We Are *SO* Back
Psychosis Race Recap
What the f*ck just happened?
Since returning from a long weekend in Golden, BC for the revival and 25th Anniversary of the Psychosis downhill race, I’ve had the same conversation with a myriad of people, and it boils down to this. Anyone who didn’t race the OG Psychosis was likely there in part because of Seasons, and none of us knew how to adequately capture or communicate the event and weekend to anyone, whether we were trying to use words or editing hours of video footage. What the f*ck just happened?
The Golden Cycling Club has done a good job of the history of Psychosis, but the short version is it was raced from 1998-2008 and was the stuff of legend (and again, this Seasons segment, which you really need to watch below); a course that wasn't just long, but incredibly technical and physically demanding (yeah, there's a hike-a-bike in the race). A version of the race was revived for the 2020 Crankworx Summer Series, and the stage was set to bring back the race for the 25th anniversary.
It was, in a word, psychotic. It was one of the most fun sports weekends of my life. If every fiber of FOMO you have wasn’t vibrating all weekend, you weren’t paying enough attention.
I’ve been sitting at my desk all week buzzing, trying to piece together the madness, looking through photos, knowing explaining it in a way that does the event justice is futile and I’m going to think of 489 other things I wanted to tell you about after this goes live. But we must try.
Thursday
As per usual, my day started with a steep climb towing a heavy trailer on my gravel bike and retreating back down to home having deposited 35lbs of toddler off at daycare. But then, instead of plonking down at a desk, three of us loaded an enormous heap of gear, spares, and DH bikes into the back of a truck and turned east, with 8-ish hours of Highway 1 in front of us.
While long solstice daylight hours can be a challenge for a 3.5 year old, they’re great for mountain biking dads who want to get some riding in the evening. Once we got to Golden, the truck exploded gear all over our gracious host’s house. We had a quick dinner, we met up with a few others, and then headed for the mountain looming over town; Mount 7.
There’s no chairlift at Mount 7, just a rough dirt road to the top. We’d be shuttling in the old Dodge Ram owned by our host Rabbit and affectionately known as “Woody.” The easiest spots to enter the racecourse are at 3k, 5k, and of course the infamous Dead Dog. On Thursday, the racetrack above 5k was closed, however what was open covers a significant portion of what we’d be racing and includes the road gap; a 12’x35’ stepdown that was one of two features giving me jitters before I’d even left Vancouver.
Wanting to shake off the road trip and warm up a bit, we started with a lap of 5k, and I managed to ditch the road gap jitters with a tow from a friend. High speed, straightforward, and consequential I was glad to check the box early on and help prevent it from getting in my head; features have a habit of growing larger the longer you stare at them.
My excitement had been building all week, but it really started to ramp up. Ready to just make some more laps of the course, I was outvoted and we headed for the top. This was an excellent decision, and after a gorgeous stop at the top during the golden hour, glancing down Dead Dog (which despite the fresh grooming during the closure, did nothing to ease my concern…), we dropped into one of the best laps of the year; just an insane selection of steep, steep loamers, linked together with high speed bench-cut, and we finished on 3k with another session on the road gap. Bring on the beers.
Friday
Being a bunch of dads, we were up early and staring down the barrel of Dead Dog. If you’ve ever been there, you know. If you haven’t, you stand at the top of the steepest trail you’ve ever seen, wondering how much traction there can possibly be in the loose shale, and everyone standing around tells you it gets steeper in the woods. There’s no way that can be possible… steeper?!
As was the case for most of the weekend (including the race), Rabbit lead the way on his Super 8, and I eventually followed. And it wasn’t bad! Reasonable grip, some slashing around to slow down and then into the woods, where shit got bad. Like, real bad. The worst some of the locals had ever seen it bad. Once we’d left the shale, it turned to sticky, gummy, bald-your-tires-instantly mud, right as everything got even steeper. I made it down, but my confidence was ruined.
The day warmed up, and our next lap around 11am was marginally better through Dead Dog as the course dried. Maybe I’d survive. What wouldn’t survive was the weakest link in my fitness… my forearms. I’ll argue all day long that spending time on a gravel or road bike is good for your mountain biking; being able to climb harder, faster, and longer while ultimately being less roached for the descents is a big win. But quads and lungs won’t save your forearms from +/- 15 minutes of absolute downhill battering.
