Monte Sainte Anne

Well Monte Sainte Anne was pretty tough… It had rained constantly over the past 2 weeks and with the trail building crew working on section it had made the track just a touch muddy…. when I say a touch I mean like thick mud! Even though it was fairly muddy the track was still pretty awesome!
I must admit though I had a pretty tough time trying to feel comfortable on this track. I had difficulty staying on line in some places and with a bad knee I kept hurting it everytime I put a foot out so it made my mind set a little negative I think… not a good thing as its pretty important to have fun riding. Even with that in mind I kept telling myself to just chill and play with it a little.
First day practice was not very good as I started the day out a little late getting my bike ready and I rode 2 runs with mud spikes which were not a very good decision as mud spikes felt awful on the higher speed sections and by the time I had the dry tires on I had missed the practice!.. woops.
Second day practice was better the dry tires felt great on the first run but as the day progressed the mud got thicker and I had decided that some cut mud spikes were going to be better but had no time to put them on.
Race day on the Downhill was dry and hot! The track dried up pretty quickly as it had been super muddy in the woods and even in the open sections. I put the dry tires back on once again and went up for practice and it was ok I still felt like I needed more time to get my lines checked in but didn’t have the time. I found that I was still trying lines out in my qualifying run! Not a great thing to do… I ended up qualifying 31st which wasnt bad as I had kept my qualifying run very chilled and I knew I could get a faster time than that.
I felt for my Finals run that I should be fine and I kept running my lines through my head trying to remember them all. I had a decent start and I was giving it a lot more this time but not giving it to much as I knew it was a long track. By the time I got nearer to the bottom I knew I was having a pretty decent run and wanted to start pushing it as I got closer to the bottom. As I approached one of the last woods sections I was on the gas and I kind of miss judged the turn just a bit and I missed a small bridge going over a creek and tried to jump it but unfortunately I landed on the side of the bridge and I went over the bars and got all twisted up.
I got up pretty quickly but soon realized that my bars were pretty badly twisted and that they would need to be straightened so by the time I got back on the track I had lost quite a bit of time so I just had fun with the last couple turns of the track…. Ohh well.. bad runs had to happen sooner or later hey! It was pretty funny as my bars were not quite straight still and I felt like I was crossing up everywhere!… you should try it… feels pretty funny when you are charging into heavily rooted and rocky section with your bars turning sideways! even jumping was crazy!

Anyways it was an ok race for me… not good as I need a good result for a World Cup! Hopefully this next week will be good for me as the next World Cup is in Bromont where I had won the Canada Cup about 2 months ago?.. fun! We shall see how it goes!

Anyways we shall see everyone later!

Cheers

Mt Snow National Champs!

The results are in!!!… I had such an awesome weekend of racing. 2nd in the Slalom, 1st in qualies for DH without a chain and then 1st in the finals for Downhill by almost 3 seconds..
In fact it was a great week for Morewood Racing as we had 3 other 1st places for Morewood Bikes including 1st in expert men 19-29 by JR Quick! good job there..

Slalom….. In fact I almost didn’t even race the slalom as I was thinking I may just save it for the Downhill race on Sunday but lucky for me my trainer Colin Izzard from Charmichael training came up to watch the race and let me tell you he was such a great help. He told me that with the amount of training we have done that this should be a walk in the park pretty much.. He was always at the top with some drinks for me after each run and kept me in a positive mind the whole time.
The Slalom track was pretty fun the track was a very sandy kind of dirt so when it started to rain during practice the track became super tacky!!
I was feeling pretty good that day I had no stress and wasn’t nervous one bit as Slalom is usually a fun event for me but, with my training this year I was having such great starts and felt so strong throughout the track that I kept moving up through the ranks. It was only when I advanced against Chris Herndon who was the fastest qualifier and by far fastest in the practice that I started to think to myself that I may actually get to the finals!… with that on my shoulders now I had to tell myself that racing is “fun”… there is no need to stress. I ended up in the finals against Eric Carter and out of the gate the first run EC pulled an amazing start and left me about 2-3 bike lengths behind but I slowly caught up in the turns but EC had the advantage. Second start we both pulled the first straight at about the same until we got to the first rollers where I was manual doubling and EC was pedaling manualing! he pulled another 1-2 bike lengths on me there but I didn’t care as I enjoyed the first corner so much and seeing EC take a foot out made me feel great as I knew that I was pushing him for him to pull that move! In the end I didn’t finish to far behind him but I knew he had the win. I was still super stoked to have placed second as it was by far the best Slalom result I have had and I had so much fun racing against EC who has been an idol of mine for a long time!

