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Sanjay's Adventure - Part 2

Sanjay Shanbhag's story unfolds as he tours South America on a 97cc scooter. For part 1 of this story, click here.

Part 2

I forgot to add a little tid bit about the afternoon prior. Since Jeff got so wasted he didn't wake up until around 3-4pm. All of us in the Bed & Breakfast decided to play a little practical joke on him. I got all suited up in my riding gear. Put my jersey on, had my knee pads on, and set my helmet on my head. I knocked on Jeff's door and woke him up telling him that he was late for practice. I even had Seb go in and tell him. Seb doesn't speak the best English, so this helped seal the deal. We all got a good laugh out of this. If Jeff would have just looked down at my feet the plan would have failed. I was still wearing my sandals because I was too lazy to put my shoes on.

February 17-18: Wake up the 2nd morning in Valpo just like the first. Completely missing breakfast, but still getting a bite to eat though I'm 2-3 hours late. I had to east very fast because Cedric, Jeff and a couple others were almost leaving to get some practice in and do some photo shoots. I pretty much eat my breakfast (bread, avocado, orange juice) as I'm tying my shoes. Everyone looked to be dressed pretty casually so I quickly throw on my gloves, helmet and goggles and head out. At this point my bike is completely built up, but I don't have the optimal tire set-up. I only brought with me 1 low-profile soft compound tire. I put this one in the back. In the front I put a slightly hard compound dirt tire knowing that there was some dirt on the course. This tire set-up would prove to be less than optimal.

We do a couple runs and then head down to the bottom of the course to get registered. I didn't really know too much about this race before heading down. I kinda just figured out the details as I went. It turns out that this race was invite only and that only 62 riders were invited. I also found out a bit later that this race was a UCI sanctioned event. This means that it was for elite riders only. I also didn't even know what it was called. I kept calling it the Valparaiso Urban Downhill. The official name was the Valparaiso Cerro Abajo or VCA for short. Out of the 62 riders there would be a qualifier that would narrow the field down to 30 for the finals, which would be held later in the day.

At registration I fill out my paperwork and get my number plate for the bike and a cloth number that gets pinned to your shirt. Luckily a couple weeks prior to leaving for South America I got my UCI license renewed at a cost of $150. I'm sure it would have been a huge hassle to register without a 2007 license. Duncan forgot his back in the states and had to print out a bunch of papers and it just didn't seem like something I wanted to deal with.

The next bunch of pictures will give you a good idea of what the course looks like…

From where our place is we are at about 2/3's of the way up the course in elevation. The image above is the course as seen by one of Google's spy satellites. We are staying a block below the end of that first straight. At the building on the corner of the tight U-turn. So we go up to the top of the course and start to session the different sections of the race course.

This was taken at the first road-gap on the course. This was located at the second road crossing. Here is another shot of that same road-gap from a different angle. We pretty much went into this thing at a full sprint during the race.

It was pretty big. Big enough that some people were doing some impressive tricks off of it. Here is fellow American Chris Van Dine doing a suicide with the edge of the harbor in the background.

Here's a better shot of the size of the ramp we were launching from. It was pretty sketchy to hit during the first days practice. The section where it went from ramp to road wasn't quite finished yet, so there was only a line a couple inches wide to hit it smoothly. That wasn't the sketchy part though. The real crazy thing was that the road wasn't officially closed yet. The organizers only had the police to rope it off for Sunday. From what I hear US rider Duncan Riffle almost got hit by a car at the crossing. He basically jumped over the hood of some car that was passing the road. After that incident the top half of the course was closed.

From here on the course we took a slight left hand curve and rode a section of stairs, dropped off and then launched off a ramp onto a cobblestone/dirt hill. Here are the stairs. They were pretty tricky to negotiate because there were a bunch of small sets of 2-3 steps with a small gap, then a couple more steps. You had to do a couple of these, then set-up on a small flat section, and then jump of onto the road. I landed a bit front heavy a couple times here. This is a picture of Cedric dropping off the steps.

This shows pretty well how little room you have to set the bike on and then drop off.

