Sub-9 Super D, August 22, 2011

Club member Dan Hickey shares the following report on his experiences at a recent mountain bike race in Brown County. Read and enjoy!

Sub-9 Productions hosted their second annual Super-D downhill race at Brown County State Park on August 22.   The 5.5 miles from Hesitation Point to the North gate has some fast and fun downhill.  But it has some flats and plenty of uphill as well.  This friendly event was great for first time racers like me, but also competitive for the many Cat 1 and Pro riders who showed up.

Thirteen-year old Luc got this ball rolling.  He returned from Palawopec  (a fabulous summer camp in Nashville, IN) a more experienced and ambitious rider.  Over several weeks we checked out new trails in O’Bannon Woods (lucky to have them), Brown County (Green Valley is fast and fun),  Wapahani (cleaned up by the city and volunteers nicely after the tornado), and French Lick (incredible).

At French Lick, we ran into Sam Preston (Bedford) who convinced Luc that we should sign up for the Super D.  After that we spent our trail time at  Brown County finding the fastest line from the North Tower to the North Gate.  This was the shorter mostly-downhill run for the juniors.  I was chagrined and delighted to find Luc consistently beating me on that stretch.  His used 1998 Trek hardtail humbled my cherished Santa Cruz Blur LT

We registered just a few days before the race.  We discovered that the 13-14 Juniors were racing the full 5.5 mile course.  Luc was disappointed at first.  Then he realized he might beat me there as well.  On our first practice run, I got away and Luc got lost.  On our second run he passed me on the bottom stretch.  For me, the real race was whether he could beat me.  I had been waiting years for this. 

On race day, we first headed over to the rocky hairpin near the start. We watched the first wave of Category 3 (beginners) weave the fifty-foot trench.  Tim Carson (Pittsburg PA, who set the course record 19:39 last year) was cheering everybody on.  Earlier, Tim coasted to a 46:46 with a broken chain. None of the Cat3s took Tim’s advice to pick the cheater line straight over stumps and boulders.  Three fell and one crashed hard. But everybody made it. 

I raced near the end of the Cat3 riders.  My Blur served me well on the downhills.  I found a nice inside line in the speed trap and clocked a decent 19mph.  But on the uphills I really felt the previous day’s practice runs. My imagined over-the-top scrambles were supplanted with winded grinds.   I finished with a mediocre 27:44. 

Luc went later.  He did better than me on both the ups and downs.  But he took the slower outside line on the speed trap.  You can see from the photo that he took my advice to always look 10-20 feed ahead for the best line.  But you can also see how he spooked photographer Michelle Spitz out of her trailside crouch.   (Michelle and Two Pedals Photography did a great job and I was happy to purchase this and another print from their website).

When I caught video of Luc on the bottom berm, he had just passed his second Jr on his way to a solid 26:00. That put in first place in his age group and third in the Jr men.    I ended up third out of six in my Cat3 age group.  This seemed appropriate given that my overall biking goal is being in the middle of whatever group I find myself in.  And my son beat me soundly

 Red Zone Cycling from Louisville brought an impressive crew, including Katherine and Daniel Santos.  Katherine passed at least two riders (click for video) to post the top Jr Women’s time of 25:49; Daniel was second among the Junior Men 13-14 at 24:17. 

Overall winner Chris Bowman of Indy posted 20:10, and was awarded almost an entire drive train from lead sponsor SRAM.  Dylan Elliot who came down from Ontario posted the fasted time in the speed trap of 25 mph and also got some cool stuff with his trophy.   The drawing for swag yielded the most ironic moment of the day, when Tim Carson won a new chain.  But he was also happy that he held on to the course record by a full 30 seconds. 

Overall Winner Chris Bowman (Courtesy of Two Pedals Photography)

Hitching back up to the road to the start, I ended up in a van with the Trail Patrol volunteers who had come in from Cincinnati.  They were happy for the largely uneventful day, with just one Jr crash resulting in some scrapes and bruises.  They said they were looking forward to coming back for the Brown County Breakdown on Oct 8-9. Also a Sub-D Productions, the Breakdown is the major fundraiser for the Hoosier Mountain Biking Association, who we can thank for all of our outstanding trails.