
This event, and I call it an event, Because it is so much more than a race, always has a vibe of friendship and fun in the air. The last thing on anyones mind is the actual competition. All day saturday everyone just rode, hung out,and talked about, lines not which ones were the fastest, but which ones were the most fun. Right up untill your start time you were having so much fun swapping accomplimisment stories, crash stories, and the night before stories, you didn;t even think about winning.
The first section was a non-technical riders worst nightmare. very tight rocky singletrack. one section went between a couple of trees and was so tight my bars could barely fit. That, coupled with the fact that it was a peddiling section made for some difficult riding as well as a bit of cyclocross riding on my out of shape lazy ass part. Then to the floating rock garden. full of brick size and bigger loose rocks, I call it floating, cause none of the rocks were actually in the ground. they just were piled on top of it for about 20 yards. every time through this section the lines were always different. it took a real eagles eye to hit them, especially since the garden lay below a 2 ft drop and on a steep fast shoot of hill.
The next section was the Island. The drop off the island consisted a rocky ,rooty, crest dropping down a 2 foot retaining wall to a space of flat about haldf a bike lenth to another 18" high retaining wall. The Island is more brain f**k than anything. the hardest part is getting to the correct line and just rolling it. Easier said than done, but if you commited it was one of the easier things to do.
Next was the infamous snaking 140 stair decent aroung the Pagoda. through the , "ouch my balls!!" dip and step up, then off to the airlines.
The airlinea were definatly uber super this year. the 8 footer got moved back and strighter. this baby was launching guys almost 30 feet to a perfect tranny and one hell of a berm to cath you. the 3 footer was about the same as before. A good 10 ft throw down the hill. right next to the 3 footer was a small cheater line that was cut just for me. I am recovering from injurys and had the guys do me a favor and give me a wussy line. I did share the line with anyone else who needed it.don't worry, your identity will remain a secret. $20.00 please!!! The official Reading airline launch was off the charts this year. The ramp was moved back and pitched a bit higher. There are stories going round round that a couple of guys may have hit the 50 foot mark off of it. I would not hesitate to believe it since the average flight was in the 40 foot range.
The next section was new, and it also owned a lot of riders this weekend.including yours truly. it was a tight snaking switchback constructed in soil the consisty of powdery sand with a lot of pool ball sized rocks mixed in. not to mention 2 railroad tie drops right in the apex of the turn. Unfortunatly by the time the race runs got going the turns got blown out and this section became one steep slipery straight run down the mountain.
off to the bunker jump, yes it is an actual bomb shelter from WWII. built into the side of the mountain.
over the lenthtened log garden down the paved road to the dirt wall ride,
through a fast tricky rythem section in the woods and back out onto the road.
high speed run on the blactop for about 50 yard with a hairpin pin turn that had to be ridden road racer style. The g force with the speed in the turn was wild. During practice I was behing a gut they actually peeled his tire off the rim while hitting the corner. he slid 30 feed on the blacktop.
off to the sectiom I cal the back breaker, consisting of a ramp over the gard rails down a steep shoot with a 1 foot log drop in the middle and a 2 foot slam you into the ground retaing wall drop. since the road and the hill are at opposie angles and the hill so fast. this section claimes a lot of tires, wheels, and assorted lower male body parts due to the jarring slam into the road.
across the road and into the home stretch. The home stretch is known as the park jump. it is is a steep off camber approach wit a turn down the hill to the sweetest of all jumps. a 4 foot high jump with a super tranny. if you wanted to huck it or drop it short, the initial transistion was about 15 feet long and not real steep. below than the tranny got steep and wide and went for about another 20 feet so if you went big, and a lot of people did, you could fly 30 feet onto a perfect trammy. there was also a really fun go around on the jump with a tricky switchback and a 1 foot drop as well. The Reading guys do their beast to think of riders of all abilities.
once you cam down the hill the last obstical was Prydes car. The car,an old ford probe, was turned into a an urban jump. it was ramped on the trunk and hood, the wind shield and rear window boarded up , for safety reasons. The car was a must do, it was shaped good for easy rollers and great for some big hits, a lot of the fasrter guys were flying right over it. Some crazy cannadian tried like hell to destroy his bike by clearing the car by a good 15 feet on every run. maybe next year a car double may be in order?
There were no major injuries, or psyco trail nazis to deal with this year.There were a ton of high dollar as well as cool little prizes tossed out.There were water balloons , and part whisles, cheap champagne and expensive beer floating around. Red bull showd up to keep us all going strong. It was a cool event , like a big happy family get together. I am so looking forward to this event next year. It keep getting better and better. I pitty you guys that couldnt make it. There is no better show on earth!!!he Duereya race is always the topping on the cake for me. Oh so sweeeeeettttttt!!!!!!
Oh, the in harms way again. So, what is it with reading racing and fires. The spring race after race festivitires were cut short due to the fact that the mountain was on fire. Well,During The Mac series awards dinner that was held at club in Reading, somone makes an announcement. "any one who has a car in the parking garage must get it out of there now. The building is on fire." everyone just looked adound and said, "what?" then somone yelled fire!! and a whole buch of Mountain bikers with trucks loaded down with their most valued posessions made a beeline for the parking garage. The damn fire was a real blazer, and was only a half blok away. a bit of a panic set in as 30 people attempted a very "chineese" fire drill out of the garage. we all found alternate parking in the surrounding neighborhoods. as I was getting out of my car , burning refuse was falling down from the sky. I figured I would go back to the resturant , pay my bill, and get the hell out of there. There were firetrucks every where, and it seemed the fire was way out of control. so as I fought my way through the crowd of gaukers and back into the restaurant everyone else had the same idea, but when the fire department didnt shut the place doen we all figured whay the hell, fire aint stoppin us this time. We finished diner, had a bunch of drinks, and payed thanks to Mike for putting on the Mac series once again. and congratulated al the series winners, wether there or not, with some nerve calming shots. we stayed until the fire knocked the lights out.I woke up the next morning tired and sore from practice as well as smelling like smoke and a little hung over from the fire. I heard it took 5 hours to put the fire out.
Well thats all for now We had a great time this past season and I hope everyone else did as well. I will be taking the next couple weeks off to heal up and over the winter I am planning on getting fit. This past season was one long set of injurys and feeling horrible beacuse being fat is not an advantage in anthing but sumo wrestling Besides, next yer my brother will be racing in my class. He is planning on getting off the hardtail, so he will be a force to be reconed with, I just need to keep up . a Kranzel 1&2 in the series is an obtainable goal. sweeeeeettttttt!!!!!!
Ric |
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