US Open of Mountainbiking

Hey everybody! Well it was a great weekend for racing again!
The 2008 US Open at Diablo freeride park started out getting there thursday for registration and setting up the tents. We had some weird weather!! It was sunny and hot 1 minute and then the next it was storming.. made it hard to get things done.
Even with all that rain on Thursday the track was superb on Fridays practice. The track had some new section in it like they do every year with some few changes done the track was still a great track to ride as always. It was a little slippery in the woods where it was damp and rocky. The practice went very well I did 10 runs which was a bit to much really…? On top of that we had practice and Qualification for Slalom which in the beginning looked like it may have been fun but when you started to ride the track it was still very soft underneath and was like riding on pillows… plus the track was only 18 seconds long? I ended up qualifying 13th I think?…. not good at all as I stuffed up both my runs.

Saturday went well the track had dried up a little and with Slalom finals and DH qualifications we had a lot of work to do. I ended up Qualifying 7th in DH which was pretty good as the competition was stacked with World Cup racers this year. The day ended with a weird Slalom race which was supposed to be from 5-8 PM and it ended up they raced all the AM men first and made us wait up there till the end and of course we ended up starting at 8PM… so a lot of us weren’t very happy with the decision but it actually ended up being a ton of fun as a lot of us were keen on the night time slalom race with almost no light… it was different and exciting! I ended up cleaning my first run easily and then next run was against Cody Warren. First round I won by a fraction but the next round he won by a fraction so it was a very close race but Cody took it in the end.
Sunday finals were a blast! The track had changed over the weekend from wet and tacky to a dry and dusty and with all the AM men racing they tore up the track pretty good afterwards and all the rock gardens had become a little more dangerous and rougher but with a tweak of the Cane Creek suspension I was running it soon took care of that problem!
As it came time for my race run you could feel the tension in the air and as I had top 10 finishes every year I really didn’t want to break that streak so it made it even more stressful but as I have come to realize in the past all those feelings is adrenaline and you can channel all that energy into power and focus so it was good that I felt that way and it gave me a bit more confidence in the end. My run was pretty good I still know I could have taken time off of it as I messed up some little sections but nothing major but it will always be that way on that track as its hard to have perfect run on that track… I ended up with 8th position with a time of 2:42.2 just missing Fairclaugh’s time of 2:41.6…. still that is close enough for me and I also made top 10 which was the goal of the weekend!
Anyways I will leave you now with that note as the party was great afterwards with some of my good friends came down from TN with the moonshine and everybody got a good taste of it at the party.. what a way to end a good weekend.

Anyways I will see all of you later!! I’m off to get some work done here.

Cheers

Bromont finals!!!!

I won!!! I’m pretty happy…. I had a great run and had so much fun racing this track.
In practice I had a few people come to me and say how quick I looked but you know how that goes… you may look quick but its really how fast of a racer you are so I was pretty stoked to know that I’m still pretty fast as I haven’t had a run like that in while and with the disappointment of Slovenia I was ready for some good result.
The track was so much fun! It has wide open sections to great steep rocky sections and then near the bottom it was fast and in the woods.
I’m not sure what else to say because I’m almost speechless as I beat the whole field by 4 seconds with Steve Smith in 2nd.
I had a good run and I would rate it as my fastest “practice” run of the day… I made sure I kept smooth and not to conservative as I have done in the past. I was still very comfortable with the pace I was going at and felt like I was playing a little near the bottom…
Thanks to the Lama guys for supporting me at the race without them I would be living like a hobo and then I wouldn’t sleep and then my morale would be lower which could have made the difference there…hmmm so ya Thanks!

Anyways here are some pics quickly! I’m off to party in downtown Sherbrooke!!

Cheers

Bromont…..Gnar

Well after a long adn boring haul back to the States from Europe I got back…. without my bike unfortunately… took the airline a while to realize where the hell it was..
Any way I had a great rest and am now in Bromont for the Canada cup!
Bromont have some of the best riding trails ever with their mountains riddled with amazing jump lines and good steep rocks sections all over and this new track is no exception….. they have put in a load of work to it!
The track I believe is going to be the World cup track this year and they have done a pretty good job except for the bottom section where it is a little flat. The top on the other hand is DOPE! I had 2 runs on the track today and it is a bit dry but its also pretty rough. There are a few good rocky drops in it that just looks good but is a ton of fun!..

