WE HOSTED OUR FIRST RACE!!!
The first ever Downhill Midwest race, and Lake Superior Gravity Series Finale went down September 12-14.
Coming into the weekend, the forecast called for high 70s and partly cloudy weather. But as we know, it’s a bike race, so expect rain! Sure enough, Friday morning rolls around and it rains. Not torrential downpour like it did during Bike Duluth Festival, but enough to make everything wet. After that it never dried out!
It didn’t rain anymore over the weekend. It was just some incredibly dense fog!! So much so that the course continued to stay wet, or even get more wet!
The fog made for some amazing conditions all weekend. The course was damp. Grass, Roots and Rocks all had a slight layer of moisture on them. But riders didn’t come down sopping wet. Goggles stayed clear. Shoes weren’t filled to the top with water. It was all the fun parts of the rain, without the miserable parts!
Friday Cat 1 riders got to start out on course, then in the afternoon the Cat 2 riders took over. This was a bit different than what people were used to, but it seemed to work out well. Giving riders time to watch the other category practice, plus ride with people of similar speed on course.
Saturday was, you guessed it, foggy again. This time Cat 2 started out the day. With Cat 1 taking up the afternoon shift. The course started to get some ruts ridden into it and seeding runs began at 3pm!
Cat 1 U16 rider Payton McKeown put down the fastest time in seeding with a 2:29.01! Lilli Regenold took the top spot in seeding for the women with a 3:05.40!
After seeding runs were done, and unnoficial jump jam went down on the new black jump line built by Zenith Trail Contracting! Ski Hut provided hot dogs and swag and people threw down! James even pulled a backflip!
Sunday started out as foggy as ever! Cat 3 riders took to practice for the first hour of the morning before dropping in for their race runs! 30 riders came out to race the Cat 3 course, which was awesome to see! Hugh Uphoff had the fastest time of the men with a 1:43.6 and Willow Krawcyk had the fastest female time with a 1:57.9!!
At 11:30, Cat 1 and 2 got to hit the course together for their hour of practice runs. The fog was thick and the wind was whipping, but riders got in their final chances to pick their lines.
At 1:00 riders lined up for their race runs! The fog never let up a bit and it felt like the course had continued to get slicker throughout the day!
Did we mention that about a third of the course was fresh cut? Freshly trimmed grass, no berms, wide tape, line choice, and a couple technical sections gave racers a run for their money!
Rider Zach Day had a rough one at the end of the fresh section. This rock roll caught out a lot of riders all weekend long. There was a short course hold, but luckily we saw Zach up and walking later on.
After a brief course hold and riders got back up to the top for re-runs, the race came to a finish!
After racing was completed awards were handed out!
Ski Hut was kind enough to give out a Reserve wheelset to the fastest person in the fresh section! And there was a tie!!! Ryan Boushee and Payton McKeown tied for the fastest split in the fresh section. In the end, Boushee’s style got him the wheelset!
This race was also the Finale for the Downhill portion of the Lake Superior Gravity Series! We got to see riders take home some big payouts from the year!!
If you weren’t there, you missed out on a great weekend of downhill racing! Thank you to everyone who came out, volunteered and cheered on the racers!! We are so excited that people came out and had fun at the race!
Full results over on the Race Page!
Photos by Dylan Juchemich and Alex Anderson. Words by Alex Anderson.
Check out Alex’s seeding run to get an idea of what the track looked like!