Slalom Thursday- cx co

CRANKWORX COLORADOMost people probably didn't know slalom was an event here at crankworx co, but indeed it is. Slopestyle is still the main draw, but there is a downhill, slalom, super d, and other festivities. I must say the turnout is a little smaller than I would have thought for slalom, but there is a world cup going on in Italy this week too, and it is only Thursday. Course here is pretty fun, nothing very technical, but fast, kind of a drag race to the end. Kinda short too, About 20 seconds, but at the end I feel like I'm breathing harder than I should be, damn altitude:) going to be really noticable on Sunday for a 7 min downhill.

Race morning, and as expected after it poured allll night, there are a couple inches of muck sitting as the top layer of dirt. Clouds have dispersed, sun is out, so the soil is slowly transforming. locals claim it drys up faster than you think, but it took awhile, lots of delays to start. We shouldve slept in a bit longer. I woke up all amped to get out there, but it dragged out. Lars and I came prepared with some maxxis medusa mud tires. Super narrow, little spikey, fast rolling, and they were extremely dialled. Don't think many people were that prepared, but with some big $ on the line you gotta have everything covered.

So we all had a lap or 2 max for practice... Quite a few people showed up today and missed practice yesterday, like Rando, Jd, Condro, Jackie h, so with one or two runs, that wouldve been tough. Anywho, they ran that practice straight into open quali, into a minor break, which dragged out. Had a snack, but shouldve had a sandwich or something, cause it was like 2.5 hrs till I got to ride again.

In qualifying, Lars was riding super well, qualified 2nd by only a fraction to Peter hannack. Think logan binggelli wa in there, Brian Buhl, Jason memmelaar, etc. Not sure the order. Jd missed a gate, but he had his shifter zip tied to his frame and the shittiest tire ever for street riding:) he put down a ripper on the one side though, it was kinda impressive for such a squid:) I won ladies followed by Mellisa Buhl, n Jackie.

Pro Racing cut the field to 16 men, and 4 ladies. Quite a few amateurs and some masters filled it out too. The red vs blue course were way off for time, not too even, about 2 sec faster on the red side, so it was a little hard to tell how close the battles were. Announcing was decent, ebbett was insightful, and Brad was his usual Brady self, but just a little off on what was going on, think the differentials and order confuse em a little, called the small finals the finals, who was up on whom, oh well, yada yada, I won. Slalom is so much more fun than 4x, Pure skill no interfearance:)

Course dried out as rounds went on, but people were also clipping gates and getting disqualified like crazy. Lars pretty much handed it away with a massive gap going, then missed a flag, doh! yeti's Sanchez got it pretty easy, but so it goes. Thought Peter and Lars wouldve had a goo battle, but neither of them could get to the finals. Pretty funny too , Brian and michael buell, brothers, met in a round and had a serious buell-off. Younger Brian took it though, and ended up 2nd overall. He was pumped. Jason memmelear took a victory on his xc rig giant trance full shock length. Lucky for him there weren't any steep bits:)

Buhly and I were in the finals again, and after a decent run on red first run, it was my mission to teach that blue side a lesson. There were a few bogs that kinda messed up the smmoth arc in some turns. I put down my best blue run of the weekend, felt awesome and took the victory. Our Transition doubles are riding sooo good, that bike loves to slalom. It also loves to slopestyle as Casey groves is laying it down out there!! Good luck to him and the other transition cronies doing work on the big gaps:)

So that is it for slalom! Good times. I like it a lot because of where I started so many years ago, and how much I struggled to work on turning. Think I've come a long way, and that is the best reward!!

Check out the Transitionbikes.com blog. Lots of photos and content. I didn't bring a computer, just the iPhone. Grammer and spelling are attrocious too, sorry. My final run should be on the blog too if not on crankworxcolorado.com . They had a bunch o cameras filming the event

this rain is making things tough on slopestyle competitors. There is talk of more rain, and people maybe flying home cause of cancelling. Big wooden obsticles make mud very dangerous. We will see...