Check out the pics… I have practice tomorrow from 9AM to 5PM….. tons.. its good. check you later!

Cheers

Slovenia Finals

Well……..Finals didn’t go so well.
Day started off well my bike was in great shape and practice that morning went well.
I knew to qualify I had to have a winning run as there are so many fast riders out here.
I started at 12:12 and for the first time I felt a racing drive that I had been having trouble with for the year since I broke my shoulder blade in 2006 and then was sick most of the 2007 year.
I started out super fast and was on the gun all the way down to past the rock garden which was about half way…. then for some reason I decided that I was on time for a good run and that all I needed to qualify was just stay smooth the rest of the way down…. HUGE MISTAKE!!! I was an idiot to think that as I lost just enough to be pushed out of the top 80!… I was surprised and was a huge disappointment to me and I’m sure to most of you. I can’t tell you how much faster the Europeans are than the USA riders. There are just so many fast riders out here and you can’t ever underestimate your opponents.

I ended the day with a 106th place…. very disappointing as if I were 2 seconds faster I would have qualified.

Anyways there is nothing I can do about it but pick myself up and use this as a learning experience that I need to actually push myself a little more.

Our top Americans were Kyle Straight, JD, Cole B, Duncan and Bradley… Good job guys.
The day ended up with Steve Peat 3rd , Julien Cammelini 2nd and Sam Hill 1st with a blistering run for this track and was close to 3 seconds faster than anyone else…. unbelievable…

I will be on my way home soon so I will see you later.

Cheers

Slovenia part3 Practise

Sorry I didn’t post anything last night… I got home here and then we went out to dinner and then by the time we got back here again its was already 10:30 and was too tired to tell you guys anything!..

Well as predicted the track was PACKED!! We had practice from 9AM – 4PM so I thought it would be easy to get at least 4-5 runs in…. This was not the case.. The Gondola was terrible as it took about 30-45 secs to come around and it only takes up “1″ person at a time… now there is I think 230 riders.. so Finally I got to the top and decided to just do sections on the top and keep walking them which I think helped out a lot.
There is a lot of fast riders and I have confidence in myself that I will do well!
Track is soooooo much fun! I tried taking pictures but quickly realized that my memory card was not in my camera and was still in the computer…. darn….

After the DH practice we went to watch the 4X practice and Qualies! Let me say it was just absolute carnage! The track was fast and really dry and really rocky so people were always falling.. then Cedric pulled off a awesome hip jump and that gt everyone trying it. The jump was probably about 35ft long and the lip was soft and steep with the landing very small and steep. People were flying all over the place as now they knew they had to hit it to show there stuff! haha..there were cartwheels, ejections, front wheels nose cases and even one guy who didn’t even try to hit it went over the front and his bike landed up in a tree about 30ft away!!! Carnage….
Anyways I thought I would give you that quick update as I am now going to bed as it seems I can’t get enough sleep…??!!!
I will be racing tomorrow so wish me luck!…

Below is a picture of Sam Hill…. look close… notice the 36mm Boxxer he is riding.. They have Santa Cruz guys on them to.

Cheers

Slovenia part 2

Woke up this morning after a rough night of waking up at 1AM and then falling asleep again at 6AM then waking up to go to the track at 8AM…. so ya still pretty tired!
The drive to Maribor is a 1Hr drive which is ok… I’m staying for free so can’t complain you know.

Registration was long and not very organised at all! They must have had the venting shut because it was stinking of hot dirty sweat…. was nasty!!!
Afterwards we started walking up to the top of the DH… There must have been around 200 riders there all at the same time walking the track because it made it really difficult to look at lines.
The track is awesome! I think it is going to be fun! The last time I rode here was in 2002 and as I remembered it I think the track was way harder then than it is this year.
The rock garden looks a bit easier less rocks in it now but, it was hard to tell as there seemed to be a 100 racers all looking at rocks at the same time… so I took some pics and I will put them together and decide that way…. : ) The track looks very flowy and fast with some good tight turns filled with large roots, combined with some high speed action it is going to be like a roller coaster…. pretty much in a nut shell.

