Ohio World Cup #2

Bainbridge, Ohio

Bainbridge, about equidistant from Dayton, Cincinnati, and Cleveland is home to the Fall Festival of Leaves. A street fair that celebrates the turning of the leaves. The festival draws quite a crowd over the weekend.

Within walking distance from the festival Jester Hill and the finish line of the course. Starting near the top of the hill, with a fabulous view of the changing colors. The course begins with a long left hand sweeper. As it picks up speed the rider is confronted with a right hand hairpin. Once through the hairpin it is a high speed roller coaster rider to the finish. About half way down, there is a chicane, that in the wet requires breaking, then the course begins to level out before hitting the finish line. The speeds approach 70 mph.

Friday, October 15

It seems to be a recurring theme. I go to a street luge event, it rains. And once again, when I woke up, the streets were gleaming wet. There is an old school at the bottom of the course. We were able to use the cafeteria, to get out of the cold and the rain.

It took a while to get things going, apparently there was some issues with the course workers. Since I try not to ride in the rain, I worked the chicane near the bottom of the corner. Which meant standing out in the cold, windy rain, watch everyone spray water everywhere.

Saturday, October 16

The rain had stopped, and the weather wasn't to bad, although it was fairly windy and a bit chilly. Red Bull showed up, as they were partial sponsors. We practiced all morning, but as usual there was plenty of waiting.

At lunch time, most of us went across the street, where cheerleaders for the local high school were selling food. Some hot chili and hot chocolate.  I wandered out the parking lot, checking out some of the interesting vehicles that showed up. Red Bull brought some sort of behomoth, that some of the guys, who missed the truck, hitched a ride on. The French contingent showed up. And well, I don't know the story behind this one.

After lunch it was time to start qualifying. And of course it took the rest of the afternoon to finish qualifying.

Sunday, October 17

Race day weather proved to be much better than the previous two days. We got a few practice runs in before racing, and no one wanted to miss practice.

Racing started with Inline,  standup and gravity bikes. It was late afternoon when the street luge racing got underway. It was getting dark when the buttboarders lined up for a GP format race. The format was supposed to have 4 heats, but it was called, due to darkness after the second. I was in last place for this run, but decided to cheat so I can take some pictures. Unfortunately I could only get one shot off, because my camera couldn't focus in the darkness.

It has time to give out the trophies. The queen of the festival was on hand to give the trophies out.

Inline:  Lambert, Peer, Focke

Dirt Surfers: Dasilva, Rob Truman, Chase Truman

Gravity Bikes, faired: Kessler, Ramirez

Gravity Bikes, stock: Kessler, Burel, Ramirez

Standup: Burel, Barat, Edstrand

Luge: James, Lally, Zaccaro

Buttboard: James, Dean, Lally

Despite the wet weather, there were no major inuries. This is a fun, high speed course that was recently repaved. It is great to have the race the same as the Festival of Leaves, but the fall weather can be iffy. Hot and humid one day, cold and rainy another.