I've added this entry on behalf of Kent Ridgley. I thought he provided a very nice race report. Well all, we have a Downieville Classic Expert class champion and it sure wasn't me. Renee took the gold in the Expert class, topping a field of 11 riders. Her race was a mass start including men and women Pros and Experts. It all started with an 8 mile climb, having no rest flats, producing 3,108 feet of elevation gain before cresting the mountain and heading 18 miles down to the town of Downieville. Renee improved her clime time by 14 minutes over last year and increased her downhill by 6 minutes even with a crash while trying to pass a slower rider and getting a chunk of a stump jammed in her rear wheel and chain from an edge of coarse excursion. She crossed the line in 2:38 with a very dirty and dusty face, sporting a big white toothed smile. The multiple creek crossings and dusty trail conditions made for a very dirty pack of riders. I raced the Sport Downhill class this year and had a great time even though I had mediocre results. The downhill started riders every minute at the top of Sunrise, a new trail opened last fall and headed 16.3 miles down to Downieville. I was having a great ride on Sunrise as well as Butcher ranch and had caught 2 riders by the time we hit Poly Creek. On Poly I had one step off and a punctured tubeless tire that hissed for about a mile and then sealed itself at around 20psi. I stopped to inflate it with my co2 before we hit the fast downhill section after the bridge clime and the cartridge did not seal to the air chuck and just blew out in the atmosphere. I tried my second cartridge as most of the riders I had past and some new ones past by and thank goodness it worked, so off I went to the finish. At the time we decided to leave they had only posted the top 10 finishers for our reported 32 rider class and I was not included so I packed up my toys and went home. If you have ever contemplated racing Downieville or just going up to enjoy the race atmosphere I highly recommend it. They close the roads in town and all the venders set up including such sponsors as Chris King, Santa Cruz, WTB, SRAM, Shimano and more. They setup a jump on the boat ramp into the river and have a nightly jump contest and so much more is offered. The whole town is fun, friendly and embraces the mountain bikers, making for a very nice environment. Kent Ridgley