Velocity101

Channel MTB

2011-03-09T11:12:00.000-08:00

Alan put some fresh content up. Documented evidence that I ride/race a bike from time to time!

Forgot about this thing

2011-03-09T11:08:00.001-08:00

Been snowboarding a bunch and...ya pretty much it. New job, new changes in life, family, friends, blahh. Life is pretty uncertain, one thing however that remains un-changed and hopefully will remain that way till I'm much older is that familiar itch...that desire I get to go as fast as I can, in the dirt...its itchin' again.

Angel Fire 20-10 and other stuff

2010-06-09T09:01:00.000-07:00

Quickie update, sorry if there are run-ouns:

Wow, Another year. I can't believe how fast the time goes by as we get older. This year was a bit different, no F-250, no rain, no snow and near 90* weather. Angel fire is a rad place, it is secluded, primitive and downright cozy. This year I traveled to the North East corner of New Mexico with Daniel O. and his parents. The drive was a bit slow as we took our time to eat (Cracker Barel) and relax. The course was good, it was the same course that all the non-pro classes raced last year. Even though I had not ridden the course, it was still better than the "pro" course that the event organizers chose to run last year. Anyway, the dirt was dry, VERY dry. The turns and off cambers were slippery but still as fun as ever! Practice went well, I did not experience any real problems with the course or my trusty Rocky Mountain steed. My body was a different story. The course, being over 5 minutes long took its toll on my forearms. The course was fast and ROUGH all the way down, and it did not give you much of a chance to rest.

Race day came, my seeding run was very conservative and I made a major mistake in one of the rock sections. To my surprise I was seeded in the 16th spot, in a field of over 50 PRO riders! I was surprised to say the least. I knew I could produce a much faster time for my race run so I was pretty excited to see what I could do.

Race time came (about 6 hours later) and I felt pretty good. I started off strong, blasting the top rock section and not blowing out the slippery turns that snaked down the ski run afterwards. By the second half of the course I was feeling the burn in my arms, and my hands felt like I was wearing down mittens, which is not good. I definitely toned it down near the bottom as I have a job and other things to go home to...Came across the finish and I was sitting in 3d place! I knew it was not gonna be enough for a podium but still a good result nonetheless. Regardless of the small mistakes I made on my run and the conservative nature of my run in general, I am happy that I was able to put together a decent run, on such a tough course, with a tough field of competitors. At the end of the day, I finished in 13th...definitely not what I was looking for but not really too bad. I had no time to hang around and watch the remainder of the pro field finish, my plane was leaving from Albuquerque in a few hours and we were behind schedule! I was relieved to make it to the Sunport in time to catch my plan to LAX, then, of course the plane leaving LAX was delayed, but only for an hour. I eventually made it back to San Diego about 2 hours behind schedule. What a wild 2 weeks it has been. Snowboarding in Mammoth with Drew and his dad, riding the Snow Summit lifts for the first time in 6 years with Brian and crew, and finally racing Angel Fire...Next weekend I am scheduled to race the MDR night off-road race with BajaJag, INSANE times are ahead, and I feel stoked to be able to live like this.

Port Angeles PRO GRT.

2010-04-30T14:20:00.000-07:00

Well, we are back from the awesome Pacific Northwest and the first round of the PRO GRT series. This race was held in Port Angeles, WA and it could not have been at a better spot! The track was FAST and the competition was world class, former world champions and all! I had a decent seeding run, taking it VERY easy and finishing about mid-pack in the field of over 100 of the worlds fastest pro racers. I feel very honoured to be able to ride with these guys given my limited riding time at home and hectic schedule that I put up with back at home. My race run was not so good, I went off the course into the extremely dense vegetation, thus ending my chances of a good finish. Luckily for me the vegetation up there is thick so any injuries were spared. The bike is starting to grow on me, I feel like I am getting more and more comfy on it and I am realizing that the bike can go pretty darn fast! I did some tweaks to the rear shock, FOX was there, and luckily they worked with me to get the rear shock tweaked to what I thought is the best (internal) tune for the frame (and my riding), THANKS JUSTIN. The bikes, again, were getting a ton of questions and lookers, and I let people ride mine around...including fellow pro riders who all felt the bike was "dialed". Here are some photos:

April. Really? Already?

2010-04-20T11:29:00.000-07:00

Yep, I still ride bicycles, in fact, I am flying to a little coastal town named Port Angeles to attend what is sure to be a stacked race (PRO GRT #1). With the names that are expected to show up to this race, people will think they are at a World Cup round rather than a North American downhill race. So between my 50+ days of snowboarding this winter I managed to ride my bike a few times, here are some photos of that:

updates soon, from green, loamy, Washington state.

Bootleg 2010

2010-02-22T19:56:00.000-08:00

So I decided to pack up and do the "New Mob" DH race in Bootleg Canyon, Nevada. Daniel, Brian, Karen and I "mobbed" up to Bootleg Friday night in the blue bomber and settled into the Hacienda Hotel Casino for the night. Saturday practice was interesting. I was definitely not accustomed to the feel of the new bike and the first 3 runs or so were...sketchy. I hadto remind myself that I was on a completely new bike and that I was still accustomed to the Judge that I had ridden for the last 2 seasons. After the 4th run I finally felt a bit better and faster on the Flatline. Sunday, race day. I went up for my two practice runs and felt good. The pro course at Bootleg this year was very pedally, the bottom half had many rises (Yes, uphills) and I was not pumped on that. Race time came and before I knew it, I was in the gate. I felt pretty ragged at the top but figured that the most time would be made at the bottom where the course flattened out (to say the least). Well I did not make it far, I flatted on the 6th or 7th corner of the track, so pretty darn close to the top. I rode the rest of the course on a flat and cheered on the other competitors who went by me and my flat rear tire. Despite the bad luck with the puncture I had a good time and look forward to getting some more quality time on the Flatline.

New bike time

2010-01-27T08:06:00.000-08:00

2010 will see me aboard the new 2010 Rocky Flatline World Cup bike. Rocky Mountain's SoCal rep was kind enough to hook me up with this sweet ride and so far, I am impressed by the handleing and suspension performance.

September of shred.

2009-10-14T12:47:00.000-07:00

The month of September was full of riding and racing for me, not only Downhill but a fair bit of Cross Country as well! It started off with the Cal-State finals at Mammoth Mountain, CA. Legendary venue, this place has literally seen the sport of mountain biking “grow up." There is no mountain resort that I can think of that possesses more bike racing history (Maybe Snow Summit or Mount Snow) than M.M. Anyway, the downhill course was very fast and challenging. What made it even more interesting was the 30mph winds that are so common for this high-altitude venue. One of those gusts caught me on the first day of practice as I attempted to negotiate a drop at the beginning of the course. I went down pretty hard, but the injuries were minor. Race day was good for me, I managed to rack up 9th place with a very sloppy run. Just to give you an idea of how close the racing was, less than 2 seconds separated me from the podium!! This race was great and I hope to race it again in '010. I also did the 24hours of adrenaline @ Hurkey Creek. I had done this even many times when I was younger and...ahheemmm, in better XC shape! But I could not resist the opportunity when my old buddy who is now a Cat 1 road racer asked if I wanted to join his team (of roadies!). I thought, wow, a downhiller in a roadie XC team...sounds good. It was, I didn't slow the team down much as we finished second in our division (5-person co-ed) and scored a podium!!! Stoked! Also, Dez was out there and he was killing it! He finished first in the solo division! Can't forget Interbike. I strolled around Sin City for a couple days, checking out the bikes and other attractions. Had a chance to say hi, to Matty J and check out the new booth, lookin' good.

2009 Cal-State race at Mammoth Mountain

2009-09-10T08:36:00.000-07:00

RACING RETURNS TO MAMMOTH!
Wow, what a sick event. Truly stoked to have a race at Mammoth once again after nearly a 5 year stretch of no races.

