This event has become very attractive, both as a race and the fun of some wicked single track- mostly downhill trail riding. There are not many events were All Mountain, XC and DH guys line up against each other. You know It’s serious when the current World Cup DH Series leader, Greg Minnaar, makes the start line. The rivalry starts well before the start with everyone checking out each other’s equipment. Whose running light weight to get up the climb, and whose running the big travel/big tire setup to make up time on the DH, and everything in between. I learned from last year that as good as the Epic is, it is too XC specific for this event. This year I stepped up to the Stumpy FSR, and Armadillo 2.2 Purgatory/Captain tires- no punctures this time!! Even with the heavier tires I still weighed in at 23 pounds, which was impressive for a 140mm travel bike, and I needed all of it!! I quickly figured out after the first run down the course that it’s been a while since I’ve done a race that requires serious DH speed. I guess I’ve gotten used to XC races, which seem to do more traversing across the downhill these days. Though it didn’t take long to find confidence in my setup and quickly realized how much more I could push things and what I could get away with. Apart from the great trails the other great thing with this event is the atmosphere. Everyone from the Pro’s to the Amateurs wants to work out that perfect bike set up or find or hear about that secret line or find away to clear a certain section with speed, the stories then start to flow.

The race:

XC

Carl Decker lit it up from the gun, and rode everyone off his wheel very quickly. At the top of the approx 45-minute climb he had a 4-minute lead on Adam Craig and a little more on me. At that point I was struggling with the thin air, and paying the price for having early season form and trying to hold it for too long. I hit the downhill crossed eyed and all over the place, managed to get to the finish line safely and hang onto 5th. Carl smashed last year’s race record and showed he’s got great climbing form in the thin air, perfectly timed for this event and USA Nationals next weekend- I wish him all the best.

DH

I got a little carried away early on, going wide on a corner and hitting the side bank. Fortunately I didn’t cause any damage or lose too much time, thought I did burp my tire and lose some air in the front. I still had a pretty solid run, thought a little more conservative that I would have liked with the squirmy front end. Not sure on my final result as I had to leave straight away for the 9hr drive to get Pip home at a descent hour.

Overall a great weekend on some of the most fun trails in the world.

Sid Taberlay