Angel Fire 20-10 and other stuff

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.

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?

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

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 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.

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

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!