We sat the heat of the day out, relaxing, bike faffing, and knowing everyone else was out there putting holes in the track. The group agreed that another late afternoon loamer lap was in order, rather than another Dead Dog; we’d get to see the track evolution and have another crack at it Saturday morning during the mandatory practice run. With a dinner of sausages and beers complete, it was time to get some rest.
Saturday
For the unfamiliar, racing involves a lot of hurry-up-and-wait. Racer meetings, plate pickup, scheduled practice lap times, and race runs all require being there early and standing around. The Golden Cycling Club deserves enormous praise for how smoothly everything went on race day; an event of this magnitude is incredibly complex to pull off, so to have everything go on schedule with no major hiccups is an unbelievable achievement for a largely volunteer organization.
With 60-ish course marshals, medics, and support volunteers on staff I dropped in for practice at the allotted time and took a cruise-y top to bottom. Fortunately, even though the whole course was significantly rougher the fork changes recommended by SRAM’s Chris Mandell seemed to be helping; my forearms were roached, but it was a definite improvement. Coupled with a much drier Dead Dog, my confidence levels were reasonable. I wasn’t there to win, I was there to have fun, and was feeling as ready as I needed to be. What I hadn’t been fully prepared for was the visceral, core-memory trigger of race whistles on course during the official practice lap. It’s been nearly two decades since I’ve heard those blown for me, and the first one hit me deep inside my cortex on Dead Dog. Its race day. Let’s GO.
My race run was… unremarkable. Despite some intervening decades and unlike some of the fellow competitors around me, I’m still very comfortable up in a start tent. I pushed out of the start sixty seconds after the guy in front, rode my race, made one pass, and kept it rubber side down. Mission accomplished. The atmosphere on the bottom half of the course was electric – chainsaws, cowbells, and big crowds in several key spots. Moments after crossing the line (and regaining my breath), someone handed me a beer… this trend would continue until late into the night.
I’ve spent too much time analyzing my race run, knowing I paced myself a bit too hard and had more to give and could have taken more risks. But ultimately, I made no major mistakes and got to the bottom in one piece which was ostensibly the whole goal. I could have gone faster, and I also could have exploded into smithereens trying.
Downhill is the best
It's been a bit of a year for me and downhill. Earlier this year I strapped on a pair of 214’s on loan from World Cup winner and freshly retired Steven Nyman to race The Town Downhill in my hometown of Jackson, Wyoming. And just like Psychosis, I left the weekend thinking, “Why on Earth did I stop doing this?” There’s nothing like the feeling of a closed course, pushing yourself (even just a little!), and being on equipment that’s utterly dedicated to being good at one thing with no compromises. While I walked away from The Town Downhill with more hardware than I did at Psychosis, the feelings were the same; flying high at speed against the clock and an atmosphere of camaraderie that’s only attainable for fleeting moments of time.
Golden is the best
I’ve had to leave out 90% of the weekend’s stories; Jonathan Helly’s absolutely unhinged run smashing Karver’s course record, countless telling’s of Reg and Kram’s world record on Mount 7, the maniacs racing on hardtails, and the unbridled enthusiasm and hospitality of everyone we met and rode with in Golden. I’ve experienced it before, but there’s something special about towns like Golden. It’s hardworking folks just trying to make ends meet in a town that’s a bit rough around the edges, who will look at your $10,500 carbon fiber superbike and offer to show you the coolest trails in town. They’ll then proceed to mop the floor with you on their decade old Giant Glory riding in jeans, and probably ask you to knock on the starter of the truck to get ‘er going. I’ll be back to Golden to ride (hopefully sooner rather than later), and you can be damn sure I’m not going to miss the next Psychosis. Rumor has it it’ll be in a couple years; I’ll see you there.
EDIT: I've added a carousel of random images from the event. There's just too much to talk about!
