Earlier today I got back from the "King of the Hill" event in
Bainbridge, Ohio and spending time with David's family who live just
outside of Indianapolis.

Arrived late Thursday afternoon into Indianapolis, picked up the rental
car, and made the 3 1/2 trek to Chillicothe, Ohio while my husband David
stayed behind to visit with his family that he hasn't seen for several
years. Later that night after arriving at the hotel, I met up with Dave
Kessler, Adam "Peanut" Ramirez, and a third G-Biker, Teddy Cullen. Dave
had a new stock bike to test out that he's able to break down and put
into a small case, making it much more appropriate for traveling with.

The weather for the weekend was perfect, warm and slightly breezy, so
not too hot or rainy!!! Took three practice runs Friday afternoon,
taking it easy on the first run, to check out the course and figure out
the best line and how much braking I would need to do. The pavement on
the course had many rough and uneven areas throughout its entirety.
Turn two, a hard right hander which is the only *real* turn for inliners
to be concerned with, included a natural underground spring that
continuously spewed water making a wet section to the right, while the
cracking pavement off to the left in the turn kept depositing gravel
into the road as riders rode over its deteriorating surface. Although I
had tightened down my wheels prior to the run, a bolt had loosen due to
the vibration of the rough pavement.

I have found it to be interesting that I have heard more comments about
Barrett Junction's rough pavement being problematic, but not a lot about
Bainbridge. IMO, Bainbridge is worse. Both are rough, but at Barrett,
it's an even roughness throughout the entire course while at Bainbridge
the texture of the road is constantly changing.

My second run, I tucked for a bit of the sweeping left hander, then
stood to air break and applied my heel brake as well. (I've been
practicing with George on the snow-plow wedge technique for slowing that
a lot of the Euros use, but at this point I am not strong enough to be
able to do this at speed. Then with the uneven pavement I didn't think
using a "T" for slowing would work all that well for me since all it
takes is a little bump to swing my braking foot around and I become
unstable).

I had slowed enough to make the turn and was just about to
go back into my tuck when my right skate grabbed a bit, causing me to
become unbalanced and I went sliding. I think I hit a piece of
gravel... But since I did remember to velcro my knee sliders to my
leathers (after the incident at the last WLAC race I wasn't about to
forget those!!!) and had them additionally secured with duct tape, I
just slid and rolled and was able to get right back up. I would have
been able to have immediately continued on, but as I rolled, my jacket
came unzipped from my pants in the direction that I was rolling and the
front of my pants came unzipped as well. With the cumbersome gloves on,
I had to have some assistance on the sideline to get my pants zipped
back up.

The rest of the run was uneventful, I stood up a couple of other times
and did a quick taps with the heel brake in areas where the road slopes
sideways with dips which included the chicane area. After the chicane
was a long straight away which goes slightly uphill where I lost a lot
of speed and decided to kick some. Not sure if it really helped or
not... felt really slow going across the finish. This time I had lost
a bolt completely, most likely came out when I slid!!! Retighten all my
bolt again and took my third and final run for the day which went really
well. I had used 84 mm 82 duro wheels during practice and decided I'd
put some softer grippier wheels for the qual and race the following day
due to the dust on the road's surface which made it a bit slick.

I had met my one competitor earlier in the day, Tony Mistretta, who was
also riding street luge and classic style. He was not experienced with
downhill racing on his inlines and I did not get to see him take any
practice runs. I did see that his skates were four wheelers, looked
like an off the shelf boot with non removable frames made out of carbon
fiber or something, but definitely not metal frames. After talking with
him a bit, it sound like I'd be able to take him. JD from Ninja
bearings decided that he was going to participate in the race the following
day as well. I had also talked with David Dean who said that a couple more
inliners might be driving in from Toronto after they had gotten off from
work and that he had just heard from a guy who was driving from
Washington DC. So, as of Friday night, I really did not know what my
competition was going to be like.

After the riders meeting Saturday morning, I spoke with JD who had
decided not to race. He races Border Cross on his snowboard and just
didn't want to take any chances getting injured and screwing that up.
No other inliners had arrived, so it was just going to be me and Tony
racing each other. He had also changed out his wheels to some grippier
one, but they appeared to be only 72 mm.

Had a sweet practice run and opted not to take the second one and just
do my qual run. My qual time was 2:17.265 while Tony's was 2:47.327. My
strategy for the race became to take it easy though turn two, so as not
to fall, so that I should have no problem taking him.

After sitting and standing around all morning, inliners were the third
event of the afternoon, following 3/4 fairing gravity bikes and classic
style luge. I started the first heat as I had been for my other runs,
kicking at the start, tucking for a bit, then heel braking while still
in turn one to set up for turn two. What I hadn't factored for was
muscle fatigue that had set in from waiting around for hours. As I was
braking, my thigh started to twitch and I had to set my wheels down just
as I was getting into turn two. I quickly reapplied the brake, but I
knew I had not bled off enough speed to make the turn, so I ate a few
hay bales. While getting myself back up, Tony passed me, and I'm yelling
at myself for being so stupid, (mostly to myself, but some was out loud as
well). Wasn't a bad fall or anything, just a really dumb mistake to
make, since I knew I could have taken it reeeaaally slooowly in the
first turn and smoked him... but what fun would have that been,
right...!?!?!

So, after getting up, I kicked and kicked and kicked; and then got back
into my tuck. He was quite a bit ahead and I had a lot of catching up
to do, but I could see that I was gaining ground on him and I wasn't
about to let my stupid mistake cause me to lose this heat. As I
approached the chicane, I just held in my tuck and I was able to zip on by
him. At least it made it interesting for the spectators in that area!!!
After crossing the finish, Bob and Marcus hadn't realized that I had
fallen and had to get back up in order to have beaten him. It took a
while for him to cross the finish after me, found out later that he had
to bail and slide out at one point due to speed wobbles, his skates were
not at all equipped to handle that kind of a load. When we talked
earlier, I advised him to invest in some sturdy five wheel frames and
he said that if he decided to get into the downhill inline racing, he
definitely would do that.

We did the second heat and this time I started braking much earlier in the
first turn to set-up for the second one. My thigh started shaking
again, but this time I had more room to reapply the brake and slow-up
enough to make it through cleanly, although I did get a little close to
the last hay bales!!! Not sure if he fell or slid out on that one or
not, but spectators were staying that his wheels were really wobbly and
unstable!!! You would not have seen me out there on that hill with his
skates that's for sure!!!! Tony conceded the last heat since he barely
had any brake pad left for the second run we had just finished and since
he still had street luge to run he wanted to save his energy for that.

So, I took first place and got a set of Kryptonic wheels, Ninja
bearings, a couple of T-shirts, lube, a water bottle holder/energizer
thingy, and a really slick trophy. Now the first place winners of the
other five disciplines got a bottle of champagne to spray, while I didn't,
but it was only because the five bottles were all the champagne the town
of Bainbridge had and inline was the smallest class!!!

Full results have now been posted:


http://gravity-sports.com/results/2004/2004_kingofthehill_bainbridge_results.htm


David Dean did an outstanding job as a promoter especially being he's
only 20 year old and it was his first event. Bob, Marcus, Art, and all
the volunteers kept it smooth running and well organized. And most
importantly, there were no seriously injuries from all of the crashes
and it was just great fun!!! Kudos go out to David Dean, IGSA, and all
the volunteers, sponsors, and the town of Bainbridge!!!



Keri

--
Keri L. Tishner

http://drawpaintcreate.com