Thanks for the cool write up!!!!

>Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 22:20:01 -0700
> From: Keri <rollsdownhill@...>
>Subject: Bainbridge Results
>
>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
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