I feel compelled to state that I got a speeding ticket on the drive up right before the I-14 merges onto the US 395, this was the only "bummer" of the 4-day weekend. The weekend was filled with riding, not only did we practice for the DH race but also "freerode" the mtn. and rode Cross country on some amazing single track. Too much went down to explain, but in the end I came across the finishline with a 9th place time thanks to a particularly sketchy run. Saturday night a bunch of us convened at Jen Wolf's (pro female racer and Mammoth local) house to watch Steve Peat win world championships!!! Pretty damn inspiring to watch all those racers from around the world give it their all for what has to be the biggest race of the season. Props to Cody Warren also for reppin the 619 and placing top American at worlds!! It was amazing to have the opportunity to spend a sick weekend with a bunch of friends racing and riding bikes at a legendary venue!

2009 US National Championships

2009-07-23T07:51:00.000-07:00

The 2009 U.S National Championships were held in Sol Vista, Colorado this year as opposed to Mt. Snow which had hosted the event for the last 3 years. I was excited for this race, I enjoy Colorado very much...the area is just awesome in general. The downhill course was quite challenging and as the weekend progressed, the course conditions deteriorated. The pro downhill course featured three large jumps which seemed to be the talk of the event, everyone pretty much agreed that they were "huge." Practice was a bit of a challenge for me, I was feeling a bit ill the first couple of days and was just not feeling the track. Saturday came along and I finally got the jumps down and feeling semi comfortable...Unfortunately, my fork blew it's rebound cartridge during my second run and my practice time ran out while FOX repaired my damper. Sunday came along and I was just focusing on a clean run, perhaps thinking a bit to much about the monster jumps as I took the rest of the course rather conservatively and made a couple of timely mistakes. It was great to see everyone out there, including most of the gravity side of the CFR team! Overall, I think this race and venue were good for the "sport" of downhill mountain biking...the course was obviously geared towards the spectators and it showed, there were hundreds of people gathered during the pro finals to watch us launch the massive gap jumps! Despite this, most every pro racer I talked to though this was the best track they had ridden in years, a win-win situation in my opinion.

Please check out the video of the 2009 US national Championships, I filmed some of it:

www.Channelmtb.com

Recent footage

2009-07-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

ChannelMTB.com teaser of some footage we have been putting together:

http://vimeo.com/5555046

Short Clip

2009-06-11T11:55:00.000-07:00

of me hucking myself un-smoothly.

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

A bit of Video footage

2009-06-11T11:15:00.000-07:00

http://channelmtb.com/

Angelfire Chilli Challenge DH 2009

Baja 500

2009-06-08T10:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-02T08:47:00.000-07:00

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

Angel Fire 2009!

2009-05-20T12:34:00.000-07:00

Here we are again, my favorite race of the season! This year the forecast is looking rather moist which should make for an interesting week! Crossing my fingers and hoping for dry weather on race day, wish me luck...here we go.

DH bike is done!

2009-04-28T09:16:00.000-07:00

Finally received my parts which enabled me to finish the build on my new DH bike for 2009. Thanks to Daniel for helping me rebuild my old fox 40, I'm still waiting on the 2009 fork to come in.

So I went out to Teds with Daniel, Spencer and the Olimons for some Saturday shuttlein'...pretty good day, we got a good amount of runs in and I settled into my new bike. It was the first time I had ridden DH in about 2 months so I was a bit rusty...ok, very rusty! haha.

Spring 09

2009-04-06T14:08:00.000-07:00

Well, after a log winter of snowboarding and hardly touching any kind of two-wheeled machine, the time has come to get back to cycling.

Don't get me wrong, I love snowboarding and the snow. Being up in the mountains is awesome, and hopefully I can move up there one day. I mostly rode the local mountain, which is Bear mtn. here in lovely SoCal. I did get the chance to ride Mammoth and June mountain a handful of times which was great. June is an amazing mountain when there is fresh powder and I am stoked to report that pretty much every day I rode June, there was powder. Finally, I got to go on my first-ever winter vacation. Yes, over the years I choose to save all my vacation time for summer activities, however this year I got out to Sal Lake City for a week of snowboarding. Some people will think I am crazy but I was genuinely not impressed with the snow and the riding up there. Still, it was a good week.

I decided to pick up a XC bike, more of a trail bike actually. It seemed to me a good time for me to get back to my roots of sorts, just ride singletrack and have fun. I decided on a Cannondale Rize and I could not be happier. The bike rides well and is a nice balance of climbing-ability while still being pretty good on the descents. Anyway I took her to Noble canyon for her first real ride and was impressed. As of now I am waiting for the rest of my parts to come in so I can complete building my DH bike and get to business.

2009-01-14T07:59:00.000-08:00

Couple of clips from a ride that went down this past Sunday in San Diego. Amazingly, there were no winds and the ground was still a bit tacky, just like our kits. I might put some more vids up later.

Some random hucker: http://vimeo.com/2823135

Kevin: http://vimeo.com/2823034

A Swede and a Mexican: http://vimeo.com/2823097

Hella NorCal: http://vimeo.com/2823152

A bunch of other riders out including some Canadians driving around in a flat-black van, random US national champions and some Swedish dude...I'm too lazy to post the rest, maybe later tonight.

Good to ride again with old friends.

HillBilly Bike BASH!!

2008-11-13T11:37:00.000-08:00

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

Northwest tour 2008

2008-08-13T14:16:00.001-07:00

Seems like it all went by like a flash but here I am, back home from one of the more fun road trips I have done in my life. Although several plans were put on hold and many improvisations were put into place, it still ended up being good times. It started off on Wednesday the 31st in Orange County where we packed Wes' dad's Honda Civic up (I mean PACKED) and prepared our passports, bikes, snowboards and luggage for a 1.5 week journey that would take us up California, through Oregon, Washington and finally into British Colombia, Canada. We left Orange County at around 8pm, Wes forgot his cell phone so we turned back to get it...luckily we were only a few exits up the freeway when he realized this! Anyway, we drove up the 5 with little delay, avoiding LA traffic and getting past Sacramento and into the northern part of the state by 2am. We stopped somewhere south of Redding, CA where Wes met his dream girl at the local McDonalds. We took the usual 2-hour power nap and proceeded into the lovely state of Oregon. Upon crossing the border Wes got a little love letter from the local OHP We headed up to Portland where we checked into the Holiday Inn (seriously). What was cool is that we could see the towering image of Mt. Hood where we were to snowboard later in the trip. We decided to head into the city via the "MAX" which is their version of the metro or trolley.
The city was pretty nice, clean and there were really no homeless people...a bit different from San Diego and Los Angeles. We walked around for hours checking out all the stuff, spreading the word about CON clothing and looking for a place to eat. We hopped on the MAX again and headed to our one-star accommodations on the North end of town. In the morning we got on the road again and headed North towards Seattle. It was real cloudy and almost raining, a huge contrast from the previous day which seemed like the temps were in the high 80's!! We hung around Seattle for some hours then realized that we had another 10 hours to Whistler since the main road had been closed due to a rock-slide!@ We got back into the Civic and headed to Canada!
From Seattle we went North to Bellingham where we veered east off the 5 onto rural highways which lead to Canada. The landscape was pretty flat up until we crossed into British Colombia where the coastal mountains rise up pretty impressively (gnar-like). But we had no idea what this alternate route to Whistler had in store for us. It was the gnarliest highway I had been on in awhile, and I have been on some pretty gnarly roads. Constant threat from rock slides, one-lane sections, one-lane wooden bridges (as in wooden planks) , 15% grades and thousand foot cliffs were only the half of it. We finally rolled into Whistler at around midnight and we could not be more stoked. We quickly found Dan & Steph's condo and settled into our Ski-shed (room). The next morning was prime for sleeping-in and we did so, I quickly got the urge to go check out the mountain, Wes the same so we headed over to the main area where the bike park was located (Whistler Village). This place was unreal, it was almost like a dream seeing the famous site of the Whistler bike park in real life...seriously. Anyway, I feel like I am straggling and I am getting tired of typing so I will cliff-note it a bit...
We scored free lift tickets thanks to Distilled Magazine and headed up the hill for the first time on Friday afternoon, awesome. A-line was everything I had dreamed except the lips were steeper and the gaps were smaller than I imagined. Second day, sweet. Up the lift 3 times, 3d run up on Garbanzo my frame decides to fail. Epic Fail. Now what? I had 2 more days planned of riding and this shit happens? great. Call a mountain patrol guy who takes me and my useless piece of aluminum down the hill. Call it a day and devise a plan for the next week and a half we have on the road. I decide to rent a bike the next day, a 50 something pound Rocky Mountain that needed some upgrades before it was enjoyable to ride. It was good, and I had a good time on it.

