This past weekend Ya-Chan and I headed down to Kyoto in the middle of the night to get to the Red Bull Holy Ride race. Seeing it was just the first day of Obon, one of the biggest national holiday weeks in Japan, we left at 2am arriving at 7am...good timing, and we hit no traffic jams.

We were a bit tired, and Ya-Chan being the trooper that she is, drove the whole way as my personal chauffeur, mechanic and main support person. Upon arrival, we checked out the race site and walked the course which consisted of a 400 stair ancient stone stairway leading up to the famous Iwashimizu Hachimangu Shrine in Kyoto. So stoked that Red Bull could pull off this great location, especially in the middle of Obun... well done!!

The stairs were really slippery but not as steep and narrow as I had expected so I was a bit relieved. However, I knew that it would be really difficult not to crash on this course because of its traction. The stone stairs were very damp and resembled the conditions of the North shore in Vancouver. They never really dry out due to the heavy moisture in the area.

We were only allowed one practice run, then into the qualifier. The practice run was pretty scary first time to ride the stairs and test the traction. The straight aways were really fun, you could get a better rhythm when you leaned far back on the rear tire and just powered through the stairs. The corners were a different story.. super slow and super cautious.......

Since the race was open class only, which means no separation of elite, sex, etc.. just one big class, I came 76th in the qualifier out of 124 racers......I never made the top 32 cut off for the semi-finals. Only our world cup dh athlete Mio Suimasa could pull that off. You go girl.. she was knocked out in the first round but she showed fantastic girl power.....way to go girl!!! I ended up 3rd in the women's category so I was super stoked with that and the fact that I had a clean run with no crashes!!!!!!

It was such a rush, great organization, great people and a great race!!!!!! Thank you to all who supported me and organized this great event!!! Especially to Ya-Chan, Kouji and my sponsors....love you!!!!! I will be practicing stairs now for next year's event.. hopefully at the same place and same time. You rock RED BULL!!!!

Here are some of the great links from the race!!!

Ya-Chan's photo shoot on flickr!!

My photo selection on I web album I, album II

facebook photo gallery

My official race report on the Specialized Twitter Blog....