Thanks to all our sponsors, couldn't be successfull without em! Tr, red bull, Oakley, fox, crankbrothers, shimano, dakine, maxxis, the, odi, e.13, 5.10, v holder , jaguire, lezyne, park tool, etc.

Return to the Rockies

WINTERPARK, COWell, seems as though there is no rest for the wicked. Flying out tomorrow- back to colorado for Crankworx Colorado/ Pro Grt #4. Winterpark is hosting a bunch of events; Slopestyle, Slalom, DH, etc. so a lot of the freeride guys should be in attendance, as well as a few extraordinary US based DH racers. THe World Cup is going on at the same time in Italy, so there won't be quite the same hype as some of the other rounds, But Lars and I will be there, as will the ODI boys, some KHS cronies, and a boat load of Yeti Regional riders, etc. Gaining race experience is what we are after.

A homie who apparently raced witerpark this past weekend said the course was like 5-7 min. Enduro DH is not quite on my radar right now, at altitude- Save that for the Frenchies. Since this PRO Grt event is a UCI cat 2 event, and points to compete at the NY world cup are on the line, maybe they will apply the rule about a 2-5 min tracks, we will see anyway. There is also a forecast for rain, so that could be interesting, spice things up a tad. Give us a small minuscule idea of what racing in europe is like ever single time.:) Wonder if it'll still be windy as normal, could make that slopestylea bit sketchy, jumping up onto wood contraptions. Anywhoo, having a good time riding bikes is what we do, should be quite fun. Wed is slalom quali, real excited to ride that Transition Double again- slalom weapon.....

NW Cup #4- Series Final

PORT ANGELES, WA SUNDAY FINALS: Took the victory as did Lars for #4, but the cool part about this win, is that the series is complete!! Claimed a sick new GNU snowboard for my prize as Series overall champ, as did Kyle Thomas in the Pro Men's overall,,, the ol race experience is piling up and we are getting closer and closer to Worlds and World cup finals:)

Thanks go out to Casey and Scott for running the show. They keep it real- fun, as did Estes on the mic. Quote of this weekend was, "Carl, I want to strangle you like a little dog". Nice, keeping everyone giggling. Port Angeles has a good variety of trails, that I think may be better in the wet, but about 5-6 DH tracks, and a killer dh xc loop, nice shuttle road, and plenty of good people. Doesn't get any better as far as a local scene. It's out in the middle of nowhere, but there was a lavendar festival in town, Sand sculpture exhibits all over, dungeness Crab is from there, beautiful scenery of mountains and ocean, maybe one or two vampires, and a lot of meth heads roaming the streets in town:) Check it out sometime.

SAT Lars and I are back in the NorthWest, taking in the series final of the NW Cup. These races are pretty fun, laid back, just pure riding at the grassroots level. We are on a trail I have never fully ridden before, white knuckle all the way down. It is really dry, dusty, high speed and loose in turns, Super hard packed everywhere else, and fairly steep, some turns with no support, plenty drifty from blowout, few bigger jumps, but nothing like sol vista. Just mellow. All good things that make the trail pretty challenging.

I didn't do too many practice runs as the drive back from Colorado took it outta me- a solid 24 hrs. And I still have a few minor lingering aches and pains. Didn't feel like doing a damn thing the last couple days at home, except for cruising the hood on the miyata:) and a sessions at the pump track.

Back in the spirit now though. Good people and fun times tend to put you in the mood for riding down hills as fast as possible! :) racing tomorrow, as well as mom's b-day!! Whoo hoo. 65. Home for cake!! Later...

Good luck bryn!!

Results are in from the Downhill World Cup from Champerey, Switzerland. Gee won, Minnaar 2nd which is really impressive, Brenden 3rd. I am relieved to announce Bryn made it out mostly unscathed and with 20th. I only got a brief message, but it sounde like he hit a couple of trees and got a little loose. It'll be really exciting when he puts it all together clean! I've had a good feeling for him about this trip, let's see if I'm right next week in Italy. The race in Champerey looked like such a shit show from the poor weather and steep terrain. Hard to say if that kind of riding would even be fun. Some of the top guys claim to be loving it, but I dunno. Check out the video on dirt mag, pinkbike, vitalmtb.com and see for yourself. I don't think any of it looked that enjoyable, but for sure a good test of riding ability.