This is right after the drop from the steps. You launch off a ramp onto a cobblestone/dirt hill. Made a turn around some bushed and then jumped onto a second set of stairs. Here is Bolivian rider Yannick Wende hitting the ramp. Him and his family were staying at the same place as us while in Valpo. Such a great shot.

This is a shot of me off the same jump from a different angle. Can you guys figure out what jersey I'm wearing. Due to some sponsorship issues I was left with no sponsors going into this race. Instead of wearing a jersey of someone no longer supporting me (in the bicycle industry) I sported my old-school Husqvarna jersey. I wore this same jersey in my first big race. It was the Durango National in 2002.

This one makes me feel like a superstar with all the paparazzi in the background.

This gives you a better idea of what we were landing on. It's funny, I thought it was dirt until looking back at these pictures. I think it was dirt the first day when we walked it, but after a bunch of people rode on it the dirt was pushed off. Had I known that I probably would have hit this section a bit slower.

Then onto another section of stairs and off again. The line onto the steps was very sketchy. There wasn't too much dirt, so you couldn't just ride on. Also this section of stairs were very skinny, so jumping on was also pretty difficult. On more than one occasion I rubbed an elbow along the wall or gave it a bit of a shoulder check.

Here is Yannik showing the line off the staris. You jump early and go just inside of the course tape.

This shot is looking up at that hill with the cobblestones. There were some very cool pictures taken during practice and races that were so crowded with spectators that you couldn't see the ground. I gave up searching, so here is a picture of the course before it was really finished. The course went around the bushes at the top, then to the stairs, then off and we crossed a street at the bottom. This crossing also wasn't controlled during the first day of practice, but wasn't as important as the ones above. We could just slowly ride through it looking for traffic. The ones above had to be crossed fast due to the jumps.

This shot is looking down that hill during the race. You would never see this many people scattered about on a couple mile long course in the states. It was like this the whole way down. So after the stairs we crossed the road and pedaled up the road. This was slightly uphill and my lungs didn't like it. At the end of the straight was a tight left hand corner into an alley. The same one that Victor's dog took the shit in earlier.

The alley was also very painful for the lungs. It sent us into a very steep, slippery section with a small drop at the top. You could go into the section so fast that most of the riders thought it would be dangerous during the race. We were pushing for a chicane to be put in, but due to some miscommunications never got done. The steep section was very hard to apply your brakes on and had an over 90 degree corner at the bottom that was very narrow. I thought people were just going to run into the wall. During my first couple practice runs I had the hard compound dirt tire. If I even tapped my front brake my tire would lock up. This isn't a good feeling when you're headed straight for a concrete wall. Luckily for me Seb had a couple extra tires. He gave me one that was a super soft compound in a trade for a beer later on in the trip. Not bad. This tire worked so much better. Here is a picture looking up at the slippery section. For me to actually make it I had to do it like this rider. I would take off my inside foot, lock up my rear tire and swing it around. It would hook up at the very bottom and allow me to finish the turn. Any cameraman or fan standing at the bottom of this corner was just crazy in my opinion.

This is a shot of me looking down from the top on the same section. I had forgotten to bring my belt to Valpo and was struggling to keep my pants up for the rest of the weekend. Around day 3 or 4 I crafted myself a belt out of some duct tape. Ghetto.

From here it was a pedal through a very tight alley. It had 2 corners which led us to the crazy section. We sessioned this section quite a bit during the beginning of practice as it was a perfect location for pictures. Here is Cedric making it look easy.

Here's a shot of me showing you how it's not done. I tried to swing very wide entering the corner so that I could carry maximum speed exiting. Well I swung a little too wide and clipped my pedal on the little outside wall. This cause both of my feet to blow off and gave me a nice scare.

The next corner was super fun. You could just lock up the rear tire and swing the back end around. If you drifted out too far the edge of the wall helped straighten things out.

Then it was a short sprint to a wooden berm/drop. As it turned it climbed about 4 feet. Here's Duncan halfway around.

