12 Hours of Weaverville

The Event: 12 Hours of Weaverville Mountain Bike Race
The Team: Cindy Carroll and Shannon Sobeck “Team NorcalVelo KB Electric”
Conclusion: 1st Place, 2-person Female
The Details:
Last minute, I took Kirk’s place on the NorCalVelo KB Electric team with Cindy Carroll, as he couldn’t make it to the race… Lucky me!  I knew I was in for some serious laughs setting out on an adventure with Cindy.
 
Cindy and I drove up to Weaverville on Friday (approx. 4.5 hour drive time- in the Trinity Alps).   We set-up camp, made friends with the Sheila Moon team from SF, and then set out to pre-ride the course.  In true MTB style… it took us awhile to find the course, and to find the race start…yada yada… eventually we did the loop, and made it back to camp at dusk.  By then I was super hungry and thirsty and bonking, and Cindy rode like she could’ve gone 50 more miles… ha!  There was barely enough time to make dinner before it started raining and we scurried into our tents.
 
It rained incessantly all night, and was still raining when we woke up at 6:00 AM.  We drove to the race start, set-up a team tent next to some folks from Oregon, and made breakfast. Cathy and Fritz showed up to round-out the NCV group at this event.
 
Race start was 8:00 AM.  Cindy and I alternated 2 laps at a time.  She did 2, then me, then Cindy again.  I went to a Laundromat in town to dry my clothes while Cindy was out on her 2nd leg!  I had not planned on cold rainy weather!  I thought it would be 110 degrees and sunny, like it was when I was up there the weekend before. Sheesh!
 
After 6 laps, I was ready to go out for laps 7 and 8, when Cindy and I discussed our options: ride until 8:00 pm, go back to a wet camp? No.   Ride until 8:00 pm, get a hotel room?.. Hmmm…. No.  Call it a day (we were already guaranteed 1st place) and drive back to Santa Rosa?  Yes. 
 
So, when the race officially ended at 8:00 PM, we were sitting in a burrito shop with Fritz and Cathy!  Then we got on the road and drove home. 
 
***MOST IMPORTANTLY:  This course is BEAUTIFUL and seriously fabulous!  You get EVERY OUNCE of what you put into the climb out of the downhill—MILES AND MILES of sweet singletrack!  I would **absolutely** do this event again…Next year I hope some other women’s teams show up, and that rain doesn’t put a damper on the camping part of our adventure J
-Shannon

***

Camping in the rain this weekend was strange after racing in 110 degree heat last weekend at Lake Sonoma. Fritz and I raced in the co-ed category. The race started with a 40 minute little chainring climb (well, at least for those of us who have more than one chainring). Classic wonderful singletrack for the second half of the race, including one absolutely gorgeous section of snaky trail above a creek; yum. Muddy, but all the rain waited for the times Fritz was racing to actually come down. It didn't look like we did the same race when it was over! I felt kinda sluggish, probably still residuals from my nasty brush with heat stroke laying in the creek last weekend at Lake Sonoma. We were a strong second place behind a scary fast pro team. Cindy and I finished the day in high style; by the time Fritz finished his last lap we were polishing off a fine bottle of Syrah, right out of the bottle! Cindy and Shannon won first place in their category, and work their bling/medals into the Mexican restaurant. The grass roots scene at these endurance events is really awesome, and makes me super excited about doing more of these races!

-Cathy

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004