Impressive for girls to make it down.

The Miyata

Picked this sweet little rig in Aspen. It was locked to a pole, so I called the number on it, met the guy there on the street, and have been cruising the Miyata ever since!. Brooks saddles are unbelievably comfortable as well, just on some chill mode around the hood...

National DH Champ

SOL VISTA RESORT, CO I was told by a homie, to put the "Soul" in Sol Vista, and that might just have happened yesterday. Dedicated the race to some broken friends , and Won my first ever Downhill National Championship in pro Women . Completes a little string I had going, consecutive national titles in 3 different disciplines; BMX, 4x, DH. Aaron Gwin took the men's title, with some injury to his hand . Nothing like a twist off champaign bottle, sans cork, to celebrate a big W, Thanks USA cycling:).

Pretty wild day yesterday. We all had quali and finals in the same day, which was brutal, but nice to be done with!!. Quali was my first full run and the ol Lungs were turned inside out, almost coughed them up. Complimented the ashy skin, chapped lips, and sunburn/windburn. At 9000 feet with no oxygen, this place was really hard to endure, can't wait to get back to sea level and moisture.

Top ten results in the men's final were somewhat surprising, somewhat. Gwin is a World cup podium guy, so he was the easy pick, but the most noteworthy result was Mikey Sylvestri. He won qualifying, then had a massive stack in his final and was still only 7 sec off the winning time. He would've won, I'm guessing. Luke Stroble also had the finish line in his sights, then got hijacked by the second to last turn onto his head, pretty good pic on pinkbike . He said he was on a good time, but that's racing. Kyle strait also was looking awesome in practice, but caught some of the nastiest wind of the entire weekend in his run. Jumps were pretty big to be getting blasted from unknown directions. Grizz caught the worst of it, blasted by a tailwind over the 40 footer and well overshot it, broken pelvis in two spots, dislocated, just nasty. Poor ol Lars Qualified 3rd, but then had a flat tire in his final run.

I had a good update going, but no internet, and we are about to hit the road . 20 hrs of driving, blah.

Full Pics on facebook...http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=1513875482&aid=2065358&s=0&hash=89d6ff21121caa0ef7642cbf4beebe92

Sol Vista DH Practice+ 4x quali

GRANBY, COWeather has been hot and dry and super windy the last couple of days, haven't really seen a cloud in the sky so far. I was very much craving some slight overcast for my tender northwestern skin, but no such luck. Not even the best chapstick will work in conditions like these, chapped to the max. Feels like you're blasted with dry hot mouth from the beginning of each day. Glad we had a little time to get used to this altitude, because more than a few fellow riders are sucking wind hard here at 9,000 feet. I still feel the burn maybe like 20 seconds in just before the rock garden, but not too bad. Cruising seems better cause sneaking pedals in pays a toll, but gonna have to try. Kinda sorta feels like there are limit on speed in several places, you can't hit that drop with much speed. Don't foresee many massive margins for anyone. Maybe just avoid the rocks and holes, be smooth, and boost everything:) . The sandy turns and loose rocks are pretty tricky, a lot of the lines are easy to miss, massive cross winds don't help confidence either, I still have a couple big jumps left to do, but got em in the am. Leigh D blasted a good one, inspired us all:)

My good pal Pruitt got really hurt. We were riding most of the day together, then she went up for a last run solo, caught a little tailwind off the wood drop, overjumped it, snapped a pivot bolt her bike on the landing and got flung into a tree, breaking a bunch of ribs in her back, fractured scapula, bruised lungs. Not cool, she had to get airlifted to Denver to make sure her lung would be ok. ouch:( I'm dedicating my race to a wounded homie  KP!!

4X Watching 4x qualifying too, like 3 pro guys got carted off just in the hour that I was watching. The last straight claimed many, and your heart almost stopped watching peopple come into the step up and last 5 pac at full speed. Mitch Ropelato broke a collar bone clipping the top of that step up, TJ sharp separated his shoulder flipping down the same bit, etc. Not sweet. Just seemed like the last bit wasn't really built for super fast speeds.