Whistler

2008-07-30T09:51:00.001-07:00

I'm heading up to Whistler today for some riding. Yeah, no racing. Just riding. Should be good times indeed.

Mt Snow

2008-07-22T13:23:00.000-07:00

The U.S National Championships went down this past weekend at Mt. Snow Vermont. I started off my Journey at 8am at Lindbergh field in beautiful sunny San Diego, about 9 hours later I was standing outside of Albany international in 90% humidity and 90* Fahrenheit wondering: "what the hell was I thinking?"

Mt. Snow is different. The mountain itself is unique, the terrain tends to be open, mossy, slippery and rocky. This year they changed up the course a bit and unfortunately added many pedaling sections which made the course stupid flat in sections and gave the peddler an advantage. Practice was going great Thursday and Friday, although I was getting flats at a steady pace I was digging the high-speed rough course (when not pedaling). Friday night the skies opened up and we got some rain. Saturday morning practice was good, surprisingly dry and tacky well, not really in the woods but it was ok. Saturday practice ended and I felt good, although I was unfortunately feeling a bit under the weather. As the day went on I could feel myself getting sick, this was not good. Sunday morning came along and I definitely was feeling under the weather, I tried to ignore it and focus on my riding but it was next to impossible. My body felt week and I was having a bit of trouble breathing and alot of trouble pedaling. I seeded mid-pack with a very conservative run, most of the guys played the rain card as heavy rain was forecasted for the afternoon. Race time came around and I found myself in the gate. I hit all my lines with good speed in the top section and found my way to the first pedaling section. Not bad I held my speed through the open sweeping turns pretty well. I hit the middle pedaling section and had no juice. The next couple of pedal sections I had absolutely no gas. I got to the lower tree section and caught up to the guy in front of me. I thought I could pass him but I had no power left and my concentration was less than good, the result was me missing some lines and slowing down...geez. I got to the bottom and unclipped and looked horrible for the finish. Result=mid-pack performance, not what I was looking for in this race. Overall I was pretty disappointed in this trip out to the East coast, I was looking for a top 10 finish as I thought I was in good physical shape. But my lack of health I think hindered me in achieving this. Bummed. Thanks To Eric once again for his support and thanks to JAK the Cannondale factory mechanic for being an Italian.

Cool video from the race, I'm in the intro pinning it! haha

http://www.kmtb.com/bbs/zboard.php?i...egory=1&no=217

Downtime

2008-07-01T10:48:00.000-07:00

Pretty quiet right now. I have been riding a bit more throwing in a couple of XC rides during the week and riding my Judge whenever possible. Right now I am in preparation for the US National Championships that will go down in approximately 2 weeks at Mount Snow Vermont. My goal is to finish top 10 but of course I would like to think that I can get a top 5.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that the weather stays dry!!

Anglefire

2008-06-12T10:14:00.000-07:00

Angelfire was great. Always one of my favorite events/venues of all time. I don't know if it is the relaxed atmosphere, the great terrain or the tacky dirt but something about Anglfire keeps bringing me back for more!

This season the promoters decided to get creative and cut a couple of new sections on the mountain. This added a bit of length to the course but unfortunately slowed the speeds down and also cut down the amount of turns on the course as the new section was pretty much straight down the mountain. No worries, there was a chairlift and life is good!

Eric Saletel showed up in the Sobe/Cannondale rig and set up shop in the pit area. This proved to be a critical part of my success this weekend as it provided a place for me to clean and work on my bike as well as store it when I was not riding.

Long story short...It snowed for all but the last two days of the event, unfortunately cutting our ride/practice time short. When the sun did show itself however, the course came alive and was fast and very fun. I seeded in the number 20 spot as I had a very mellow run and made some mistakes. I must admit that I was not happy at all with my result and was a bit uneasy about race day.

The morning of the race did not make things much better. I woke up early because practice was at 8am, I made my way to the lift and was in shock! The lift line seemed to stretch for miles! I only had an hour for practice and apparently people who were near the front had already been waiting for almost 30 minutes. It was clear that I was not going to have time to practice so I decided to scrap my practice plans. I went to the pit, dropped off my bike with the #1 mechanic on the circuit (Eric) and went to the condo. I hung out/slept/ate for about 5 hours. When the time came to get ready for my race run I was a bit uneasy. I made my way up the lift and tried to relax.

When the UCI official called my name I sort of cleared my mind, as I got positioned on the start gate I just thought of the course and felt a bit of confidence come over me. The race run was great. My aim (as it always is) was to be as smooth as possible and get to the bottom as fast as possible. I saved my energy and pedaled very little because the course was long and I did not want to make mistakes in the lower, faster portion of the course. I came down with a great time and I was happy to see some of my team mates and friends at the bottom just as excited about my time as I was. At the end of the day my time was goo enough for 8th place! My best pro finish at a National to date!

Angelfire 2008, the low-down.

2008-05-28T08:12:00.000-07:00

This year was quite different than last; it snowed for 2 days straight! Although the snow made things very interesting the stoke was still high this weekend. The course was a bit different this year as well, I believe that the new course was not catered to my riding style but I still managed to make due. More updates to come very soon.

Angel Fire 2008

2008-05-20T13:02:00.000-07:00

It's that time again. Time to break out the Downhill bike for some real downhill racing. And once again I am looking forward to boarding the chairlift and taking a few peadal strokes out of the gate then coasting. This is a very important race for 2008 as the top Americans will not only gain UCI points but will also have the ability to automatically qualify for Worlds team. Here we go, Angel Fire 2008.

Cal State Woodward

2008-04-28T14:03:00.000-07:00

Dang! By far the most dusty and dry course I have ever ridden! The corners were loose, there was pedaling pretty much 90% of the time and the course was a little longer than a minute...It did not matter one bit because we were riding and racing bikes so it is all good! Not much of a story to tell, just peep the pics snapped by Westley.

Sea Otter

2008-04-23T14:30:00.000-07:00

Well, here we are. At the beginning of yet another season, and even though there was a major race before this year's Otter...it still feels like the unofficial start of the season. I can't stress enough how absolutely great it is having a pit when racing. It makes a huge difference.

Wes, Brad and I pulled an all night driving mission as we did the previous year and arrived at the Laguna Seca raceway in the wee hours of the morning. A quick nap in the parking lot and it was off to the registration tent for our packet pick-up. I was of course extremely tired so getting all of this done was a bit of a challenge given my tired state. While in the tent I met up with most of my Cannondale team mates including Heath, George, Cody, Derek and Jon Clark. Before I knew it I was chillin in the Sobe/Cannondale pits with the wrenchman himself Eric Saletel. We did a quick tire swap and it was off to the DH course for some practice. The course was a bit different than years past, they built a couple of larger jumps up top which made clearing the step-down into the first major burm alot easier.

It would be impossible to describe all the happenings of this past weekend, too much happened. From the shenanigans at the house to Joey pitting the golf course with his "sub-par" golfing skills, to brad's never ending hyperness, Josh's hilarious jokes, Erics non-stop sarcasm...it was just a overall sick weekend.

