Parkfield race report

I'm sure all this weekend's participants at Parkfield are recovering, catching up on homework, and cleaning their bikes for next weekend, so I'll jump in and write up a race report. I tagged along with Scott L. this weekend to cheer for the team and enjoy the Parkfield festivities with the OC, Gabe, Miles, Jake, Blake, and Eddie.

After receiving a mere 5/100ths of an inch of rain

 on Friday night and Saturday morning Jake and Scott awoke for their 8am XC race time to find clump factor 4 clay mud. Not impassable, but definitely not enjoyable mud. It was still drizzling and chilly at the start of the race as they lined up with a mix of about 25-30 Pro's semi pros and collegiate A riders. Jake had an unlucky start as his chain snapped right at the gun. He managed to fix it quickly, but still got to the hike-a-bike section about one-two minutes after the main group. He definitely had a lot of work to do to catch up.

About two hours later, Scott came through the finish and lost a final sprint to a Humboldt rider for the last spot on the podium. "What? SCOTT LOST a sprint finish, and didn't even make the podium?" I'm sure you're asking yourself. After fighting back and forth w/ Menso from SLO for the lead for the majority of the race, the mud finally caked up enough on his bike that he was forced to stop and dig it all out with a stick. Menso go

t away clean with an ideal set-up for the mu

ddy conditions, but Scott quickly fell back into seventh. He managed to fight his way back to fourth, and looked as he passed me that he was going to edge Humboldt out for third, but his derailleur had already called it quits and wouldn't allow him to shift down for the final sprint. Jake valiantly fought his way back and managed to finish around 10th place (?)

The sky cleared up and the sun came out, and the entire crew got ready to compete in the DS. SLO had revamped the course from previous years from turn, turn, smash to turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, turn, finish. The crowd was as rowdy as ever, complete with a gong if you crashed, although the event definitely dragged on longer than it needed to. All the UNR riders qualified, and nobody got gonged. Unfortunately, nobody except Cody advanced to the second round after having to go head to head with Miles. Then he decided to take a time o

ut during the race and crashed on the first turn where we were all cheering for him.
   

                                                                                                            Although nobody podiumed for the day, we all headed down to the awards ceremony and raffle. Nevada didn't have the best luck at the raffle, other than all the crap that kept getting thrown at Eddie, the 

rowdiest one in the crowd, in an effort to shut him up. The shirts, hats and waterbottles weren't doing it though, so finally they let him draw a ticket.

 The Nevada vibes pulled Eddies hand down to the very bottom of the hat, where, lo-and-behold, he p

ulled up Gabe's ticket, so Gabe was able to walk away w/ some new sh*t.

The Pixie races got a late start, but Gabe and Eddie stepped it up for Nevada, and did a few laps for the team.

No resting allowed for the endurance guys on Sunday the STXC started at 8am. Again, Jake and Leland lined up w/ the Men's As for the first race of the morning, and again, Jake had a lousy start and hit the dirt on one of the first turns. He managed to fight his way back up a few spots before the super fast started to overtake the rear of the field and the officials pulled them. This left only Scott in the race for UNR--but man did he represent. He threw down an attack in the third or fourth lap that neither Menso or Nitish could respond to. Nitish later told Scott that it "broke him in half". He managed to put 10 seconds into Menso in one lap, and his lead only grew, as did the expression of suffering on everyone's faces for the next 20 minutes. Scott held them off and finished for the WIN.

He then switched shoes with Cody and passed his bike off for the Men's B race. After a few laps, Cody was in a solid second, but his seat was slowly slipping, down, down. He had to jump off, and readjust, and lost quite a few spots. He hung in there, despite a bee nest on the course that was throwing in some stings here and there as riders raced through their swarm. Scott managed to distract some of the bees, and was stung six times on the sidelines, but Cody still finished w/ a few stings on his calves.

The weekend finished with the DH race, and Cody, Miles, Scott and Blake all raced with the A's and Gabe was forced to do B's because of his license. I watched at the last chute at the bottom of the course, where all the worst wreckage seems to occur, luckily, everybody from UNR cleaned the entire course. Miles came flying through the last stretch, and the crowd uttered a collective "wow." He seemed to me to disappear more quickly through the trees toward the finish than anyone else who had come through so far. The results definitely proved his speed, and he pulled in FIRST PLACE in Men's A downhill. Huge accomplishment at Parkfield!! Great Job Miles!!!

And great job to all who raced this weekend! The team definitely pulled off some impressive results at what is usually the largest race of the year. Can't wait to see the pictures!!