Lars rode 4x, and qualified 6th on his covert, he said he was glad to get through that last part smooth, triple in double out. Hard tails were a little too rough. Dunno if he's gonna race though, seems like a lot more carnage may be had out there during racing, and you need a lot of mental focus for this dh track. 4X Track looked fun to ride, but I am glad to be concentrating on new challenges and saving energy for sunday:)

4X Quali Results MEN 1. Logan Binggelli 34.05

2. Erik Nelson 34.44 +.39 3.  Carney +.49

4. Barry Nobles +.56 5. Ross Milan  +.61 6. Lars Sternberg +1.12 7. Brian Buell +1.17 8. Lear Miller +1.28 9. Ryan Condrashoff +1.32 10. Mikey Haderer +1.36

Poor ol JD was 33, and the cut was at 32. He must have crashed or something, bummer.

WOMEN

1. Buhly 39.12 2. Neven 47.58 3. Jackie Harmony 47.77 4. Catherine Cantway 53.94

SOL VISTA

GRANBY, CONational Champs weekend. Got to Sol Vista Resort last night and spent today roasting in the sun, prepping bikes, walking the DH Track, Pump tracking, and also rode a mini lap of the xc at sunset.

It has been awhile since I've been to an event with all disciplines of mountain biking in the same spot; DH, 4x, xc, short track, super D, etc, but jeeze there are so many amateur xc bandits cruising around all lycra-ed out. Standing in line, tweaking on bikes, practicing xc starts!, pinning it up hills, getting all crazy,,, just packs and packs of em. Very strange scene here, but more power to people who wanna ride bikes, glad the sport is healthy in all shapes and sizes.

Anyway, DH course walk was pretty good. I had never been up the hill at this place, so it was all new to me, but it is very apparent that the builders at Sol Vista put a lot of work into these trails, lots of man made obstacles. Ther dirt from top to bottom changes texture a lot too. From the start, sand mixed with rock. In the middle, grey dirt all blown out and reddish grey clay mixes on the man made stuff, then some grass, then super baked dirt down below. There are mega jumps out there again. Dunno why they have to do it, but I'm guessing 40 footers. One section has a set up dirt jump that leads into a huge triple out in the wind, it is just massive, landing full speed into grass turns. The go around looks alright, but still jumpy and not as rad. Then down below, full runway into a basic 40' jump, it's a little intimidating. I don't really know what the flow is yet. All I do know is that is is real windy at this place, super hot and dusty,and rain showers happen a lot. That is all.

I din't take a close look at the 4x, but from what I could see they left it pretty loose. Not as tech as last year, but spanning a good amount of terrain. The bottom is fast and straight, but the jumps and rhythm kind of require a speed check I think, so who knows. They spent a lot of time trying to create options in turns. Our pit set up is in a prime location, so we can see quite a bit of action from the bottom, I may go hot-lap it to see, but am not racing it.

XC loop is pretty rough, not because of features, but the ground is just baked in rough. Nothing that technical, but the decents will probably give some long stems and tall seats a bit of grief. Breaking bumps are all the way down and into the apex of turns and blown out already. I found it to be fun sliding around and leaning into em, but for sure there are way more ups than downs.

Tomorrow is Downhill practice, will let you know what I discover...

Colorado 'n Crankworx CO

COLORADOSo after Snowmass, Lars and I had a day of chilling/driving, and met up with some friends at Keystone Resort. Little did we know that Specialized was having their big dealer event. The resort was open to the public, but it felt a little Red- if you know what I mean:). Big ol Transition Sprinter parked in the lot next to their tent just felt like we were imposing a tad, even though it was no big deal. Really cool to see that kind of operation though, dialed bikes everywhere, good people. Even Bearclaw was there supporting S, but we decided to carry on and ride the next dat at Winterpark with Justing Frey of Fox.