This set us up for the craziest part of the course. It had a drop which landed onto a pretty small ramp, then a steep roll-in followed by one more drop and a bunch of stairs. The first drop was originally intended to drop from where I am standing in this picture onto the concrete below. This would have been a very slow drop and would have been hard on the bikes and the riders because the transition wasn't very steep. Luckily the organization took care of this and added a little ramp which smoothed things out and allowed us to carry more speed through this section.

Cedric showing the drop being done with the addition of the ramp. At first the ramp also came to a nice sharp point which would be disastrous to come up short on. The riders made some comments and we had this nice angled section added on the top. At the end of the day you could see many tire marks on it, so I'm pretty sure this must have saved a couple hospital trips.

This is a shot showing the extension added to the ramp for safety. You can make out some rubber marks on the new section. Just imagine what would happen if you landed there without it…

Here is a shot of the steep roll-in following the first drop. It was crazy packed here during the race. Also the night before the race some people came and painted some stuff on this ramp in blue paint. It had something to do with the price of the escalator things in town being raised in price.

Following the steep roll-in was the most technical bit on the course. There was a drop which wasn't by any mean big, but the run-up to it was very tricky. It was very short, and about a bike and a half length before the drop there was a foot tall step. What this meant was that you had to set-up very quickly and then drop. Following the drop was a slight turn onto a bunch of stairs. I was having a hard time finding any photos of this section. I guess with all the fans here it was very hard to get a decent shot. Here is US rider Simon Lawton doing the drop.

Everything was very tight on this section. During practice the morning of the race I clipped my handlebars on the wall going of the drop. This set me up all screwy going into the stairs and led to a pretty gnarly crash. I hit my head pretty well (thank god for my Fox V3 moto helmet) and wrapped my back around a pole of some sort. I got up as fast as possible (don't want to get hit from someone coming down the course) and head down as gingerly as possible to the bottom of the course.
I stop and take a quick survey of the damage. Look the bike over and everything is fine with it. Take a look at my helmet and the little plastic bit that is on the mount piece has fallen off. This was already loose before heading to South America. It was just being held on by a little superglue. A couple minutes later my back starts to get very stiff. This is no good. I'm supposed to be in South America for 6 weeks and I'm starting to get worried. If my back is bad I might have to end my trip quick and head home. After some more waiting I load my bike into a shuttle and head to the top, and from there just take a mellow path to the Bed & Breakfast. More on this later. For now I'll continue to take you down the course.

I fell somewhere on the stairs above. As you can see from the picture there was a wooden wall set-up with braces behind it. The final drop was just above this. We had to turn to avoid it, and then squeeze between a pole and then onto the stairs. The wood was set-up to keep the riders from flying off into oblivion if we missed this turn. I think I hit an elbow on it a couple times. These first couple set of stairs were very easy to ride. Just point the bike straight down and let it do its thing. The next set which can't be seen in this picture was a completely different story. It was very steep. The steps before it allowed you to carry a lot of speed into these stairs. The problem was that going from the steep stairs to the flat at the bottom was very harsh while riding fast. My fork would bottom out super harsh and it was a metal-to-metal bottom. What I did to solve this was just pull up at the top of the stairs and jump to flat. Usually this is the worst thing to do for your bike and body, but it was much less of an impact. I would still bottom out my fork and now I was bottoming out my rear shock, but it was much less harsh this way. The steep stairs I'm talking about are located where the guy with white shirt and black shorts is standing. From here it was onto the last set of stairs. These stairs turned onto a road and we would follow this road to the finish.

I had the best luck initiating my turn on these steps. It allowed me to take a tighter line into the following corner and to keep my speed high. As I got more and more practice I was able enter the corner hugging to outer wall so I could turn more on the stairs.

About 100 meters down from the last stairs and after a gentle corner was a wooden double jump that was set up. This was only finished and bolted into the ground a little bit before the end of practice. I think I only jumped it one or two times before hurting my back. Here is Chilean rider Christian Araya whipping it out over the jump.