Of course I could have asked for a better result in the DH but you all know that it is my fault that I am not in good shape. I did feel however that I was able to give it a little more than last year and that I rode better because of it, regardless of what my time was.

Mountainbike racing is a fricken awesome thing.

Weekend of thrash!

2008-04-14T14:37:00.000-07:00

Yes, I did get my new DH steed, I named her "Roxanne" because that's the song that was playin on the radio when I took the bike out of the box:

Specs:

Frame: Large Cannondale Judge DH

Shock: Fox DHX 5.0 with Ti spring

Fork: Fox 40 Rc2

Wheels: Mavic Dee-Max/Mavic 823 on Industry nine hubs.

Drive: Shimano SAINT cranks, Shifter, Brakeset and Shimano SHADOW XT derailer, Shimano DX pedals

Guide: E-13 LG1

Post: Thomson Masterpiece

Seat: Selle San Marco Aspide Ti

Bars: Sunline V2

Stem: Sunline V1 50mm

Thanks to Zumwalts for letting me assemble the bike at the shop.

It was over 90*F all over Southern California this weekend, so what do I decide to do? Ride my bike of course!! I drove up to the OC on Friday night to meet up with Hank Cadle and Bradical Oien for some Shuttles on the ultra-secret Monster/Iron Horse DH trail in Lake Elsinore. It was over 100*F easy and we hammered out as many runs as we could...Alongside Mr. Sam Hill and Brendog, they of course could not keep up with us so we didn't really ride too much with them (just kidding).

Sunday was a Dirtjam at the Clairmont jumps (miracle) where we sessioned the jumps from 11am till dark@@@#$!@!!! All kinds of people were down there having a great time and flowing the sick jumps. Lots of pros in SoCal preppin' for Sea Badger.

Fontana?

2008-04-04T10:10:00.000-07:00

Well, the fontana "national" wend down this past weekend. Good news! I didn't get hurt there as I have for the past 2 years!! Stoked on that. Also, immensely stoked on the team set-up (as in the trailer, wrench ((eric)), and stuff). Nothing much to write about for this race; it was dusty, loose, and surprisingly rough. Unfortunately for me I only had my Perp with a single-crown fox 36 which made the rough sections a hand full. I felt good on the little guy by race day but unfortunately my legs didn't follow suit. Yeah, Fontana requires that you pedal most of the time including the flat, tedious, infamous wall section.

Pretty stoked on the team members too, a bunch of cool cats. Have not been able to snatch photos of me riding (although it must have been pretty easy to photo me this past weekend, aha) mainly 'cuz Wes went snowboarding instead of the Fontana race (good choice)...but I was able to get a shot of the team set-up which is again, SWEET. Just a couple more fo-DH races and on to the chairlifts, I can't wait.

Photo by Eric Saletel

Baja 250, Check.

2008-03-16T17:17:00.000-07:00

Wow. Baja, what can I say? It's like a whole different world. Now, I have been going down there my whole life mind you, but it seems everytime I go it is a whole new thing, a whole new adventure, like nothing else in this world. The second you cross the border your heart rate goes up (well at least mine does) and you get into baja mode.

So my dad and I got up extra early and met up with Joe who was gonna finish the race when I got off the bike at race mile 192. We crossed the border and in no time we were going past the arches at San Felipe, a "small" fishing town with more Off-Road racing history than dirt itself!! I was so stoked to be back in "San Felo" after a one year hiatus of the host city for the annual "Baja 250". We rolled into contingency and as always the street was bustling with locals, racers, cars, vendors, the works. After awhile I was able to get ahold of my team and check out the new bike. Dang, she was a beuty...top notch bike all prepped and ready to go, this gave me some serious motivation. After continjency it was time to get down to business, we packed everything and headed out of town to where I was to get on the bike at about race mile 120. Well, that just happened to be at the farthest end of the course and it took my dad and I a good 2 hours of off-road driving to get to the spot. regardless of the long drive, the desert was epic. huge mountains to the West and green, rugged desert for as far as the eye can see, Baja at it's best.

So morning came and I took my time getting up. By this time we had fired up the radio and were listening to the injury reports coming in...two code reds within the first 15 miles of the race, one guy was already getting life-flighted to San Diego. Not what you want to hear before you get on the bike. Next thing I knew the 1x bike of Robby Bell comes SCREAMING by and the helicopter buzzes us overhead, It occurs to me that the field is coming and I REALLY need to get ready. I get all my gear on, make sure the radio works and wait for the bike to arrive.

The next 2.5 hours or so were like a blur. All I remember is getting on the bike and my dad telling me over the radio to be safe, don't get crazy and the one I remember best; The trophy trucks have not even started yet. After hearing that I relaxed...well kinda. Through my 7o-something mile section however, I lost a foot peg guard, the rear brakes and I got a flat, add to that my pit crew was nowhere to be found (they got stuck in the sand on their way to me) when I needed a tire change/gas.

At the end of the day we finished, bike and bodies battered with a 5th place in the pro 450cc class...awesome.

Adventure no doubt, baja is unique and I love the thrill of being down there.

Baja

2008-03-13T14:52:00.000-07:00

I leave for Baja tomorrow morning. I will be racing in class 25, pro ATV. As luck would have it I got selected to do the longest, most desolate and roughest part on the course. Wish me luck as this is gonna be a tough ride.

-Alf

Riding again

2008-03-11T10:45:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a long winter. Unfortunately it has not been a long winter of riding. This riding season is looking good however, and I look forward to getting back out on the race scene. Here are a couple of pics of me at the final round of the Fontana Winter series.

JDD delivers the goods!!!

2007-12-10T21:49:00.000-08:00

So I played hookie (sp?) last week to go do some photos with Mr. Jeramiah Dylan Dean and some other riders (Mclendon, Warren, Condroshoft, Hauer, Swangen). I managed to ride like a hack, prolly because I have been off the DH steed for so long, no worries though...I had a blast. Here are some pics care of Dylan Dean (Dylan-Dean.com)

Sven delivers the goods:

2007-12-06T11:10:00.001-08:00

So I finally got some shots from our September trip to Mammoth Mountain. Sick shots of course supplied by Mr. Sven Martin. Damn, I look like a goon when I ride!! haha

Photos from Deer Valley and St. Anne

2007-11-30T12:53:00.000-08:00

Dylan Dean is the best!!! He made a private gallery of my photos from MSA and the Deer Valley NCS:

http://dylandean.smugmug.com/gallery/3496713

Check out PinnedMTB.com too!

Downtime...

2007-11-29T21:48:00.000-08:00

Wow, these past two months have been waaay uneventful in terms of riding. As many know there were some pretty serious wildfires in Southern California recently and working at SDG&E means that I had to be pretty much at work 24/7. It sucked but I got a good prospective of what I do NOT want to do with the rest of my life. Anyway, I got to go to the Baja 1000 with Jorge and Wes. It was good as usual, we made it down and back home without a single problem. Unfortunately this was the deadliest Baja in recent memory, with many highway accidents and even a helicopter going down in the Mike's Sky rancho area. Sucks, add to that the fact that there is a rise in cop-shakedowns and armed assaults against tourists. The Race-Dezert.com forums are blowing up with people being al negative and downright ignorant towards Baja and Mexico/it's people. My dad went all the way down to Cabo chasing the M.C's and brought uncle Mark's class 1 to the house for a couple of days. Nothing like the property value doubling because of the race car that is sitting in your backyard huh? Anyway, I've been getting fat. I have been going backpacking with Wes and feeling allright but the fact remains that I sit at a desk for about 7 hours a day and that is not helping in the least. Interbike came and went and as usual I came home from Vegas with no sponsors, nothing new there.

However, I did make a contact after Intercrunk and can honestly say that I am almost 100% sure I will be supported in my racing next year. It's hard to describe how good it feels to have some solid support for 2008!!! I will stop there, more details to come soon...!

