Round #3 of the 2006-2007 IGSA California Downhill Series was held on February 10th under beautiful, sunny, Southern California skies.It was a day dominated by veteran competitors including a surprise showing by a multiple X Games Gold Medalist.As always, the racing at Bonelli Park in San Dimas, CA was hotly contested and hard fought.
DeKeyser leading Farmery, as J.Rogers and Sakamoto scheme.
In the days leading up to the race, the weather forecast kept predicting rain showers for race day.The result was a lighter racer turnout than usual and a pair of nervous race promoters who always dread constructing and tearing down a race venue in the rain.Fortunately the weather forecasters were wrong and a typical warm and sunny, Southern California day greeted us all.
The IGSA California Downhill Series picks up after the winter break and return to Frank G. Bonelli Park in San Dimas, California on Saturday, February 10th..If you've got leathers, come to the Los Angeles foothills to race speedboards, streetluge classic luge, gravity bikes or inline speedskates on a close-course hill with speeds in the high-40's for skateboards & bikes, and into the 50's for the lugers and inliners. If you want a fun day to watch racing in a park setting with BBQ's, shade and a nearby lake, this is the place to be!
May 31-Jun 2 Mont Ventoux, France Jul 3-7 Are, Sweden Jul 11-14 Jungholz, Austria (IGSA World Championships) Jul 18-22 Thun, Switzerland Sep 11-15 Maryhill, WA, USA
Dec 7-9 Kogelberg, South Africa
These are the confirmed IGSA World Cup events for 2007. A Brazilian round will be added once all of the details have been finalized.
Lindstrom sets up for a left turn. Photo: Jo Bentley
The final and deciding downhill race of the year wrapped up the IGSA season on beautiful South African shores. In the mountains of the Kogelberg Nature Reserve, on what was once apartheid South African military property, racers from all over the world raced hard and fast for the World Cup title.The Kogelberg Hot Heels Africa, born out of the legendary race at Kaunerthal, Austria, is a World Cup event and carries a high number of IGSA points for competitors.
What happens when you have up to 55 riders, a fast and slope hill, and a sunny day (after 20 days straight of rain!!)??? You get a cool race like the one we had on last weekend; 2º and 3º of December, in the city near of São Paulo, Barueri!
2002 was the first year that Alexandre Maia, Rovaldo Gregorio and I visited that hill and it was still without pavement. Cops came around asking what the hell we were doing there…We had thoughts like, "hell!! When this hill gets painted, it will be sick; maybe we can hit speeds over 90 k´s!!” By 2003, we were already riding it and found out that we were going over 100 km/h, so we always hit that place for our weekend sessions. It was a blast: 2 nice chicanes and very nice speed!! But all of our good impressions got the deepest pain we could feel in 2004, when we lost one of our best buddies, Alessandro ´Lecão´ in a terrible car accident.