Downieville Classic - Jordan Lopez

It is my firm belief that there is not much a rider or racer can do in preparation for the Downieville All-Mountain Classic. Of course, there are long rides that can be done, dieting to cut weight and overall successful race prep. But, climbing that far for that long and being surrounded by 800 of your closest XC & AM buddies can not be duplicated in any training scenario. There then is the question of how hard to go in the XC? Do I push it full out and leave nothing for the 17 mile “DH Race” the following day. Do I conserve my energy and cruise the hill climb (the choice made by many of the DH Racers) or go some pace in-between? In the last moments before the race started, my XC demons got the better of me and I decided to take on the XC at 80%. My rational was that at this pace I would have a descent finish and if everything fell apart on the DH (very common for Downieville), my race weekend would not be a complete bummer. But I knew that with this decision, I would not be allowing myself the complete energy/strength necessary to put down a top DH time, but a strong overall finish is what I was going for.

Then, 2:14:13 later I was done and shocked at how tough the race had been and how many people I had to swim through to finish up at 28th place. The beginning of the race was not kind to me, the starting line moved up the hill about 50 feet and the starting of the race was a mad rush in the confusion of that move. A large chunk of my fellow racers moved past me in the confusion of the start and I had to work to get back through them. After the race I did all I could to get my legs and body ready for the following day…I even got a message. On the other hand, the DH was was a whole different feel and kind of race. This race is formatted as a “Time Trial” with 1 minute splits, so each racer knows exactly when they are off. As I started my race, I immediately noticed the weakness from the prior day’s race in my legs, especially when it came to sprinting out of corners and maintaining top gear speed speed. In my race run I had 3 complete “get-offs” where my bike came to a complete stop and I was left to jump over the bars and running down a hill to save a crash. These instances killed my momentum and were the only wrinkle on a overall great weekend of racing. I came in with a time of 49:55 (2 solid minutes off my best DH time), but a sub 50min time was what I was hoping for on tired legs. I ended up in 37th place which is respectable enough when one looks at the level of competition present. Looking back I am very excited that I was able to finish both XC & DH races with competitive times in both, a overall good finish placing and having nothing broken along the way.



2010 Downieville All-Mountain Race Statistics:

Overall Result – 25th of 68

Mileage – 46 miles

Feet Ascended – 3,700

Feet Descended -10,200

Time in Saddle – 3:04:09

PRO MEN XC

Race time 2:14:13

Place – 28th of 68

PRO MEN DH

Race time – 49:55

Place – 36th of 60