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Upside down

For my entire riding life, I have enjoyed fast technical descents more than slow painful climbs. Maybe because I’ve never been a gifted climber, but always held my own on the down hills.
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For my entire riding life, I have enjoyed fast technical descents more than slow painful climbs. Maybe because I’ve never been a gifted climber, but always held my own on the down hills.

We’ve been riding bikes in Laguna Beach for the last month, and as always, I look for the rough and rocky descents when planning out my routes.

With that said, everything here is steep and to get to the best trails you have to climb, climb, and then climb some more.

I’m surprised e-bikes aren’t more popular down here.

Earlier this week I hooked up with a couple of local pros I knew back in my industry days.

I was a little worried about the pace. Was this going to be a soul crushing ride that left me lying on the side of the trail, wheezing?

They are both DH guys, but live here full time and climb these hills regularly. Even if I can hold my own on the DH, I might not live through the punishment of getting to the top.

Apparently they chose the steepest climb to start the day. Very little switch backs and a constant 25 per cent grade.

We weren’t going at race pace, but still fairly quickly, and I was managing to stick with them without killing myself. About half way up I noticed I had pulled ahead.

We crested the top and I was feeling good. No suffering and actually a tiny bit ahead of these guys.

From there it would be easy right? The biggest climb was over and now I could just relax.

We headed down the first trail of many and I think I forgot how fast these guys are, plus this is their back yard.

I tried my hardest to stay with them, but the best I could do was keep them in view up ahead of me (there are no trees here, so you can see a long way). I was riding over my head and despite getting dropped, I was having a blast.

Being in chase mode, I wasn’t really thinking, just riding on instinct and pushing hard. As I rolled into a big sweeping corner, I realized too late that is was not big and sweeping, but sharp and off camber. My ego prevented me from braking and I hung on as long as I could. I ended up sliding into the bushes on my ankle bone, hip bone, elbow, and shoulder.

I climbed out of the dust cloud and finished the trail to find them waiting patiently at the bottom.

We rode all day and I was right there on every climb, but no matter what DH trail we rode, steep and rocky, tight and technical, or flowy berms, they were waiting patiently for me at the bottom.

It was frustrating to get dropped on every DH, but I’m pretty stoked to have finally found some climbing legs.

I think I’m in Bizarro World.

I’m James Durand and I’m Goin’ Ridin’…