After this jump was a 90 degree turn on cobblestone/slick concrete, and was followed by a 20 meter sprint to the finish. This turn was super sketchy. It was very slippery. Many people never hit it full speed during practice. This led to some spectacular wrecks during the qualifiers. Outside of this corner was a metal gate to keep the spectators back. Chris Van Dine went a bit hot and wide, and took a pretty gnarly wreck into this during qualifiers. He broke his fork, derailleur and a couple spokes from his wheel. He then had to run across the line to get his time. We started the turn on cobblestone.

And finished on slippery concrete.

So that is pretty much the course from top to bottom. Back to my story. So I took a pretty bad crash and was now back at my room. I had taken a couple Ibuprofens to keep the swelling down, and unable to find any ice decided to lie down on my bed. I was too sore to take my shoes or pads off. I think all I had the energy to remove was my gloves. I would have to take my jersey off to get my elbow pads off, so I just left them on. There was about an hour long break between the end of practice and the start of qualifiers. I ended about an hour early due to my fall, so had a couple hours to rest. With all the partying for the last couple nights, the riding from the last couple days and my crash I became very tired. I rested my eyes for a little bit. This was not a very smart idea. I knew that I could very easily fall asleep and wake up later that night. I completely pass out. About an hour goes by and the guys that I'm staying with start to filter in and lucky for me make a ton of noise. Well after listening to a bunch of ruckus for a couple minutes I fall back asleep.
Now a couple of the guys are heading out and walking up the hill for qualifiers. I'm rider #47 and there were 1 minute intervals between riders, so I knew that I had some more time so I stayed asleep. Well about 15 minutes before I'm set to start, someone, I can't remember who (whoever you are, if you read this, I owe you a beer), asks me if I'm going to qualify. I'd slept way too long. I quickly grab my gear and try to walk (limp) up to the top of the course as quick as I can. At this point in the day it was very hot and I'm wearing a black jersey. This walk zaps my energy. I get up to the top with just a few minutes to spare. I sit down on the ground and try to stretch my back out. I stretch for as long as I can, throw on my helmet and wait in the starting line.
Now I'm about a minute from my start. I'm telling myself to just take it easy. No need to go to crazy for the qualifier. They are taking the top 30 and due to some injuries and some other circumstances there were about 50 or so riders qualifying. I definitely knew I was faster than a handful of people, so figured with a clean run I should make the big show.
The race commissar sent me off and away I went. I didn't leave that quick out of the gate, as I was trying to conserve my energy for the pedally bits and the crazy section at the bottom. I go through the first 2 jumps and realize that I'm flying way farther than in any of my practice runs. Do the top stairs all clean, don't really pedal much on the alley because I miss a shift at the beginning. Clean through the steep slippery section and through the corners after. Now I go up and around the wooden corner and get ready to drop into the crazy section. Remember the time before I took a very bad fall. This time around I go as slow as possible through here to make sure that I make no mistakes. On the second drop I had a scare when I almost clipped the wall at the top. Luckily everything was good when I was on the stairs.
Do all the stairs making sure to land as gently as possible on the section I jump to flat ground. Then got down to the road, easily hit the wood jump and set up very wide for the final corner. I unclip my inside foot and stick it out. If my tires slide I'll easily be able to finish. Get through this still on two wheel and pedal into the finish line.
I'm pretty happy with my run. I know that it should be good enough to make it to the finals. In the end I was just happy to have made my start time and make it down the course with my back feeling the way that it was. I stuck around at the bottom for quite some time trying to figure out what my time and placing was, but gave up and took a shuttle back up. It was time for some more rest. I went back to the B&B and took off all my gear. Soon most of the guys were funneling back in. All I could figure out was that Cedric set a smoking fast time and was the number 1 qualifier. I still didn't know what place I was in.
After asking a bunch of people I find out that I qualified 5th. I was very surprised as I took a pretty conservative run and could have definitely pedaled harder. The course was a lot shorter than I thought. I don't think I had done a full run in practice as there were always sections that I wanted to make sure were clear before setting off. Here's the qualifier list.

Well another day spent finding pictures and writing. I'm currently still stuck in Santiago waiting for the papers to arrive for my moto so that I can head north for leg two of my journey. The next installation will cover the race, and maybe the chaos that ensued. For now I'm out.

Posted on Apr. 10 07, 19:03