WINTERPARK, COYesterday seems like a bit of a blur now, cause Lars and I raced that 7min course in the mud, washed our bikes, packed em, I went to podium and took a quick snapshot- cause I won!, loaded, tarped, drove to Denver in the rain, dropped off the truck, checked in, flew home, slept for a few hours, then woke up early, sat in Seattle morning traffic, and drove north to bellingham for a real fun Transition dealer day riding dh near Mt.Baker. Biggest sentence ever? Kinda how it was....

Not much time to take it all in...Was mostly stoked on a direct flight back to sea level and my own bed. Colorado is lovely, but I was tired of not having any oxygen, and battling flatness. Bear arms section of trail can go to hell, so annoying to race on a big heavy dh bike 4 min into a run. The rest of the course was decent, some really good steep shoots, few awesome corners. In hindsight, I guess if I were on an xc bike, that bit would've been ok. Blue trails at this bike park were painfully dull and flat for dh bikes, not reccomended by me.

As far as the race goes, I am a little shocked I was able to pull off a victory. Keeping momentum every possible spot to avoid stop and go sprinting was my plan. Quali was dry, an Buhly and I were sub 7 min 6.54?, boys were around 6.18 for the fastest. It rained hard most of the afternoon though, and continued to precipitate all of finals. I kinda though it was fun getting to pull tear offs and wing it. If there was ever a track that buhly should have an advantage, it was here, but the rain kinda sorta might have neutralized that. I felt like I rode better in the final, gave a shitload more effort, but our times were slower, and I somehow managed a 5 sec margin. I hit most of the technical sections good, roots were slick though, ripped some turns, had a few mini stalls but nothing catostrophic. Talking to myself, Felt like Trinity in The Matrix, in that opening scene where she has to will herself to get up... stand up and pedal. My ass was on that seat way too much, Get up damnit. Soo painful, just milking everything I had. The last bottom grass turns, it was all I could do to hold on. Knew buhly would be sprinting like a banchee, and she looked strong mostly to the line. anyway, tight battle here at 10,000 feet of elevation over 7 min 15 sec!!!! Our times were off the back compared to the cruisy quali times in the dry, but the weather bogged us down.

In the mens final, Waylan Smith was the first guy down, had a lighter bout of rain that the top qualifiers, and remained in that hot seat all afternoon. Lars had qualified 3rd with more in the tank, but had another unlucky afternoon with a big crash up top. Said he was riding the track aggressivly as if it were dry, but couldn't hold on. Bummin:( he's ok, though, just has to think of what could have been. Logan, who was top qualifier came down last, and at that point pools of water were standing everywhere. River runs down it, style. Maybe that's faster to have splashy mud rather than sticky mud, dunno, but either way, it was messy. Top 5, and the winner of $2000, 1. Waylan 2. Memmelar 3. Logan binggelli 4. Keiren Bennett 5. Brian Buell .kinda wondering what happened to Rando in his run? Fitness was a big part of this race, just straight punishment, but luckily the track wa tech enough ip top to count for something. Really glad it's over. Took a lot of energy to get pumped on this race. The people who run the event did a great job though. Scenery was epic, village was full, lifts ran smooth, excellent pro prize purses, A Really delicious taco spot in town- Marisol cantina, And other things and stuff. So a lot of positives, and I got what I came for. Still leading the overall series with one event to go in Ny after worlds...Crankworx in whistler is next. Back to back cx. And bryn comes home tomorrow!!!!! Whoo hoo!.