Post season

2007-10-02T10:38:00.001-07:00

Wow, it has been a long time since I posted anything here on my blog. The main reason for my lack of posting is of course my lack of racing!
After the Snowmass national I was in search of inspiration, not only to race but to keep riding. It seems that after every season I get a bit burnt out on racing and perhaps with riding in general. I can give credit for this "lack of inspiration" to many things: full time job, results that are below my expectations, race courses that are below my expectations, and the lack of good downhill trails in and around my home.
Fortunately I found my inspiration and passion to ride right where it has always been...simply riding for fun with friends.
I made the trek to Northstar for the Labor day weekend along with my brother, Nate-Dawg, Wes, T.J and my old friend Greg Meyer. The riding was great, the weather could not have been more perfect with temperatures in the mid 70s and sunny clear skies. Northstar has some of the best riding terrain as far as bike parks go, with trails ranging from completely rock-strewn technical trails to fully groomed and watered jump trails.

Later in the month I made my way up to the Mammoth bike park along with Brad Oien, Sanjay, Sean "The Griz", Sven Martin and Bryn Atkinson for a photo shoot/article on the bikepark at Mammoth. With the forecast calling for snow on both days I was rather skeptical if we would get to ride at all. The call was made to go on with the original plan, it turned out to be a very good decision. When we woke on Saturday morning it was snowing lightly. We all went to breakfast and discussed possible photo spots and strategies for the days work. When we arrived back on the mountain it was snowing even more and actually sticking to the ground! We zipped up our winter clothes and got to work!

What followed was two of the best riding days that I have ever had. The snow, although rather deep in some places, made for awesome traction at Mammoth. Sven took care of all the riding photos and unfortunately also took care of the group's crashes...he injured his wrist while doing a run on Sat. afternoon. To spite his injuries Sven kept clicking the photos away and staying on task, he's an ANIMAL!!!! It was great to ride with Bryn and hear him talk about techniques he uses in corners, rocks and other sections. Look for some pics in upcoming issues of DECLINE magazine!

The next week was Interbike. Wow, Interbike. Usually I prepare a resume to hand out to prospective sponsors, not this year. It just came up too quickly and I had no time to revise my resume. Needless to say I returned from the show, once again, with not sponsors for the '08 season. Not a big issue, I am charged to ride my bike once again...perhaps more than last year. Hopefully something good will come in 2008, one thing is for sure, I will have fun riding and racing my bike.

Snowmass NCS

2007-08-16T11:30:00.001-07:00

Well, for the third year in a row we headed to Snowmass, CO for the NORBA national @ Snowmass resort. This year was different however, the downhill course was not the usual "banzai" DH that we had seen for the past 2 years. Instead we were put on a course that as a good 3 miles from the Village, Mountaincross course and the main lodging area for most of the competitors (horray NORBA/Snowmass resort). Not only was the DH course itself far but the finish line was a good 1/4 mile hike up the mountain which meant next to zero spectators on the hill come race time. The course was fresh cut an featured many fast sections as well as flat pedaly ones and even an uphill creek crossing, wow. The course was anything but technical, combine that with the many pedaling sections and you have a course that is not suited for my riding style...Oh well I suppose. I had a couple of crashes during practice again, luckily the course lacked rocks and I came away relatively unscathed to spite the high speed dismounts.

The fact that lodging was so far from the DH made the race seem "dead" and under attended. Snowmass is a unique venue in that the Village is on a rather steep grade so getting around (even when the DH was in its old location) is quite the chore. Add the fact that there is a major construction going on in the middle of it all and you have a great recipe for disaster. It just did not feel like the typical NORBA, there were small crowds, the venue was practically dead and the whole "vibe" was missing...

A couple of notes from the race:

Bradical wrapped up the series and is the top JRX rider for the NMBS 2007.

JD killed the course and won the JRX class with a blazing time of 4 minutes flat.

Our new friends from Colombia did rather well with Marcelo Gutierrez finishing in second for the JRX and Mauricio Estrada coming in 7th in the pro men division.

As for my race day, I lost my chain in my quali which was not too bad, 20 seconds off pace with no chain...But my race run came and I decided to launch over the bars in one of the fast/steep sections near the top. I fell and was treated to one of my worst dirt-in-mouth moments, as I tried to spit all the dirt out I realized I could not see a thing and scrambled to try and take my goggles off my face as they had also been filled with dirt. I scrambled up the hill and found my bike in the haze and proceeded to mount and finish my ruined run. 19 seconds off pace! GREAT! I could not have asked for a more disappointing end to the season. First Deer Valley then Saint Anne now this?? I'm going to take up ping-pong!

Right now I will try to re-group and look foreword to riding in Northstar with my friends and brother over labor day...Interbike will follow and once again it will be winter. What next year will hold for me in terms of racing will be decided by the amount of support I get from this industry, this sport that I love so much but hate all at the same time.

Tahoe with Sanjay

2007-08-16T11:12:00.000-07:00

I decided to go up to Northstar with Sanj a few weeks back for some riding and to race. I rolled up to Orange County right after work and hung out with Wes for a few hours while Sanjay got everything ready. We ended up leaving Irvine at around 9pm, ouch. We arrived promptly at 4am and caught a few hours of sleep before we actually go to riding. Northstar is as good as ever thanks to many new trails and trail improvements throughout the mountain. A few highlights include the "livewire" trail that is and absolute blast to ride, and of course all the classic rock-laden trails that are part of the Northstar experience. I did not get any riding pictures because...we were too busy riding. However, we got plenty of pictures of the shenanigans that went on after the lifts closed. We did get to race, Sanjay won followed by Lealand and I came in third (thanks to some mistakes on my run). All in all it was a good weekend trip up to the 'star and I am looking foreword to going back up in a few weeks for Labor day.

Mammoth weekend

2007-07-16T22:25:00.000-07:00

Wes and I decided to drive up to Mammoth for a weekend of downhilling and off-roading in the Sierras. The weather could not have been better, upper 70's with partly cloudy skies made for sick riding. The mountain was pretty packed with riders, mainly trail and XC riders but it was good to see a bunch of people out on their mountain bikes.

All the trails were in basically the same condition as last year with some minor construction going on at the top of the kamakaze. Upper Velocity was closed even though there was no snow, I don't think I have ever been to Mammoth when that section of trail is open.

Not much to write about...We went off-roading on the backroads on Sunday and due to Wes' "driving" we got a flat a couple of miles out in the wilderness. Check out the pictures that pretty much tell the story of the weekend:

World cup aftermath.

2007-06-28T13:57:00.000-07:00

Well, it turns out that I completely threw away the most important race of my would-be career. I was feeling well on race day, did one practice run to make sure my wheels would make it through the qualifiers. Got plenty of rest, went through the bike one final time and headed up to the gondola with Hank to do our qualifying runs. My qualifier was good, that is until I heard the noise of my chain clanking against the spokes about a minute into my run...No worries, I would just need to keep up my momentum and hopefully have enough to qualify. I suppose I did a good job of this because I was well in the top 40 at the split without having a chain. I got through the high speed section well and proceeded to make my way into the lower tree sections. I had a slip in the lower rock garden where my brother and Wes were set up, no worries though I still had speed. pumped the lower section like never before and boosted over the final rock section and onto the bridge huck. I smashed this as much as I possibly could for as not to lose speed upon landing. I pumped the last open ski-run and held the throttle wide open into the last tree section which ultimately led to my demise. I spotted a straight line through those trees and attempted it at full speed. Just as I was to exit this final section towards the finish I hit a tree with my shoulder. The force from the impact caused me to spin off my bike and land in the centere of the course. As I lay there I shouted for someone to get my bike off the course for fear of getting hit by the next rider. Nothing was done and I lay there confused and dazed with a sharp pain in my right shoulder. Once I got my wits about me, I scrambled to my bike and grabbed on to my bars, a piercing pain struck me as I mounted and I almost dropped to the ground again. I managed to pedal-kick myself down the next small slope and towards the finish line. As I came across the finish the pain in my shoulder was very strong, and I felt as though I damaged it severely. When I came across the line I was inspected, taken to first aid and it was determined that I had bruised ligaments and a minor separation in the shoulder but nothing was broken. After some time back at the hotel room it finally sank in that I had thrown away one of the biggest opportunities of my life..it angered me for a bit. Even more so after I saw the split times and the fact that I had missed qualifying by a couple of spots in spite of all my time lost.

