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..
