Taylor's Northstar Update

Fear and Loathing in Northstar

The last race of the year at Northstar is now over,
thank god. I started up my weekend by driving up to
Mammoth Thursday night to meet up with my evil partner
in crime, James Schwanke, and use his condo as a pit
stop between Riverside and Lake Tahoe. After rallying
my car through the fresh snow in Mammoth, and later
discussing world politics and global warming solutions
over a six pack of Sam Adams, he decided to join me on
my trek to Northstar. Unfortunately, due to a string
of injuries he was unable to actually race, but he did
offer his services as a semi-pro photographer and fuel
pumper for the duration of the trip.
We arrived in Tahoe about mid-day on Friday, just in
time for the clouds to descend upon us, and deliver a
thrashing of rain and sleet amidst temperatures in the
forties. Given the poor weather for the day, we did
the logical downhiller thing and headed straight for
the bar at the village and drowned our sorrows in a
medium meat lover’s pizza and a few pints of stout.
The day was a wash; no practice, no riding, foul
weather, and expensive beer.
We woke up bright and early Saturday morning to the
sound of construction workers screaming in Spanish and
operating nail guns in the room directly above us. A
quick peek out the window of our corner room quickly
took away any hopes of Saturday being better than
Friday. The sky was socked in with dark clouds, with
some sort of funny white powdery stuff floating down
from them. James later informed me that this magical
cold white substance was in fact, snow. Something
that flat-landers like me rarely get to experience.
With temperatures even colder than the day before, and
forecasted to stat below thirty-five degrees for the
remainder of the day, we both decided again that
practice will be put off another day. As you can see
from exhibit “a” (the photo) I was not exactly
thrilled that the snow turned to sleet during mid day,
and washed out any hopes of getting in some practice
runs without ruining my equipment or freezing to
death.
Sunday. Race day. The last day for redemption. My
last chance to ride and race at Northstar until next
summer. The skies cleared Sunday morning, and it
actually warmed up just enough to dry up some of the
muddy corners on the race course. I hardened up a
bit, threw on several layers of riding apparel and
headed for the lift line. The course used was one of
the local favorites, “Live Wire”. I took a few
practice runs, dialed in my bike as best as I could,
and even opted to run a semi-slick in the back for the
abnormally grippy conditions on Live Wire. The lower
half of the course dried up into an awesomely tacky
and fast downhill course with tons of small to medium
sized jumps and burms. However, the top of the course
stayed true to the last few days of the weekend, and
it actually snowed on and off through the start of the
race. But despite these almost awesome conditions, my
cold weather induced asthma (I’m not kidding, I
actually carry and inhaler for this…) got the best of
me, and I could barely breath by the time I hit the
mid point of the course during my race run. My lungs
screamed, my chest tightened, and my legs basically
gave up from a lack of fuel. I had nothing left, and
practically coasted my way through the finish. My
time was no where near as competitive as my last two
races at Northstar this year. Disappointment.
The race was over, I had lost miserably, and the pain
in my chest lasted through Monday morning. Racing is
all about having good days, and bad days. Sunday, was
one of my bad days. But I would be there again as
fast as I can drive if they offered another race
before the snow completely covers the trails!
And… Just for the record; The Park Rangers in Tahoe
don’t seem to think it is nearly as cool as I thought
it was to take a posted 15mph corner on a dirt road at
50mph in a sideways drift.


Chris,
Schwanke took some great finish line photos of me
hunched over in pain, and gasping for air. As soon as
he sends them to me, I'll forward them to you.

Taylor