6a Mostra de Downhill in Guaiba Brazil

Guaiba is a small town in Brazil, just across a lake from Porto Alegre. The people are friendly and the food is fantastic. The course is about 50 seconds long, weaving through the center of the town, with a top speed around 60 kph (40 mph). Right after the start there's a diving left into the fastest straight; the pavement is rough, gritty and patchy. Next up is a right turn where if you're confident enough you can take without braking. The following right is the turn that seperates the haves from the have-nots. This is a rough, patchy, extremely off-camber turn that sends many into the hay, and injures quite a few riders. The straight following has one (relatively) smooth line leading into a non-braking left and finally the finish line.

Maxi and I in the classic luge finals.

I arrived in Porto Alegre after about 30 hours of sitting in airplanes and airports. I took a cab from the airport to Juliano's house. He was a friend whom I met the previous year in a bout of good luck after a complete crumbling of my "well laid plans".

After a couple days in Porto Alegre I was picked up by Bruno, a friend I made through the wonders of the internet and Facebook. His family invited me, a virtual stranger, into their home for the weekend stay though the duration of the Guaiba championships. Bruno, a Junior 1, was excited about racing and very interested in my street luge racing gear. I didn't speak any Portuguese and the whole family was very accomodating. They spoke a little English, but a lot of our conversations were aided by the help of Google Translator.

Friday afternoon Bruno and I went to register for the race. What was advertised as a 3 day event was turned in to a 2 day; there was no riding on Friday. I believe I was overcharged since their website stated that people running two classes get $30 off the 2^nd class. I also pre-registered, but because I was an international athlete I couldn't pay until the day of, which they said via email was perfectly fine, but the early registration price should have applied.


Saturday started off like any other; early. There was a rider's meeting and runs started... then quickly paused. The first group down was four juniors. I could tell that they were pushing too hard for the first run down and one would get injured. We had to wait for the ambulance to take the rider to the hospital. There were a lot of injuries over the weekend, including a few broken legs. This is a very dangerous course if you don't know where your, and the road's, limits are.

Crashing in the street luge semi-finals.

The first round of qualifying started off at a snails pace; and by that pace I figured we'd only have one run. Since the luge field was small, no one was getting eliminated and I took it quick, but still fairly conservitavly. I don't need an injury right before the World Championships. Surprisingly the organizers decided to do a second round of qualifying, and they stepped it up to a lightening pace. I ended up qualifying 4^th in street luge and 2^nd in classic luge. Both of my times were fairly consistent even though I felt that had a much better line on both of my second runs.

Sunday was race day. The forecast had been calling for rain for almost two weeks; although it had been getting better as the date neared. When I first checked it 10 days out they were calling for Thunderstorms; but by the day of the event it had been upgraded to showers. The morning of, the roads were wet and I saw a few people had rain wheels on. Some had said if it were to rain they would bow out. I figured, growing up in the Pacific Northwest, rain may give me an advantage. The skate gods smiled upon us, however, and kept the rain away during the whole race.

The day started off late. Practice was scheduled for 8:00 am and we didn't get any riders on the road until 11:00. There were two rounds of practice, of which I only took one, and racing started:


It is at this point where I feel I must be very candid: I thought the way they ran the race was stupid. They started out with a round of Open Downhill Skate, and then did a round of Junior 2. They then did another round of Open Downhill followed by a round of Junior 2. This would go on until they got to the quarter finals where they would add in Junior 1, and the semis where they would add inline, women's and both luge classes. The idea behind this is so that all the finals would take place at the end. This would be fine if competitors were only allowed to race in one class. But there were crossovers: most luge riders do both luge classes and the top Junior 2s were all racing in Open, who could easily make it to the finals in both classes. In my experience most races finish up the specialty classes (women's, juniors, classic luge) in the morning and leave the big show classes (open & street luge) for the afternoon; that way there are no conflicts with crossovers. I knew right away this would cause unneeded delays and frustration because the start line would have to wait for the bus to bring riders back up for their next race in their 2^nd catagory. The bus itself was slow and it was often quicker to just walk back up, which I did more often than not. With much frustration and the help of two interpretors I tried to explain this to the organizers, but they wouldn't listen. In the end we had too many delays and racing dragged on until 7:00 pm.


My racing did not go as well as I had hoped. In my classic luge semi-final I pushed off into third and was able to make my way up to first by the finish line. In the final I pushed off into fourth and I had good speed into the straight after turn 2; I knew I could have caught up to 2^nd and maybe even 1^st, but as I was passing 3^rd place we bumped and I lost all my speed. I crossed the line in 3^rd place, it's a podium position, but not the podium position I wanted.



My street luge race did not go as well. In my semi I again pushed out in to third. In corner two 2^nd place crashed out and I took over his spot. I looked behind me and figured I was clear and easily in the tranfer spot. Well, you know what they say about counting your chickens before they hatch. I thought I entered corner three conservatively, but somehow I managed to crash on the exit and get turned around 180 degrees. I sat there for a second dumbfounded as I watched myself get passed by who was originally 4^th place. He actually hit my luge and caught some air, but was able to skillfully recover and take the transfer spot. I paddled my way to 3^rd in that heat. This put me in the consolation final. I had a bit of a battle with another luger and that was the most fun heat of the day. I ended up crossing the finish line first, which put me into 5^th overall.

Guaiba awards ceremony.

After the racing was a party and awards ceremony where I got to drink, dance and mosh. They called me up to the podium twice and even gave me a medal for my 5^th place street luge finish, which was a nice gesture; although sometimes feels like a punch in the gut.

Overall my impression was that the race was organized better in 2012. The road itself was the same, but everything went slower this year. Corner three is dangerous and something needs to be done better for next year. They had put a tarp over the hay this year and that was the wrong thing to do; they either need more hay propperly spaced out, or need a combination of hay and air-barriers. Also a second ambulance should be utilized to reduce the frequency of having to wait for it to return from the hospital.