Downhill… With a great result from last night in the Slalom I felt there was less pressure on me as I had thought no matter what I have already enjoyed racing in Mt Snow.
My bike was well prepped and ready as I headed up for practice. First practice run was good I was just riding smoothly and calm and then second run was also pretty good except that I had cracked a brand new rim because I decided to try a little less air pressure… 27psi was not a good idea for such a rough track with big sharp rocks. I didn’t have time to change out the wheels as I had qualifications starting pretty soon so I headed up.
I kept my qualifying run super easy and I didn’t pedal that hard as I wanted to try and save energy for the tight woods section. I passed Cody Warren on the middle road about half way down who had stopped intentionally to try and beat the rain that was supposed to pour down in the afternoon.. lucky for me it stayed dry! I waved at him as I went by.. he waved back..
I came up to the rocky highway that had claimed so many rims before and skipped into it pretty confidently but, as I got into it my chain broke off and started to skip around so I thought that it was good as it was one less thing I needed to worry about now. I ended up free wheeling to the finish with a time of 5:06 which put me in first place! I was pretty surprised let me tell you.
Now with the added pressure that if I can keep my chain on and just stay relaxed for the DH I could win. I fixed my chain up changed my wheel set and headed up for the finals
In the gate I kept running through my mind that no matter what I have already had a good week and that stress prohibits you from going faster. Like Sam Hills said ” Pressure…. I don’t do Pressure”
My finals run was good! I kept relaxed and managed to stay calm and not pedal to hard as I wanted to get stronger nearer to the bottom, also stay focused and clear headed for the faster sections.
It all worked out pretty well I felt really strong still as I got to the bottom…I kept asking myself if I had given it enough as I had lots of energy left over still? I came through the finish line and all I heard was ” Here is your new National Champion!!”… I thought to myself… No way… that was fun!
So it feels pretty good that I am the 2008 National Champ for DH !
I want to thank everybody for helping me out especially my Dad who has always been super suportive from day 1.

The Ellertson Family who has given me a place to sleep since beginning of May and helped me stay relaxed after races.

Like to thank my trainer Colin Izzard and Charmichael training who has beat me up so much this training season and I’m glad to see why I went through it all!! Thanks!

My Sponsors: Morewood Bikes, Control Tech, Ethirteen, 661, Royal, Cane Creek, Industry nine, Mavic, Maxxis, Lake shoes, Crank Brothers, Formula brakes.
Bike worked so well all week and with a racing weight of 37lbs it helps having the lightest DH bike at the races.
I have tons of pictures and I will post some up on my website… check em out!!

Cheers see you all in Monte Sainte Anne!

Nationals in Vermont

Wednesday was a busy day….. I had to pick my Dad up from Albany early in the morning and I hadn’t even packed our trailer up.! I was a bit late picking up Richard but it was great to see him again.
We made it out to Mt Snow and unpacked our trailer and set up the pits area like old times… Its weird because I have been out here by myself for so long and I have gotten used to setting up everything by myself.. I kind of missed having my Pops helping out with everything…. so its good not having to worry about everything.

Anyways I ended up walking the DH Wednesday afternoon and let me tell you it was a bit of a hike! I left at 5:30 and got back at 7:45 I took my time walking down checking every possible line… so I know the track now.
Track is pretty sick! Top section is all new covered in thick moss makes the track a little difficult to know where you are riding..
Middle section was the same as the previous local races so it was great after trying to learn the track a little bit I get to the middle part and have some fun.. like a mini break. They ended up cutting the last section from previous races and rerouted the track across the ski slope…. even more tiring now!!! but way more fun than a boring road..
So all in all the track is sick still..
Thursday afternoon DH practice started and the top section as predicted was pretty slippery covered with invisible rocks… lets just say I ended up having to replace my new carbon bar from Control Tech as I had hit a couple hard HARD! hits.. pretty amazing how strong those bars are.. So I still feel pretty confident with them.. Track is going to be quite tiring… I’m guessing the track will be around the 5 minute mark.

Right cant be too long as my battery is dying and I keep getting interupted with people saying hi to me… I must be popular!! hahaha… no.. its just good to see all my riding buddies.! Brings this race back to memories.

Anyways … Cheers! check the pics out..

