Smear the Weir? Ya right!

Downieville, wow!

Well FOX SHOX put on a contest called “Smear the Weir”. And I was the lucky winner. The premise of the contest was to write in a 100 words how you planned to beat the man (like that is possible) and my demented mind finally paid off. I was at home when the phone rang and the caller ID said FOX, I tried to play it cool but I was stoked! It’s an event I have wanted to do for years but just seamed to miss, or in this year’s case, it sold out in minutes.

Not a lot of time to prepare considering I was only a week away. So I tried to concentrate on hydrating and put enough miles to stay loose but not over do it. I had just finished building a Nomad a week before and the timing couldn’t be better. I’m amazed every time I get on it. I rode with my local midweek group and was blow away by it ability to do everything well. I really don’t think it gives much up to my XC rig. Enough on the Nomad commercial but “believe the hype.”

I have done a few DH events this year with great results but my XC fitness was not were it should be because of having an new son and a few early season injuries. This had me a bit worried. I had ridden the trail a year before and knew it can take it out of you so I decided to just run the DH and try to really just enjoy the experience.

What an experience it was. River Jumps, an amazing trail, kids and dogs, no pro guy racer attitudes, a cool vibe and even cooler people. Heck Chris king was cooking free pancakes! What more could you want.

I packed up my junk, kissed the wife, hugged the kids, gave the dog a scratch and headed out for the 8 hour drive. Hooked up with my best friend and ran a practice run on Friday. Non stop, top to bottom at about 75% to just check the trail and see how I would feel. In just over an hour later I was in town and feeling good.

Sunday’s race was less than perfect. I had the dam pre race jitters so bad for some strange reason I just couldn’t get food down which turned into being a really off day and never feeling strong or in rhythm. I put myself in the red off the start and just never recovered. It was just one of those days and it happened to be on race day. My race time was one minute slower than my practice and 16th in expert. It was ok for only my second run down the hill in 2 years but disappointing none the less. , oh well next year.

Oh ya, No flats! Dain at WTB set me up with a set of WeirWolf LT’s and they rocked. I was a little worried about the lack of front tread but never felt sketchy and rolled like a tire half its size. THANKS WTB! I did drop my chain twice while trying to pass which turned into a hard, out of the saddle, pedal effort that put me over the bars and sampling the dirt twice. Oh ya and a shoe lace in the pedal twice (that was a new one on me). I don’t think I was ever so happy to see a finish line.

Post race I got to meet some amazing people from FOX (Elayna your the best) and the man him self, Mark Weir, Jason Moeschler, Nathan Rennie and on and on and they all were genuine nice people.

The event is truly like no other. It’s the only course that really encompasses what I think mountain biking is, has that the pure grassroots feel and is in a beautiful setting.

So thank you to FOX for the opportunity, Mark for picking me, WTB (Dain) for the incredible tires and words of wisdom, SantaCruz for building an amazing bike, Yuba for an event like no other and all the wonderful people I had the opportunity to meet.

I only hope I get to do it again. I can only describe it as a little bit of heaven that feels like hell.

Enjoy every ride, Marshall