HillBilly Bike BASH!!

Hey all! Well, this past weekend we here in SoCal celebrated in true Hillybilly fashion with Eric Carter's "Hillbilly Bash". The bash went down just north of where I live at the Vail Lake resort in Temecula, CA. There were plenty of vendors and even more people out for this first-annual event. It has been "EC" Eric Carter's dream to give back to the sport that has given him so much over the years and this event was the start of making that dream a reality. It was a very good showing for a first race!!! A large amount of vendors (including: FOX shox, Fox clothing, Mongoose, NEMA, Decline, Turner, Intense, GT) showed up to support this race as well as many industry people (Dave Weagle made an appearance and hung out with all of us on Sat. night). For me, it was an opportunity to get back on my bike and hang out, ride and race with all my friends. Practice was cool. The course was pretty steep at the top with many off-camber sections and loose (did I say loose?) and sandy soil conditions (welcome to SoCal). The shuttle ride was almost as adrenaline pumping as riding the course itself. I had a pretty good race run with a bit of a dab at the top of the course, my excuse is the extremely high winds that had blown in just as I climbed into the start gate! haha. When I came down everyone congratulated me on my 3d place finish, I was excited beyond words considering the deep level of talent in the PRO Field that day. It turns out that the timing was a bit off and as of now nobody has sen the FINAL results. They had a preliminary result print-out and they based the podium on that, I was in 8th place. The results were no big deal, the weekend was one of the most fun times I have had all season...the race results were not a factor.This was the first race in what I see is a resurgence of gravity racing in SoCal...even though we have lost the legendary Snow Summit venue in Big Bear, we still make due with the hills that we have out here. This is very evident in the names of the pro riders who raced this past Sunday (World Cup winners and podiumers (sp) National Champions, ect.). Pretty excited for the future of racing here in SoCal and in the United States. Oh yeah, on a side note...there was a Cannondale demo truck at the event but he packed up and left as soon as I showed up on Saturday afternoon...bummed about that.Check out the Progressive Cycling Association (PCA)site: http://www.pcamtb.com/ for more info. Photo credits go to: Wes Pracht (mtbphoto.com, mtbphoto@gmail.com)

PLACE
NAME
CLASS
TIME
PLATE
1

SWANEGEN,JD
PRO MEN
1.366
69
2
WARREN,CODY
PRO MEN
1.37
70
3
AIELLO,KEVIN
PRO MEN
1.379
66
4
JACKSON,ELIOT
PRO MEN
1.3812
16
5
OIEN,BRAD
PRO MEN
1.3817
61
6
SMITH,WAYLON
PRO MEN
1.395
12
7
BINGGELI,LOGAN
PRO MEN
1.399
198
8
GARCIA,ALFONSO
PRO MEN
1.406
77
9
CLEMENS,MARK
PRO MEN
1.416
142
10
HOUSEMAN,RICH
PRO MEN
1.42
10
11
ATKINS,KRISTIAN
PRO MEN
1.421
138
12
WILSON,TYLER
PRO MEN
1.433
98
13
STAYSKAL,RYAN
PRO MEN
1.444
105
14
SPAULDING,QUINTON
PRO MEN
1.448
199
15
VAN ZUYEN,ANDREW
PRO MEN
1.449
15
16
BUCKELL,JON
PRO MEN
1.451
171
17
HOUSEMAN,GARY
PRO MEN
1.455
13
18
MCCLENDON,SEAN
PRO MEN
1.461
119
19
GOLDRUP,RICK
PRO MEN
1.544
163