Vernon’s Casey Brown let gravity guide her to a third place finish at the Mt7 Psychosis downhill mountain bike race in Golden on Wednesday.
The Psychosis race was resurrected after a 12-year hiatus as part of this year’s CLIF Crankworx Summer Series, and tests riders’ poise on treacherously steep declines.
“Trying to go as slow as you can is still really fast. And that’s kind of what’s always been the crux. That’s always been the key to this event,” said Trevor Gavura, Event Director for the Golden Cycling Club.
“You have to give way to gravity on this course. Most courses today in the World Cups, you can kind of stop on course anywhere, but this actually has sections that are physically impossible to stop on.”
The race features more than 1,200 vertical metres and 7.3 km of steep, rocky single track.
“It’s pretty remarkable,” Brown said of the track’s decade of history and list of legendary champions. “I would have never thought that I would have been able to race Psychosis, because they stopped racing it in 2008. So, yeah, coming here and knowing how much history it has is really incredible.
“And being able to look back at old videos of Stevie Smith and Sam Hill racing this track, and even Tyler Morland and all those legends … it’s really cool to bring it back.”
The difficulty of the track was not lost on the racers at the top of the mountain, and the physical toll could be seen at the bottom.
“I was shaking at the start line,” said racer Georgia Astle.
“Hard. So fun though,” added a breathless Elliot Jamieson.
With a time of 14:52:34 on the women’s side, Brown shared third spot on the podium with male rider Rhys Verner, who came in with a time of 11:32:28.
The CLIF Crankworx Summer Series kicked of at Silver Star Mountain in late July and brings together some of B.C.’s top mountain bike athletes and riding destinations.
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