Comments
Sandor Boros
3 months, 1 week ago
You are the man Cooper! Congrats on finishing the race in style and keeping a smile on your face! What a weekend, what a place, eh? Big kudos to you from a maniac here. Thank you so much for this recap as well! :) Hope to see you at the next one.
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Cooper Quinn
3 months, 1 week ago
Great to meet you - another wild story I didn't get in there was your generosity and the spirit of Psychosis inspiring you to not only race Psychosis on a single speed hardtail, but then donate an entire custom frame for a raffle for no reason other than how you felt about the event!
Someone asked and I wasn't sure... do you know if anyone in the hardtail class hit the road gap? People certainly have in the past, but I don't know if anyone did it this year.
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Jason Fischer
3 months, 1 week ago
I'm not sure about the race run, but can absolutely confirm that at least one person on a hardtail hit it in the practice run before the race.
Also, Sam (who won the hardtail class), built his own titanium frame, specifically to race Psychosis. Going from watching it growing up to building his own bike and then winning is such a rad story!
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StranjBikes
3 months, 1 week ago
I think sam hit the road gap
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Jason Fischer
3 months, 1 week ago
I chatted with him after the race and he said he didn't. Was there someone else with a shiny silver hardtail? Ha ha
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Sandor Boros
3 months, 1 week ago
Sam was as fit as a greyhound! And what an amazing fabricator too. Not too shabby to have 2 out 3 bikes on the podium, handmade by their owners. :)
BTW, yes, Lance Hamilton rode a Ti Rootdown, and he also did really well!
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Sandor Boros
3 months, 1 week ago
Absolutely my pleasure, Cooper! That ride up with you guys was so much fun too. I will not lie if I say I still have the Golden fever, after a week now. Thank you for your kind words! Making a frame for Douglas will mean that I get to reminisce about Psychosis that much longer. At the end of the day, I am so very stoked and grateful for having been a part of the event, with every one of you legends there.
Eric (Nykoluk) from Kamloops did hit the road gap in the practice runs, on his M520 pedals (wow!) but the poor guy snapped off his rear brake caliper on Dead Dog in his race run. I feel like he would have smoked us otherwise!
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BrianColes
3 months, 1 week ago
Amazing write up. It really summed up the weekend!
Sandor. It was great meeting you and sharing the stoke with you for your first ride down. On a single speed, home made hardtail no less!
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Sandor Boros
3 months, 1 week ago
Brian! You guys were so nice for taking me in and putting up with my snail pace on the way down. I still cannot believe just how fast all of you locals are, it was such a fun ride!
I sure hope to visit the place and you guys soon again. Keep up the stoke, the summer has just started!
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StranjBikes
3 months, 1 week ago
Sandor I didn't realize that you built your hard tail yourself, just that we had discussed that it was custom built
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Raymond Epstein
3 months, 1 week ago
It's not likely I will ever ride this as an old kook from the south (yeah c'mon!), but stories like this have continued to inspire me decades on. I do hope to return up there (BC) someday.
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Cooper Quinn
3 months, 1 week ago
C'mon up! There's lots of much chiller riding around, too.
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Lee Lau
3 months, 1 week ago
Well done Cooper and Ryan and Brian all for surviving
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Allen Lloyd
3 months, 1 week ago
After 8 hours on trail setting course for our local enduro yesterday and the prospect of the same thing happening all over again in a couple hours this is exactly what I needed today. People always ask why I am so excited to spend a big day riding a ton of miles with a 50'ish pound bag on my back. Because if we don't do that then we don't get to enjoy race day!
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MaxRockatansky
3 months, 1 week ago
Videos & photos really do not do this course justice. The relentless steeps of Deaddog and RTC just do not show on the screen and the rest of the course looks pretty pedestrian. It is not....
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Cooper Quinn
3 months, 1 week ago
RTC is a fucking rodeo ride, Christ.
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Lynx .
3 months, 1 week ago
Props man, I first saw that course when they did it for the Summer series and it blew my mind, that start and then it actually does get steeper and gnarlier, insane. Sounds like you had a good time and yeah, no matter what you do or how you try to practice, you just can't replicate the feeling and how hard you can push when you actually get "between the tape".
