Troupe Racing Co.

race report by : laura knight

The third race in the US Cup Series took place last Sunday in the beautiful city of Fontana. Most of us were in the recovery stages of the Counting Coup or Vision Quest from the weekend prior. However, as our name implies, we were troupers (sic) and headed out to yet another weekend of racing.

I must say, my driving companion Monica and I were not in the best of moods when we arrived. I had heard that Fontana wasn’t the best place to race. We parked the car, got situated, and made a pact to start our day over in a more positive mood. It didn’t take long. After seeing our other friends from our team and other teams, our attitude changed.

monica zorilla out front and currently leading the series.

I headed out to the course for a practice lap. I realized the course was surprisingly fun. It was mostly single track with lots of twisty turns, whoop de woos, drops and sandy down hills. My question to myself was did I really want to race this?

As the gun went off, I didn’t. I took 2 or 3 minutes to catch up, and then I was into the race. I battled it out with another woman in my class throughout the entire race. She was more fit than I, but I had better downhill skills. Traffic problems, which were ongoing in the race, ruined my evil plans of pulling away on a final downhill and winning. She complemented me on my skills at the end. I know some you may find that hard to believe. I must attribute some of my improvements to my blur and my X-fusion shocks. Of course, my fellow Troupe riders are the ones who have helped me the most.

tom robe: a blur on his blur

The day ended up with a podium from Charlie (2nd), me (3rd) and Monica (3rd). Jeff raced earlier in the day in the single speed class and took 3rd. Mykyta came in 7th, Ben 9th, Tim 10th, Tom 6th, and Damon 7th. Participation was very strong, and Troupe now sits in 4th for the co-ed team classification against teams that have 100+ riders. Let’s keep racking up those points for the team!