Hello from Marin

I'm Jeff Broussard from Marin County in California. You might have heard about this hill where I live called Mt. Tam. I guess it's pretty famous in the mountain bike circle. Some guy named Joe and his buddies built some bikes out of cruisers about thirty years ago that could bomb down the trails on and around Mt. Tam. Then a guy named Gary started building bikes for the public, which he called "mountain bikes." I have accumulated about five of these "mountain bikes" over the years and like to go up and down that hill and others around it.
I found out about YourMTB from the promoters of a race I did this weekend called the Downieville Classic. The event is awesome and is run in the Sierra Buttes mountains in Northern California. I did the downhill, but there is also a cross country race the same weekend, which I have done in the past. Both are great and very unique, because of their level of technical difficulty. The DH is seventeen miles long, with lots and lots of rocks. The biggest challenge is to build a bike that is light enough to pedal hard for almost an hour, but heavy duty enough to take the abuse of all those rocks. Avoiding flats is the only way to possibly finish well and is on the mind of every racer at the start.
A guy from Marin named Mark Weir "owns" the Downieville DH, having won it seven times! He has the perfect combination of fitness and skill it takes to beat all the other pro competitors.
For those who haven't heard of the Downieville race, I'm sure you'll be getting a better idea of what it's all about over the next couple of weeks as people join this and other forums to talk about it.
I hope you are all enjoying your summer riding, whichever state you're in. Personally, I'm in a state of bliss.
Peace, Jeff Broussard.