On another note there seems to be quite a few USA riders out here all trying to get a spot on the USA Worlds team I’m guessing? Hopefully all of us will qualify as there are over 200 racers here! Its going to be like a Sport racer practice tomorrow… we shall see..

On another note…… I had the flatest burger I have ever seen… weird?.. It had a large bun and a waffer thin burger patty…. it was a Pancake burger!

Cheers….

Slovenia part 1

Well after a good long haul across the Atlantic I made it to Slovenia!! Everything went smoothly and I got all my luggage amazingly! I went from JFK to London, London to Munich, Munch to Graz… that is a lot of flying and I am so tired now… but I am a professional at Tiger woods Pro Golf on PSP!….
I met up with Curtis Keene at Munich airport as he was on the same flight… Thank God..if he weren’t there I actually may have missed the flight to Graz as I seemed to have had the times mixed up pretty badly..

Anyways I made it in to Graz and Sasha from Freerider bike shop ( http://www.freerider-on.net/trgovina/ ) picked me up thankfully and let me stay at his home.. which I must say is beautiful.! It is very peaceful out here and I am staying only 30-40 minutes away from the mountain.
Tomorrow I get to register and walk the Downhill should be a good course this year from what I have been hearing… I will keep you updated from day to day as I have internet here.

Cheers! … oh if my grammar is a bit off that is probably because I have had NO SLEEP!! so get over it…

Plattekill

What can I say about this race….. Fun? Sick….. Stellar!…bloody amazing.. I had quite a lot of fun let me tell you….and to top it up they were having a vintage motorcycle rally!! so cool
It started out leaving Johns house on a Saturday morning… EARLY! I should have checked the schedule but practice lasted pretty much all day so I woke up early for nothing!
The track was a little wet but the track was pretty great! It was filled with some good size drops into hard turns filled with loads of shale and sticky dirt, It has good, tight and tricky sections that you couldn’t help but hoping right into them without a care just to get that pure adrenaline rush…. lets just say I felt pretty good about myself.
Unfortunately Will Collins had a mechanical malfunction and tackled a large tree which we ended up taking to the hospital… the tree that is… it got hurt badly by that brute of a boy!!..haha just joking Will had hurt his shoulder again pretty badly so he was hurting for the race on Sunday but he rode which is what matters… he ended up with a 10th in Juniors.

Sunday started out with an Awesome breakfast at this B&B on a big farm which was right next to the mountain… they made their own bacon!!! was sooooo good!
With a good meal for race fuel in me I was ready to ride!
The track was a little wet as it had rained the night before but the track itself was not bad at all until “others” started putting on the spike tires which churned everything up and since I had no tires out there except the ones I had on I had to deal with it.
Anyways it started to rain a little before the start of the Pro men and with Jurgen not there I had nobody really to push me so I made sure I had a good clean run and pedal a little and with some luck I WON! woohoo!! I always like to win. My time was a 3:13, 2nd was Chris Higgerson who is now on a Morewood Bike with a 3:18 and 3rd was Chris Heath with a 3:19… Good job guys.!

The Juniors ended up with Kevin Aielo winning with a 3:15 and then Neko 2nd with a 3:19… not bad considering he is only like 15 I think?

We had a ton of Morewood Bikes out there and even more on the podium! Expert men Andrew Ramsey and Matty Komar getting a 1st and a 3rd and then myself and Chris Higgerson 1st and 2nd pretty stoked!!

Anyways I have some pics I will post up now I know they are not really large and I’m not sure why but I’m trying to figure it out?

Cheers guys!

Connecticut

Well after a long haul across from the West coast I am now settling into my new home in CT.

I am staying with a great family who have allowed me to stay with for the Summer as long as I can build some dirt jumps and a pump track while I’m here!… which is no problem as I actually like to dig dirt…?? weird. They have a little 3 year old son who can ride a bike already!! John (the father) bought him this really cool bike that has a small Aluminum frame and an elastomer rear shock.. has no training wheels but he is already pushing this bike over big rocks and little jumps! he coasts around really well!.. pretty amazing! Right now though the weather seems to be a little miserable.. and cold… but it won’t matter really as I’m off to Slovenia this next Tuesday! woohoo!

Anyways I need to get my Bike fixed up as I think I might hit up the Platekill race this weekend?… maybe?.. it is supposed to rain all weekend so I will see.

Cheers!