How do you know you're racing downhill in Snowmass? Well, you just exited the roughest, dryest, dustiest 30+ mile per hour corners of the season, and you've found yourself smack in a mud rut, complete with 3 inches of standing water, roots, and tree stumps.

Blast the Mass was a bit different this year, in that the event featured not one but TWO downhill races, instead of the standard DH/4X format of past. While it was great to have a race with only downhills to contend with and no gated events, it was a little sad to ride the chair over the course where the 4X used to be. Lots of great memories from that course for all our riders, from regional and national events that have been held there. The weather was stereotypically Colorado for this time of year: Mostly sunny with rapidly arriving short but intense rain and hail showers, making for some interesting changes of course conditions on an hourly base. From groovy to slippery to hero dirt.

The Sway DH

Sway was a non technical, mostly high speed affair, with lots of pedaling. The wide open stuff dried out really quickly, but a short section through woods stayed greasy no matter what the weather was doing. Throw in some blown out berms in tight corners to keep it interesting, and a finish line at the end of an uphill section forcing riders to sprint for a couple of hundred yards to get there. All said, it was a fun course, and a nice change of pace.

Saturday's Sway DH results: Trevor Trinkino hit the box with an impressive 2nd and Andy Proctor went 6th, both in Cat 1 Men 15-18. In Cat 2 Men 15-18, Josh Conroy placed 4th, Sean Giesler in 19th, and Matt Branney went 21st. Wyatt Freier posted up a 5th in Junior Men 12-14. Max Beard and Evan Chute both went top 10 in their respective senior classes, with Doc Branney rounding us out in 12th in the Cat 2 Men 40+ group.

The Banzai DH

We raced the traditional Snowmass DH course on Sunday, appropriately called the Banzai Downhill. It was an absolute blast, in a typical brutal, beat you up Snowmass sort of way. Anybody whose raced there knows that this course has it all: you get to start with wide open rocky turns up top, get a little steep and muddy in the woods, made even more interesting this year by a giant pile of snow to go around or go right over the top. All of this is before a pedally, nasty, woods bit littered with rocky corners and soft dirt, a blind drop of a service road onto a steep and loose landing, Hell’s Kitchen, and finally spinning your gears out in a long, high speed rut to the finish.

The rains (and hail) came and went throughout the day, so the course changed a lot. Matt, Geisler, and Josh got to sit through the hail on the chair ride! Great way to warm up for the course. The rain gods were kind to most of us and everytone made it down okay, but overall the team rode on the conservative side. We did post a few strong results: Trevor Trinkino flat killed it onto the box, following up his Saturday performance with another 2nd place finish. Andy Proctor also posted a good result in Junior-X with a 4th, and Wyatt Freier finished a strong 4th in Junior Men 12-14. The rest of the team rallied hard but weren't able to crack the top 10 on the brutally rough and fast Snowmass track.

Snowmass is great for reminding us that we are out playing in some of the biggest mountains around. Whether it’s the course, the weather, or just the scenery, everything about this race was on a big scale. Another truly great weekend in paradise.