Windham National

Well the results are in!… I got 2nd in the Qualies and 2nd in the finals! I guess I’m pretty happy.
Overall it was a good weekend of racing.
Qualifying was pretty fun. All week it was dry and hot out in NY but the day of race it started to slowly rain upon us and by the time we started qualies it had soaked a few of the open sections but had left most of the woods sections still pretty powdery on the bottom so as you come out to the slopes you had to be pretty careful not to slide out and ruin the run…. on top of that I forgot to wear tear offs on my goggles so by the time I got half way I could hardly see.. made things interesting.! I ended up catching up John Hauer about 2 woods sections from the finish who had a pretty gnarly crash I believe and was coasting so I did get held up a little and then when I passed him I ended up taking a line a didn’t know and flatted but I kept pushing to the finish as I was only one flat section to the finish so I might as well…?? When I came through they had told me I had the 2nd fastest time so I was pretty surprised as I had felt that I had winged it really so I had realised that I could take the win in the final!.. I was only 2 seconds from top qualifier Kieran Bennett.

In the Finals it had stopped raining a little so everybody was trying to figure out which tire combo to race with because if it rained a little more then it may have been wise to go with mud spikes but if it didn’t then it would be the dry tires and the only spots that would have been little slippery was the open sections…
Right before the Finals though it looked as though it was raining on top of the mountain so I had made the decision to go with the mud spikes… I quickly realised though as I was riding the ski lift up to the top that it wasn’t raining……. oops. No worries.. The spikes still may be ok!!.. I said to myself to stay calm! hahaha.. it turned out that the spikes were definitely not the right tire as the track had dried a little more from the qualifying run… and the Semi pro Race runs… but, you can see why I made the choice to go with Mud tires as if it was raining like it looked like it was and since I was second last and the Semi pro’s had raced the track it may be slimy and muddy!! but, in fact the track didn’t change much… dang.

The top half of my run was probably the the sketchiest I think I have ever ridden!! I slipped off the start … I came to the first off camber drop and slipped off the rock with one foot and landed hard but, I was still on the bike though and got up pretty quickly and kept going.. down the next steeper section I ended up going a bit fast and my mud spikes dug a bit to far down in the soft dust and threw me up high off the next drop and I hit a pretty big root and rock which kicked me up and I ended up hucking to flat…. haha! I did actually laugh…! the next steep section was coming up and I was telling myself to just Calm the Hell Down!!.. I was feeling pretty pinned! I ended up almost stuffing it into the next steep section because the tires dug a bit deep into the rut and because the rut had been blown up by the last 2-3 riders it headed straight for the stumps and bushes…lucky is all I can say… yep.. the next part I felt like whatever happens now I don’t care!!! I made it that far so what is the worst that could happen!… I felt good the rest of the way down besides the few rocky section I felt a little squirelly and I felt that I was fighting the bike I little…. I ended up coming to the finish line with a big huck and almost looping out to the finish!! pictures of it are up on the web somewhere..

I got 2nd!!! again!…. Keiran got me by 2 seconds.. again!.. oh well.. Its a good result still so I’m pretty pleased with myself.!
My leg was pretty sore still from the crash but I am giving it some pretty good rest now…. I will be ready I think for Mt Snow.

Anyways I shall see most of you up in Mt Snow this next weekend!

Cheers..

Windham day 2

Day 2 at Windham was great!… track was a little more blown out today after the Expert went through but overall it was pretty good.
This afternoon we had Dual Slalom Qualies which went pretty good. I messed up a little on the first run but did pretty well on the next run and I ended up 4th which is good! I will try and improve tomorrow on the race.

We ended off the day with a good home cooked meal that one of the Junior Experts mom kindly enough invited us to…. ended up watching bike movies of me crashing… lovely..
Here is some pics from todays qualification!

Cheers!!!!!

Windham National practice

Well I have had a bit of a vacation from posting on my Blog….. I have just been training quite a lot! Actually they have been more of death rides and afterwards I just want to play my new PlayStation 3!! Pretty awesome..I’m such an addict…
Anyways I arrived at Windham NY for the Nationals today and got setup with my trailer and tents and headed up for practice! The track definitely needed to be walked before actually riding… dam… track is actually pretty sick!! The track is pretty steep and windy, Its been a dry week I guess as the track is pretty much powder.
The first 2 runs I took today were pretty much walk pace… no jokes.. you had to have lines on this track to go fast. After a few runs with some mistakes I started picking up the pace a little.

As for the Slalom track they have a good idea but the dirt is a bit rough.
The course winds through the half pipe and has some unique obsticles. The track looked like it was done in one day though… it was rushed pretty much. The dirt is very rocky and the berms aren’t very well shaped either… oh well.. it will still be fun!

I actually took some pics but it wasn’t with my camera so I should have those up hopefully by tomorrow!
Anyways I will talk to everybody later!

Cheers!