DemoDave Goes to Snowshoe!

Demo Dave got his literature on and wrote up a good review of the first snowshoe race.........

Snowshoe Powerade Race #1 June 27 – 29:
Well it was time to head up to “The Shoe” for the first race of the series! Snowshoe puts on awesome races so I was super stoked for the weekend! Unfortunately for one reason or another practically everyone that I normally travel with could not make the race. So I had to drive up myself after work on Thursday. Fortunately the extra $$ I would spend on gas I would save on lodging since my good buddy and SEI Team sponsor (Andy/FreeRideSouth.com) hooked me up with a FREE place to stay for the whole weekend. I left Greenville at around 3pm and got to Snowshoe just after midnight. I lost two hours on I-77. Tractor trailer accident where I literally sat parked on the highway for two hours. Anyways, I was glad to make it up there and was ready for 3 days of riding/racing!
Woke up Friday morning and went up to the MAC and bought my trail pass. The plan was to just chill out and do a bunch of runs with Andy and his son Joel. Conditions were dry and I was pumped! First run was down the Western Territory where we checked out a new trail called Ninja Bob. Well that first run took Andy’s brakes out. So he needed to head up to the MAC to get them fixed. So after the bus got us back to the top Doug asked me if I wanted to check out the race course (which I didn’t even know was open yet?)………so I said let’s do it! When we got to the bottom I could barely remember many parts of the course……because it was so darn LONG!! After that run I bumped into teammate and SEI “young gun” Steven T. So I think we put in a few more runs on the race course…..then headed over to check out the dual slalom track, grab some lunch and get in a run on the Basin side. After that we did a couple more runs on the race course and it was time to catch the last bus of the day. When I got back to the condo I noticed that like only two spokes on my rear wheel were tight! So I headed over to Silver Creek where Doug was camping. Luckily for me Doug was there and was more than willing to help me out! Thanks Doug!
Woke up Saturday surprised because it didn’t RAIN! Which was great news for me since I’m still kind of new to racing and not to comfortable riding in wet conditions. Started off taking a couple of solo runs down the race course. I was really starting to feel good on the course. I was dialing in the technical sections, but knew I would suffer on the pedaling sections (which there were a lot). At some point I ended up hooking up with Steven T. again and we basically did a bunch of more runs….which was awesome! Then at about 4pm……..RAIN, RAIN, RAIN!
Woke up on raceday to cloudy foggy skies and the ground was SOKED! My practice was from 9am-10am. I only got in two practice runs and the course was a sloppy peanut butter mess in the woods. This was bad news for me since the majority of my practice was in perfect dry conditions……but I’m learning……that’s racing! The good news was that my race run was at 2:30pm and it didn’t rain anymore that day. So by race time the course actually dried up nicely. There were still a lot of slippery off camber turns in the woods, but much drier than the morning practice. My race run went pretty well. I only had one crash (which was good considering conditions) where my front tire washed out on a wet off camber turn. Besides that my run was pretty clean, but it was another reminder to me that my fitness needs work! Espcially if I’m ever gonna get on a podium which I hope to do this sumer! Anyways, I ended up in 6th place in Men’s Amatuer 30-39. And “young gun” Steven T. pulled through for SEI with a podium finish in the Men’s Amatuer 18-29 division. So congratulations and big props go out to Steven!

Can’t wait for the next one………….