When it was all said and done however, this race was an enormous learning experience. I dont think I will ever think of racing the same. The level of competition here was so far above and beyond anything I had ever done and it taught me many lessons that I will apply in the future(mainly not body-checking large trees at full speed). Besides the travel woes returning home, Mont Saint Anne was an amazing event (the party was wild, and Fabian Barel cannot dance!!!haha).

St. Anne day 2 and 3

2007-06-23T13:55:00.000-07:00

Everything happens quickly at a world cup. Before I know it I am sitting in the Media room on the eve of race day. Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing I still cannot decide, one thing is for sure, tomorrow will be a long day. I found it a bit hard to get up today, I was not tired but feeling rather sick. My first run was a disaster, I fell twice and lost a couple of spokes. I took a break to mend my broken bike. After the break I headed up for another run...when I got to the bottom my wheel had again failed. I re-tightened the spokes and went up for another run, my wheel's final stand. When I came down I noticed the wheel more off balance than before, upon closer examination I noticed a large split in the rim and many deep dents in the sidewall. I will need to find a set to borrow for tomorrow. The course is fast and tough, I will need all of my skill and experience to even qualify tomorrow. Wish me luck, I will for damn sure need it.

Mont Saint Anne day 1

2007-06-21T21:21:00.000-07:00

World Cups are badass. The course is badass, the riders are all badasses, the bikes are badass and the lift chicks have badass accents too. While the course is holding true to the hype, this region of North America definately ranks low on my list. The gondolas rock, you can yell at peeps on the course and they are super comfy to ride in. The weather is sticky and warm, it has been raining most of the time except for during practice times. From what I hear the top section is quite different from last year. The top section is mostly man-made and was quite nasty early in the day, I definately got loose in that section. The wide-open section under the lift is fast as hell and the berms are tight and some have massive holes in them already. Everyone is pinned, I got to ride up the lift with some Spaniards and they were super cool and pointed out some lines.

We Made it to Canada!

2007-06-19T16:42:00.000-07:00

After a rediculous amount of time in the airports and in the air we are finally in Canada! Many tense moments came and went in the last 24 hours but we are all good to go. We are staying in Montreal tonight and will be driving to Mont Saint Anne tomorrow morning. Check out some pics from today:

The long road to St. anne

2007-06-19T16:30:00.001-07:00

Traveling from SLC to St. Anne
Oh Doctor. Well now that Deer Valley is in the books I am looking forward to St. Anne and Canada. Sunday night came and we left Deer Valley, after being dropped off in SLC by a shady character known as “darkness”(left) we proceeded to check into a swanky hotel room. Mikey, Keiran, Julious, my brother and I packed into the large hotel room. Mikey’s mom was still around and we loaded the Sprinter van and headed to Denny’s. Now, it is very true that Mountain bikers are a very unique group of people…With that said, Mikey, his mom, Ian, Shwankey, Christen the JRX chick, Kieran, Adrian and I assaulted the Denny’s. Suffice it to say that we made at least one family walk out of the restaurant and made at least one waitress mad. After dinner we passed out. Julious had an early morning flight and was out of the room without waking any of us up. We however had a late night flight and would haveto kill as much time as possible, no problem right? Eh, well…it was. The complementary airport shuttle dropped us at around 1pm and our flight did not depart till 11pm!!!! Than meant that the SLC international airport would be our home for the next 10 hours! We kept ourselves entertained with whatever we could. Julious called me at around 3pm to rub in the fact that he had arrived at Montreal. I had regular check-ins with my road-trippin mates who were in Ohio last I checked. My brother must have spent at least 6 hours on

Race day at Deer Valley

2007-06-19T16:22:00.000-07:00

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…

To St. Ane we go

2007-06-18T10:22:00.001-07:00

After a bad race day at Deer Valley, I am looking foreward to traveling to Mont Sainte Anne. We hop on the airport shuttle in a couple of minutes and get to cause a ruckus at the SLC airport for a couple of hours.
More updates as soon as I get to Quebec.

Deer Valley day dos

2007-06-15T19:24:00.000-07:00

Well, just when I thought things could not get worse mechanically...they don't. But other problems do come up, mainly riding problems: today I had the worse fall in recent memory. My chainguide was caught on a rock right before a sizable drop and I dove about 12 feet onto the jagged, rocky landing. The course officials were stunned and made sure I was ok. When they asked me where I was I responded: "I'm at the bottom of the drop that just OWNED me." They found that humerus and helped me off the course. When I finally fixed my bike and cleared my head I went up for another run, which was short-lived due to the fact that I flatted at the top of the course. Got that fixed and was finally able to get some runs in. Can't say that they were as fast as I'd like but they were good.

The drop pictured here to the right is where I fell...

from the very top!

The minor damage from a horrific crash:

Deer Valley day one

2007-06-14T17:17:00.000-07:00

Deer Valley. Whoa, what a crazy course. The dirt is super loose and the track is burly as can be. For some reason this course is taking it's toll on riders and bikes. My first run claimed my chain and a chunk of my e-13 bashguard. Second run claimed a tube and twisted my bars. Finally my third run was a bit better and I started to enjoy the track. There is close to zero tracion on this dusty, dry, loose and steep course.

A bit of bad news from the first day of practice: "hurricane DK", David K broke his wrist and will not be able to compete at this race.

Pracitce at 10am tomorrow morning, I need to commit to some lines and hopefully work out the problems I have with the course.

Angelfire low-down

2007-06-05T16:52:00.000-07:00

Angelfire this year definitely left a mark on my wall of all-time "top races/trips". We packed both the F-250 and the SCION to their capacities and charged the 20+ hour drive like it was nothing. Me and Wes took care of the beast while the Aussies, Garrick and Griz drove the scone. Almost a full week of practice meant that come race day we would be pretty much spent, and that seemed to be the case for most racers including myself. I blame my fatigue on the fact that I was riding REAL downhill trails which meant that I was so stoked that I ignored the cramps in my hands and legs. Luckily our condo was large enough to handle our group, which was interesting to say the least. Griz kept things patriotic for most of the trip and drilled the Aussies; Yarl and Jason, whenever he had the chance. Griz also spoke to me in Jibber-jabber most of the time and whenever I would try to communicate with him he would simply reply: "What is he saying". Also with us were the brothers Anderson. Garrick and Ryan kept things quiet for the most part, that is till the time came for riding. Ryan had some super-ninja lines that most pros did not see, damn kid. Jake was or lone MTX specialist, he got pushed in the first heat and that is all she wrote. No worries though, Jake was pumped on the riding and spectating that was abundant up at the 'fire. Bradical was in the house and he made it clear that he has more energy and stoke than all of us combined. From the minute he arrived at my pad on Tuesday he was full-bore, and it did not let off. Maybe that was a good thing because he smoked the Junior-X class and is well on his way to Fort William to rep. the USA at Worlds. Oh yeah, Wes was with us too....

What a week, it seems like I just got home from that crazy trip and I depart of another in less than a week. My next endeavour will arguably be one of the biggest events of my life. If you would have asked me 3 years ago if I ever thought I would be racing a World Cup I would have laughed and shook my head. Back then it was just an unreal dream, but today I can say that I will be racing at the World Cup in Mont Saint Anne Quebec, unreal. So to St. Anne I go, stopping first at the NMBS @ Deer Valley Utah. I will be traveling with my brother, which is pretty awesome. Joining us on this East-coast op. is NorCal resident Mikey Haderer and New Zealand pinner Kieran Bennett. I'l be racing at the World Cup for DECLINE magazine, which should fetch some free exposure. Random pics from Angelfire below:

FIRE!!!

