Short Clip

of me hucking myself un-smoothly.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v638/Fonse03/?action=view&current=MVI_2581.flv

A bit of Video footage

http://channelmtb.com/

Angelfire Chilli Challenge DH 2009

Baja 500

The Baja 500, what can I say? The first time I went to this race was in 1986, yeah I was about 2 years old. Later in life the 500 was an exciting weekend, not only because of the race itself but because it always fell on the second to last week of school which meant that summer break was so close I could feel it. Recently, I had taken a bit of a break from the off-road scene because of bike racing and also the fact that my dad does not race off-road anymore (I should say at the moment). This past weekend was an amazing reminder why this race and just the fact of being in Baja is one of my favorite things to do.

It sounds so cheesy, especially saying it over and over again, but Baja is an amazing place. I don't care who you are. You can read all the magazines, watch Dust To Glory thousands of times, spend all your time on forums, or chat rooms and listen to every BRO in Cali talk about it...BUT if you have not been there, in person, there is absolutely no way you could understand or comprehend the stuff that happens down there. As a fellow that was staying in our hotel found out first hand, go to Baja unprepared and inexperienced and Baja will bite you. This man was in his 60's from Ohio. Had never been to Mexico, let alone Baja and decided to race a motorcycle...solo. Bad Idea, it gets a bit worse. He did not pre-run the course, with the exception of the first 35 miles, which are probably the easiest miles of the race. He ended up back in Ensenada with a wrecked bike and alot of stitches, thankfully he was ok.

Skipping all the details becasue it would take pages and pages to go into detail on the weekend's happenings...Nick and I left Ensenada at a leisurely 9am, pretty much the time between the motorcycle start and the Trophy trucks. We got to Ojos Negros surprisingly quick given the amount of traffic that is always present on race weekends. We at at the Ojos negros cafe, a hearty breakfast for under 10 bucks, for both of us! What a deal! I heard the sound of a helicopter approaching and I knew it was time to go. We drove down the highway a bit and found a open spot to park the truck and wait for the race truck to come by. Most of the Trophy trucks, class ones and class 10s came by before we started hearing Bobby on the radio calling out mile markers. "709 race at mile 30" I looked at Nick and we both said "dayym". The truck was already at mile 30, which meant they were 5 miles from us and making very good time! STOKED. A couple of minutes later the truck zoomed by on the pavement between two other class 7 trucks, they were kicking some ass, 35 miles into the race! We quickly hopped into the truck and I drove to the next chase point @ K77 after they go by "El Alamo". When the truck went by there they had passed 2 other trucks! awesome! At this pace they will be in 1st place in no time! We hung out at the highway, waiting to get word from Bobby that he was out of the truck (@RM100) and everything was good. We got word and we headed towards Valle de Trinidad and San Mateas pass eventually down to the Borrego junction. Borrego was packed with spectators as usual, trying to get the best view of the legendary Borrego jump. We started picking up Jeremy on the radio and as he read off the mile markers we realized, again, that they were closer than we thought. We quickly started looking for a spot to pit. The area was so packed we could not find a clear spot, it did not matter however. We got word from Jeramey that they had lost the right front tire. We told Jeramey to give us more details, and if they needed us to go in and help them (they were only 3 miles from the highway). Well, we got word from Jeramey and it was not good. Stripped spindle nut and broken spindle @ the tie-rod...truck is out of the race. BUMMER! What is worse is the fact that we needed to "extract" the truck from the desert, which in this case is easier said than done. The terrain in that area is very rough and there is only one way in and out; the race course. I'll skip all the details and just say that it took many hours or working, thinking and driving to get the truck out to the highway. Thank goodness for the Baja locals who helped us counter weigh the truck which allowed us to "drive" out. I think I have written enough...All in all we did not finish the baja 500, but the weekend was so much fun that it did not matter too much. Epic weekend in one of the most epic places on earth!!

Angelfire re-cap

Time is a funny thing. It sneaks up on you and before you know it, a week, a month even a year has gone by. Time is made more apparent when you engage in annual events, such as this Angelfire race weekend which I have done now for the past 4 years. You see people who you have not seen for months; maybe years…you see how they have changed and what new things they are doing in their lives. You talk about what new sponsors, bikes, gear they have been using and where they have been racing. Even people who you might have known for years seem a bit different when you relate their current state to how they were a year ago because the setting, the place, the environment makes it so. Either that or I am just getting old and time is getting distorted for me. Either way, I had an awesome time with some of my best friends up in the high-altitude town of Angelfire!
The journey started off on Wednesday afternoon at my home in Chula Vista, CA. The crew met up and loaded the trusty F250 which has made the 2,000 mile journey 3 years in a row. Hank Cadle, Wes, Daniel, Jon Buckell and myself loaded “white lightning” to capacity and charged the Southwest desert non-stop. We arrived in Taos, New Mexico at about 8am to hit up the local WalMart for supplies and famous Taos burritos at the “Chow Cart.” The skies were gray and nasty; it looked like rain was definitely on the horizon. Arriving at AngelFire a couple of hours later, it was apparent that the rest of the day would be pretty rainy…unfortunately this was the case for pretty much the whole weekend. The pro DH course at Angelfire is rather long but can be described in a few short words; rough, rocky and hard to race. You must practice and get your lines down but also keep in mind that, at the end of the weekend, you will need to go as fast as you can down this 5+ minute insanely rough track…In addition to all this, the weather also plays a factor. Most of the practice sessions were held in wet, slippery track conditions while the forecast for race day was dry. You must keep in mind that it is not worth doing a whole lot of runs in conditions that will be nowhere near the conditions on race day. Of course most of us were hammering out runs because it is simply fun! Practice went well, I was stoked to get on the hill with my fellow team riders Nick Van Dine, Ryan Cornielsen, and Darian Harvey. I would say that Cannondale Factory Racing (CFR) had a strong presence on the DH course!
Monday, Memorial Day came and it was time to lay some solid, non-stop runs down on the course. Most riders were wondering how they would do such a thing as they had not done a non-stop run all week! For my seeding run I did my usual conservative run making sure I hit all my lines, I got a bit carried away and had to remind myself that it was the seeding run, not race run. I made a mistake in one of the rock sections which was no big deal; I did not go completely down so I lost little time. I came down with a decent time and I knew I could definitely improve on it come race time. I coasted down to my pit (NEMA international) and cleaned up the bike and put her away, ready to race. Surprisingly, people told me that I qualified in the 8th place slot! I was quite happy and knew I could put something good together.
Race time came along and I felt good. Calm and as confident as one could be before descending the jackhammer-in your hands-like course. As I got into the gate I just cleared my mind and waited for the beeps, after the 5th beep time stood still and I started my run. As far as I could remember, everything went well except for a mistake in that same rock section. I came down with a time 10 seconds faster than my seeding run, I was pretty stoked! At the end of the day my run was good enough for 14th place, definitely a disappointment as I wanted to improve on last year’s result.
This trip was definitely something I needed, it put a lot of things in perspective, mainly the fact that I need to ride my bicycle a lot more because it is awesome!

First photo by: Wes Pracht mtbphoto@gmail.com

Second photo: Shaun Spomer www.Littermag.com