Race day at Deer Valley

I will admit, Deer Valley is not my favorite track. In fact, I would consider it a mediocre track at best. But I won’t spend too much time hovering over that subject. Race day came and it was an early morning practice, not too pleasing as the rest of the weekend held mid-morning to early afternoon sessions. Sanjay and I boarded the lift and prepared to do our pre-race runs. The weather was pretty nice, not as cold as we had expected. This meant that the highs would be in the mid-80’s, nice. Qualifiers were immediately following the practice session and I was seeded to go off 12 minutes deep into the field of over 60 PRO men. I decided to take a conservative qualifier so I could be seeded mid-pack. I did, and I ended up qualifying in the 21st spot which was not too bad. The usual NORBA thing was going on (bad scheduling) so we did not have finals until 1pm, which gave us much time to kill. Since the super-factory rig of the ODI-southridge team was extremely close to the lift I decided to spend my time there. Bradical and Hank were there and we quickly started talking about life’s deep questions and pop-tarts. Wes soon joined us and the I.Q of the group suddenly dropped, but not for long as my good friend Sanjay saved the day with his witty comments and useless taunting of Wes. Race time was approaching and the wind was starting to pick up, as the Semi-Pros came down from their race runs they all had a look of fear on their faces. They al mentioned that the wind had picked up majorly and the drop which everyone was having problems with had gotten tougher to manage and many people were getting hurt attempting to huck the drop. To spite the warnings from the Semi-pros I kept my plans the same and planned on hitting all my lines regardless of the wind conditions. Next thing I knew I was up in the gate and ready to rock. The beeps went of and so did I, over the rock double and into the loose, off-camber section before the infamous “Niagara” spot. Right before the “Niagara” my feet blow off the pedals, I manage to catch them with my heels and go down the section un-cliped. Not a big deal, I clip in and peadal hard into the trees and the “barney rubble” rock section. The cheering was incredible in the trees, a quick loss of traction before the rock garden sent roost off the trail and the crowd got even louder…Now it was on to the tough rock main rock section, I let go of the brakes and trusted my boxxer not to get caught up in the massive, sharp rocks. It did it’s job and I floated over most of the holes, roots and razor-sharp rocks. I took the first turn out of the section clean, perhaps a bit too clean for I carried too much speed into the next turn and hit a tree. The crowd was still cheering, as son as I hit the tree the crowd gasped and I fell to the ground, then in an instant the crowd rose again and cheered for me to get up and go. I did but not before realizing that I had twisted my bars, not time to straighten them up I was losing precious milliseconds. I cleared the rest of the course as cleanly as I could, that is until the second to last turn when I clipped a pole which sent me into at 360* dive and onto the ground…hard. This was basically at the bottom so you can imagine the amount of cheering I was getting before I fell and after I got up. Deer Valley was a good experience and although I did not hear my time upon finishing I’m sure it was not too heinous. On to St. Anne and my first ever World Cup, cross your fingers I hope I qualify, here we go…