2007-06-01T16:47:00.000-07:00

Stoked on the weekend's results! After qualifing 7th place I managed to put a semi-descent run in and pulled a 10th place in the pro division! STOKED! Bradical took the JRX division by a good gap also!!! I'm pumped for Deer Valley and the big show-Mont Saint anne WORLD CUP!!!!!

More pics and stuff to come!!!!

Day 1 at the 'fire angel.

2007-05-24T21:57:00.000-07:00

Pics from today.

We at Angelfire...finally.

2007-05-23T13:29:00.000-07:00

Whoa, the drive was absolutely insane. 20 or so odd hours driving through Cali, Arizona and New Mexico was particularly heavy this time around. Too tired to post many words, just pictures for now.

Angelfire Pre-game

2007-05-22T12:22:00.000-07:00

Today I will be departing for Angelfire, New Mexico for a race that is part of both the Mountain States Cup series as well as the NCS gravity series. Arguably one of the more important races on my agenda for this season. The forecast calls for wet weather, cold and thunder storms that will no doubt keep things interesting for the 8 days that I will be on the road. The group of friends that I will travel with includes an interesting mix of Pro, JRX and foreign racers as well as a would-be photographer...so it should be entertaining.

Notably missing from the entourage is my good friend and usual travel companion Sanjay, he has some "issues" that he must deal with and cannot accompany us on this trip.

I'm pretty excited for the week that lies ahead, I will try to have updates as soon as we arrive sometime Wednesday morning.

Weekendage.

2007-05-14T10:55:00.000-07:00

Nice. Haven't been home for a whole weekend in ages. Seems like the weekend lasts a lot longer when you have little to do. I did manage to get out with Griz and the Ozys on Sunday afternoon for some shredding at the Wal Mart jumps and some ditch in East County (Lakeside ya'll *LFLFFL*). Griz sent me some old (4 week old) photos from rocky pass, check' em out.

Little S-turn action:

Me and Brad killing a wood

bridge...we did not have gas

and matches at the time. You can barely see Honkey-tonk in the background. *This photo is in the

JUNE 2007 issue of DECLINE

Magazine, check it out.

Dirtyumping. How gumpy do

I look on that small bike??

Fontana "NCS"

2007-05-08T11:49:00.000-07:00

Ahhh Fontana. Chairlifts, trees, cool temps, no pedaling...Oh, oops. I was dreaming again. The first round of the NCS gravity series stopped at Southridge park in beautiful Fontana, CA. The DH course was surprisingly technical with the usual dry, sandy turns on the top section and the infamous "Wall" section towards the end. Practice was good. I was getting the course down and stoked on the new bike (except for the wheels). This race was a national so there were a bunch of old faces that I had not seen since Snowmass last year. Many big names showed up to this race including the likes of Nathan Rennie, Chris Kovarick, Rando, Riffle, Streb, Leov and the eventual winner Cody "C-dub" Warren.

The course was similar to last year's NCS course. A couple of turns up top followed by the rock-waterfall which claimed Hank's thumb on Sunday. After the waterfall came the G-out which lead into the rocks. Over the saddle, sharp turn down a rock chute and a hard right into the steeps. There were many lines in the steep section, so it was almost easier to let go of the brakes and hope to stay between the tape. Cody Warren pictured to the right, letting loose.

Not much to write about on this race. Bryn took the win in the 4x on Sat. and Jill Kitner took we women's honors. Sunday came and Sanjay joined me and Wes for race day at the Fontucky national. I readied myself for the 7:30am practice session, met up with my teammate Tommy and hopped on the shuttle for the first practice run. The weather had turned extremely windy, more so than previous days. I noticed that the start house had been completely blown away and alot of course markers were missing. Long story short: On my second practice run I got blown off the course, bad. I ended up with a concussion, 6 stitches in my forehead and some bad soreness all over my body. Pretty bad, but not as bad as my teammate Hank Cadle who broke his left thumb on the waterfall section. Not a good weekend for me or my team, but Fontana is in the past and I am looking forward to Angelfire.

*photos by Orven/Heather Zaragoza

Non-Bike related news

2007-05-02T09:06:00.000-07:00

So who is going to the "Rock the bells" concert in late August? The list of performers is stacked!! It should be completely off the chains!

Wal-Mart has dirtjumps now

2007-04-30T18:26:00.000-07:00

Not really but the Wal-Mart down in Nasty-City has some pretty sick dirtjumps a couple of feet away from the parkinglot/campground. Checkitit out this video, darkness was falling so it is a bit hard to see.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v638/Fonse03/Bloggg/?action=view&current=MOV00658.flv

Hack a lung

2007-04-30T09:13:00.000-07:00

The Firestone classic went down this last weekend in the backwoods of Santa Barbara. It was my first time attending this race so I was excited, mostly because Sanjay had amped about how great this race was the previous year. The course was fun to ride, not so fun to race. I take most of the blame for it being as how I am in arguably the worst shape of my life. We (Wes, Adrian(my brother) and I) pulled the 'ol "drive all night and arrive a couple of hours before the race" thing, it seems to not be working out too well for me.
Anyway, we arrived at the venue at around 3am, pulled up next to Tommy's trailer and crashed out for a couple of hours. The sun came out and it was already starting to warm up, it was to be a very hot day out in the hills of S.B.
With registration out of the way ($$$) I returned to camp and found that Brad Oien and Hank Cadle were in a tent right next to my truck all snuggled up. We all got our gear on and headed up to the shuttle. The course started off flat and pedaly with a couple of jumps to keep things interesting-ish. A couple of turns later you gained momentum as you hurled yourself down the open hill, just as you start to get stoked on the speed, the dreaded S-turns show up and completely kill the vibe. After the turns you hit the step-down and into the last section which was pretty cool. Fast, loose berms and jumps added flow...That is, till you had to hammer the XC-style finish stretch.

Pretty impressive turnout for the pro division however, in spite of the track. Cameron Cole took the win followed by a slew of top name pros from all over the world. I took the prized spot of third to last for my impressive showing of out-of-shapeness. After the racing was over it was time to head into town. Boo-Koo's (Austin Doner) house was packed. The festivities began promptly and there were a bunch of cool people there to hang out with. Griz, Martin and I decided to bail on the party for a bit and check out the bar scene downtown. Austin's house is within a 10-minute walk to downtown Santa Barbara which is beyond convenient. The bars/clubs were shakin' as always and there were cougars on the prowl. Martin was overwhelmed by the selection at the first bar called O'malley's and Griz agreed that it was a certified "den." We returned to Austin's house at about 2am and to my surprise everyone was still awake. Didn't last long though, as the minutes passed the people began to slow down until finally everyone passed out. The next morning people were not very keen on going riding. Griz had slept on a pack of toilet paper, David K under the stairs and many others on the hardwood floor. After a group breakfast at Denny's we decided to split from the group and drive down to Laguna and ride those trails instead. Thanks to our chiefer Merrrjig we got a fair amount of runs in before the sun went down. After all the shuttling we hit up a local Chinese food place and got our grub on. I made a mistake and threw away my plate in the wrong trash can...Bad news, Roxy got ahold of the plate and made a mess at the Mop's house. Another sleep-deprived weekend in the books, next weekend is the Fontana National not to mention my good friend Sanjay will be back in town. Should be a good one.

Pro winner Cameron Cole (photo. merrrjig)

Honkey-Tonk Hank Cadle, on his way to

Domination-of-Alf (photo by Merrr, duh).

*First photo www.downhillnews.com

Weekend of destruction.

