Keyesville Classic proves GENIUS!

I was heading down to CA for the Balance Point Racing camp in Joshua Tree. It seemed right to start the week with a little racing, so I hooked up the Keyesville Classic to try to knock some cobwebs out of my system after nearly a month of steady training. The event has been around since the beginning of MTB so why not give it a shot?

I also finally got my new Scott Genius built up just in time to set it on the back of the Jeep and embark on the 12 hour journey to Bakersfield. Woke up early and got to the race site just in time to register and finish adjusting a few things on the bike.

There was plenty of local talent and even a few fast out-of-towners in attendance so the cross-country event got off to a fast start. After a little bottle-necking, I discovered that Max Plaxton (ShoAir) and Kris Sneddon (Kona) were nearly out of sight, so I spent the first two laps finishing my suspension tuning and getting aquainted with my new ride. By then, I was comfortably in third place so we enjoyed the next two-lap session together!

The course didn’t really do the Genius justice, but we still had a great first date. Even hours of waiting around for awards didn’t wipe the grin off my face after blissfully shredding the each downhill section…

Keyesville Classic has a great competition within called the “All Mountain Race”. This basically meant you paid a package entry for cross-country, short-track, and two downhill runs, but had to race the same bike for each stage.

The ST and DH races were the following day, so I again I was up early just to sit around most of the time waiting to ride. The ST went well, but again I was off to a slow start and couldn’t close the gap to the leaders once I fought through traffic. There was also some confusion with different numbers for the all-mountain racers. Since the CAT 1 and PRO were all riding together and we had started lapping the field I didn’t realize that the guy ahead of me was in fact a PRO due to his different number plate. Instead of blowing his doors off on the last lap, I sat behind him. Oops, turns out I should have been racing and lost $75 of prize money for that mistake!

The DH was a little lame since the runs were sub-three minutes and we had to push out bikes up the course. That meant we ended up waiting up-top for everyone else to race before we got to make our runs. Some extra sun tanning I suppose.

It was a good reminder why I don’t race DH anymore especially after I started screwing around with my suspension and rode off course both runs. I still finished in the middle even against the full-on DH crew so I was pretty satisfied.

Overall, I managed to hold on to third place in the “All Mountain” and the prizes paid for my gas and lodging. Most importantly, I thoroughly enjoyed my first weekend alone with my Genius!

Thanks for reading,

VP