What blows my mind is watching that segment from back in the day, the stuff those guys were riding on geometry that most wouldn't even consider Trail these days, with WBs on the biggest bikes about as long as a size XS now.
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Cooper Quinn
3 months, 1 week ago
All the guys racing vintage bikes looked like they'd stolen their little brother's bike.
And everyone I checked racing vintage had upgraded their brakes to something more contemporary.
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Mammal
3 months, 1 week ago
Hayes El Caminos that barely worked at all, for my first Psychosis in '05. At least it had 200mm rotors, for sure people have raced it with worse brakes than that.
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Cooper Quinn
3 months, 1 week ago
Oh, people have absolutely raced it with the worst brakes. But no one wanted to subject themselves to that on top of vintage geometry and dampers, haha.
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Lynx .
3 months, 1 week ago
Hell yeah, that's absolutely understandable. Much as disc brakes were a major thing that advanced MTBing, it took a while before you started to get the big selection of decent brakes. I still remember the Hayes S01E brakes that came on my Trance in '05, holy hell were they awful compared even to Juicy7s, can't even talk about them in the same sentence as the early Shimano stuff.
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Timer
3 months, 1 week ago
Would it even be possible to keep a true vintage brake working today? Are pads still available? Could you still source the right kind of piston seals?
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Cooper Quinn
3 months, 1 week ago
I think you're probably relying on finding NOS parts and/or cannibalizing others for parts.
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StranjBikes
3 months, 1 week ago
Hope stuff you could for sure as hope sometimes still has spares for some of the old stuff. They advertise they will support their products for at least 10 years.
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Perry Schebel
3 months, 1 week ago
great read, cooper! sounds like an amazing race. love that they had a 26'er category. had me (sorta/kinda) itching to dust off the old sled.
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Cooper Quinn
3 months, 1 week ago
The Lahar would have been a hit - there was some epic vintage rigs.
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finbarr
3 months, 1 week ago
Rad as hell. I gotta make it back out to Golden.
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Andy Eunson
3 months, 1 week ago
A big part of the racing I did was the camaraderie of the gang. The actual racing was kind of secondary. I see that in your story and it makes me happy. I don’t race anymore and I don’t miss the training and racing but I do miss the people. I have replaced the racing with guiding Monday Night Rides here in Whistler. Very similar.
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Lyndon Rush
3 months, 1 week ago
You're experience was incredibly similar to mine and I times we're also identical!
I haven't felt so young since, well... I was young.
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Cooper Quinn
3 months, 1 week ago
I wouldn't say I felt "young" out there, hah! But it was great to have a great time, that's for sure!
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Logan Williams
3 months, 1 week ago
Hell yeah brother!
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Mammal
3 months, 1 week ago
Congrats on keeping the rubber side down, and pushing past the nerves! Even just riding that full trail is a real test. Thanks for bring back a handful of really good memories, Wet Dreams is a really fun section I had sort of forgotten about. The first time I raced this, was on an '05 Norco Team DH, which in reality, had a HTA in the range of 68 degrees. My '06 the next year was better suited, but I had a huge cold the entire weekend, and unfortunately continued to get smashed drunk every night anyway (mid-20's logic).
I'm a bit pissed you didn't at least post a full photo of the Super-8. That one of those is still being ridden, let alone raced down Psychosis blows my mind. How did he place?
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Cooper Quinn
3 months, 1 week ago
Check back - I'll update the article at the end with a carousel of random photos that didn't make the cut, but are probably worth seeing for folks.
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Mammal
3 months, 1 week ago
That'd be great, thanks.
*Edit* - A few really good clips of Super-8 Guy in this video recap. What a legend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik0F9ATeTnw&t=2s
In the PB recap article, there's a Devinci Big Bang WITH Airlines (Steve Mitchell's?). Amazing.
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RNAYEL
3 months, 1 week ago
I am saddened and disappointed that there aren't any pictures of coverage of Brian Earle and his homemade bike. Except for Lee in the comments, congratulating him on surviving. Shout out Lee Lau.