2007-04-22T18:03:00.000-07:00

Off weekends (weekends without racing) are always interesting. They often end up being last-minute/spur of the moment "let's do this" type of deals. That was the case this past weekend. It all started with Hank calling me up late Friday night and informing me that Brad and him were on their way down to my house for some shuttling and Dirtjumping. Cool, I said...and in less than 2 hours they arrived at my house.

On these particular types of weekends there is no rush to do anything. We (Hank, Brad, my brother and I) woke Saturday at about 10am and proceeded to go down to the garage and ready the bikes for riding. We ended up leaving the house at about 12pm which turned out to be perfect timing. We met up with local tweaker T.J and other local DHers to shred some trails that were in superb condition. Brad found my "sarape" (Mexican blanket) from when I was about 5 years old and wore it the whole day. I found some super fly astro shades that my grandma must have left behind and was sportin' those to get maximum UV protection.

The trails were epic. It had rained the day before so the dirt was extremely tacky and oh so niccceeee. Quote from Captain America himself, Hank Cadle: "I felt like friggen Sam Hill or something down those runs, grrrraaaapppppp!!" Unfortunately for Mr Hillwannabe his semi slick had different plans and he popped it on the 4th shuttle and was demoted to shuttle driver.

After Ted Williams we decided to head out to the dirtjumps and try our hand at some gnarly steep hits. We were wiped out from the day's descending so we only jumped for a little while.

Saturday night was long, as in we saw the sun come out and we were not even heading home yet...Oh my.

Sunday. Well, let's just say we were a bit tired. We headed down to the jumps at around 10am and jumped for about 5 hours. Bradical was still feeling the effects of the previous night but still had enough in him to jump. Got to shoot a couple of photos with the old Fujifilm s1pro from like 1990 which was different and interesting. A quick trip to In-and-out and the weekend was done, another epic weekend that had no planning whatsoever involved.

New Jerseys!! and stuff.

2007-04-20T16:12:00.001-07:00

Along with Sea Otter comes fresh new gear...This year I'm riding on "Amp'd" racing alongside Semi-pro-Aaron Potter, Semi-pro-Tommy Hollenbaugh, Pro-Hank Cadle and Pro-Lisa Reinhard. We debuted the new jerseys at the Otter and for the most part, people seemed pretty amped on the design. Dre2k seemed to like the "insurance minded" logo in particular, crazy Mexicans.

New bike

2007-04-19T21:01:00.000-07:00

So the 2007 season has officially started now that Sea Otter has come and went. I decided to retire my original M3 and buy a new 2007 model. These photos were taken before Sea Otter, the bike has since then aquired many parts that were supplied by my sponsors. More photos of that to follow.

My RAW M3. Photo by me, NOT Mer...using manual focus, haha.

Intense photo

"Rocky Pass" was the perfect place to take the new rig out and get a feel for her.

Hank wanted to hog the photo.

Sea Otter Classic

2007-04-18T21:36:00.000-07:00

The Sea Otter Classic went off in fine fashion this year. We arrived on Thursday and set up camp near the DH course. This was to be the first year of camping at the Otter in my 4 years of attendance...It was not as rough as I expected. Thanks to Wes' Sports Chalet employment, we had ourselves a pretty legit tent and stove which took the edge off the rugged wilderness.

After a particularly rough drive by our standards; which consisted of leaving Orange county at about midnight, taking an unexpected detour off the 5 to the 91 to the 405 back to the 5, finding Tyrone Thomas' credit card, nearly running out of gas because Wes insisted on finding the cheapest petro possible and Hank urinating on the streets of Inglewood. After all of that, we finally arrived at the carnival that was Sea Otter 2007.

Upon arriving at 5:30 am we proceeded to the "camping check-in" which to our surprise was open and kickin'! After being identified as "The No Friends guy" at the check in by some stranger that swore I was from Portland we went up to the 'ground to scope a spot. Hank was keen on a spot that contained no flat ground whatsoever. So I, being the voice of reason, decided on a spot that had a bit better geography for our brown colored North Face tent.

Practice came and went. I was surprised I made it through unscathed in spite of the lack of sleep and my lack of skills. The course was the same as previous years with only a small section after the hip jump/road that was new. This eliminated some pedaling but not very much. There was also a small new section after the big table top near

the top of the course that shot up over a small log and into a 7 foot long rock garden. One thing that was very noticeable, especially for the first couple of days of practice was the ruts left in the dirt from the previous years "mud bog" of a course. All the big boys were out and practicing. Standouts included Rennie, Peat, Kovarick, Hill and the always stylish Cedric Gracia.

Friday's practice went off same as Thursday, with the course becoming more tame and worn in. We got our new team jerseys which I think are quite fresh. Also got the chance to walk around the pits and check out all the new bling. I got to visit and meet many people which is always good. Caught up with G to the Z (Sean Mclendon) and we did some rounds in the pits. Griz had just been hooked up by Troy Lee designs and SRAM so we were walkin' around the pits with plenty of swag which got people's attention. We decided to go up to the Spank's trailer (Griz's dad) to work on our bikes and to get rad with all the fresh gear.

Hung out with Bradical (Oien) at his super factory ODI-Southridge pit. I'm totally stoked that Brad has been given this great sponsorship, I'm sure we will be seeing him dancing on the box at many races this year and ultimately see him compete for the title of JR world champion at Fort William later this year. To the right is a photo of Kyle Adams being followed closely by Brad, both on the ODI-Southridge team.

Saturday. "Well, it just would not be Sea Otter if there was not any rain now would it?" I have heard that phrase so many times in the last 4 days that it makes me sick. Out of nowhere it decides to rain on Saturday, I mean RAIN. I woke up on Sat morning to the sound of rain hitting the walls of the tent, I thought forsure the tent would be destroyed by mid-day but I was wrong. The damn thing held up to the hurricane that pounded it all day, I think it was the brown color that did it.

By the looks of all the rain I thought the course would be absolutely destroyed. Hank, Wes and I went on a night hike on the DH course to assess the damage. With a propane lantern and muscle milk in hand we poached the course on foot. To our surprise the course seemed un-changed from the previous days even though it had rained a bunch that day. We walked back to camp and prepared for the next day.

The weather Sunday proved to be much better than the day before. We (Hank and I)readied ourselves for the race. Two practice runs then it was back to the top to check our seed times.

Hank had a seed time of just under 20 minutes while I went off at a lazy 41 minutes after the first pro. The field was HUGE and jam-packed with all of the world's best riders. The time came for my run and "lucky" for me, Ross Milan was behind me. Ross is a super strong racer who would no doubt be fast on this course...I would do my best not to get passed by him. I wished him good luck, he did the same and I lined myself up on the box. The start lady gave me the speech: "six beeps, leave on the sixth beep." The sixth beep went off and I propelled myself out of the start box. Immediately, I felt the weight of the hundreds of eyes looking at me hurl myself down the hill. First corner, dialed, onto the rhythm section. Smooth, over the step up to the berm, pinned. While in the berm I heard a loud "VIAVA LA MEXICO!!" I knew it was bradical. Over the small rollers, unclip. I was nearing the big table extremely fast and panicked, I smashed the table and could not get clipped in. I could hear people in the crowd yelling "come on ALF", I finally got clipped in right before the log jump. Over the rock garden and up the short sprint on the way to the S-turns, nice. Out of the S-turns and an eruption of noise was heard as I hit the step down and tucked the windy speed section to the uphill. Down the steeps and crossed the road. At this point I was almost completely spent, which is not good. Tried my best to pedal the whole second half of the course but it proved futile. Crossed the finish line with a time of 2:30 which at the end of the day would be almost 15 seconds slower than Rennie.

2007 Sea Otter is in the books, now it is time for the real racing to begin...Well, with the exception of Fontana!!

*all photos on this page by MerrrJig except for the small one taken from the ODI booth. www.MtbphotO.com