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Cam McRae
3 months, 1 week ago
Shout out to Rachid for shouting out Lee for shouting out Brian! ♥️
Seriously though - awesome that Brian rode Psychosis on one of his basement originals! That’s inspirational. So cool there is a race like this that inspires riders to step back in time or bring out their own creations. If anyone has photos of Brian and his bike I’d like to see them as well!
I aspire to at least ride Mt. 7 one day (slowly) but I haven’t yet made it up that way.
Big props to everyone who rode - like Steve Mitchell on his vintage Devinci Big Bang with Shimano Airlines drivetrain! Cooper - any idea about photo credit?
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Perry Schebel
3 months, 1 week ago
^holy damn, that's sick. hope to see more vintage cats in the future (great to have an excuse to go slow).
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Jotegir
3 months, 1 week ago
Yeah, if you look at the results list a couple of the guys in 26 inch category put serious time into the open men's field. So it's an excuse but at this race? Might not always hold up.
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RNAYEL
3 months, 1 week ago
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Sven
3 months, 1 week ago
hey, I shouted out Brian to @PeteRoggeman before Rachid shouted out to Lee for shouting out Brian! Still waiting for Pete to see his DMs though. :)
A frame he finished in April and test rode the next morning (first ride!) in Pemby Enduro
https://www.instagram.com/p/C6P_Fc7Oc6p/?img_index=3
and sails the Pyschosis roadgap flawlessly in June
https://www.instagram.com/p/C8p_36PSgdW/?img_index=3
How is this guy not in his own feature article yet?
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Cooper Quinn
3 months, 1 week ago
There's too many stories to tell from the weekend, Brian hitting the biggest feature of his life on a bike he built himself was rad. But so was a rider donating a free custom frame for a raffle because he was so stoked on Psychosis, and the SS hardtail he also raced Back40 on. And Steve racing Airlines. And a guy from SK finishing his frame build in the parking lot. And Tyler driving down from Smithers just to volunteer. Or the story of finding the OG hotseat in a barn.
The list of stories is long.
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Sven
3 months, 1 week ago
Seasons 43:21 is that OG Cooper?!
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Cooper Quinn
3 months, 1 week ago
Ha, no! But I'll bet that's Nick Quinn, who placed second in one of the OG years, and was also in attendance this year.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C8nwiHXPA04/?img_index=1
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Mammal
3 months, 1 week ago
That was definitely Nick. He's was always winning or top 3. He's a G.
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Jotegir
3 months, 1 week ago
So ya registered for nationals at Sun Peaks in August?
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Cooper Quinn
3 months, 1 week ago
It's interesting. Psychosis was scary in many ways, but given you're never going to memorize the track in 2 days, and it was a bit of a war of attrition/fitness, it was very different than a real DH.
The thought of how much commitment it takes to go properly fast in a "real" DH race is scarier than Psychosis, to me. Memorizing every line and root, trying to shave tiny bits of time... that's scary.
Also, maybe. Maybe. Sun Peaks is very rad.
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ShawMac
3 months, 1 week ago
If you keep expectations low, you don't really have to obsess over the lines. Its not a world cup and we aren't getting paid. Last year at Mt Washington I tried to remember lines from the track walk, but really all I had the capacity for was a few big line choices in key sections, and the rest was just survival.
The result of me trying to study too many lines was over practicing and being too exhausted for the race and then subsequently eating shit twice. I would have had a better result with a blind race run!
This year I am going to try and limit my practicing to maybe 4 or 5 runs over the two days to save myself for the big show.
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ShawMac
3 months, 1 week ago
Cooper, so glad to hear it was a blast. Your write up makes me itchy for race weekend on the Monster Mile. Can't wait, but there is definitely going to be some focused forearm work in advance. Mine definitely wouldn't have survived Psychosis lol.
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Mark
3 months, 1 week ago
+1 one setting aside time to write this up amidst all the chaos.
Also props to Brian - I saw his post on IG about the gap and thought wow, that's full on commitment.
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Sven
3 months, 1 week ago
This comment has been removed.
Rabbit Ewan
3 months, 1 week ago
I wanna know which Santa Cruz was fastest red V10 or red Super8?
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Cooper Quinn
3 months, 1 week ago
Oh, I think you know.
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