Winterpark Resort is a partner to Whistler, so everything ran really smooth, good lift loading, signage, tons of space, etc. The Pro GRT makes a stop in Winterpark aka Trestle bike park as part of Crankworx Colorado a few weeks, so got to scope the vibe of the place a little early, ride some runs, etc. FYI to people, the prize purse is pretty sweet , 2k for first in men's DH and they appear to pay to 10th, 1K slalom, 6k slopestyle. World cup guys will be in Italy, so someone unexpected may make a bunch of money.

We didn't really ever find out which trail was the race trail, think it's under construction, but whatever. We rode a good variety of trails, blue and black diamond runs. The black runs were fun, dusty rocky, kinda flatish, some fast bits, but also a little tight in spots. Colorado has it's unique dirt and terrain, and the challenge is in the dry looseness of it, and maneuvering though rocks. I feel like a bit of a trail snob after my time in Squamish, love the loam, but going fast and adapting to new terrain is a good challenge too:). Had to do some creative bandaging not to get my stitches all dirty, healing up nice, couple more days and they are out.

We came across some new friends at Keystone, Winterpark, and Sol Vista who are just getting started doing this website reviewing Bike Parks in the USA. Check out www.projektroam.com .

National Champs in Sol Vista Next, the grand Finally...

Snowmass- MSC

ASPEN, CODownhill sunday. Got a big rain storm after practice this morning, hail and everything, but it only took a few hours to get back to dusty.

Sorta weird to write about, but some days you're feeling it and some days not so much. Today was one of those days. Seemed like no one could have beat me on friday, sat was average- had a high speed crash on the last run, and today was probably my worst run ever. Lost the front end in the high speed turns up top going really really fast, again!. Took my time getting up, forks were all crooked, then had another bobble exiting the first woods section cutting across the inside to drop onto the fire road, wheels slipped, and wham, chin on the stem and off the bike! 6 stitches. Lucky one of the dads on tour is an ER doctor, and he stitched me up in the parking lot:). Not even worth rolling down the hill today. Guess I'll take it here, instead of next week, not too hurt, just looking all ghetto.

Buhly ended up winning, as did Aaron Gwin by like 15 sec. Lars took 4th, but was only off 2nd by half a second.

Blastin' the Mass..

ASPEN, COLORADOOriginally we came to Aspen to deliver the briefcase,,, but Blasting the Mass in Snowmass is just as good too.

Back in 2004, when I was on Yeti, this was my first real downhill race. Everyone says it's the same course, kinda, but I only remember bits and pieces. Top seems vastly different and longer. Bottom is really similar though; the waterfall section, high speed, that Rennie turn from Fundamentals vid, etc. You remember Earthed 2 had a section from here.

Anyway, the lift is super long, 20-25 min up. The "high speed" chair is running at more of a turtle pace, bike loading?. But Plenty of high speed on the track to make up for it. I need to put my Knog on and find out a Top speed- swear it's 40+ in a few bits, eyeballs rattling around, outta gears. Quite different terrain than at home, but lars and I were really liking it, he said he was "having a Blast", hehehe, good one? but indeed, very moto like, lots of fast off camber chopped out sections, some arm pump, not too much pedaling, loose dirt and rocks, just typical Colorado style terrain, really a lot of fun the more runs we do. 4pm thunderstorms are like clockwork too, so all fresh in the am, pretty sweet.

The turnout for a regional is pretty impressive, think a few other people had the same idea as us to get ready for national champs. Got Aaron Gwin here, Joey schusler, Dave Z, Brad Benedict, Lars, Matty Thomson n creeeew, Crusher, Team Geronimo, Buhly, Jackie H, bunch others, most all of colorado's finest DH racers, etc. The general vibe wasn't all condensed with people hanging out, everyone was just kinda doing their thing and riding. Top of the chairlift is about 10,500 feet, bottom 8,500feet, so lots of room to spread out.

There are actually two courses and two races being raced for some reason. One is the O.G. aspen track, and the other one is pretty crap. Really flat, tons of pealing, smooth, no good turns, people on 6" trail bikes. We did one run and decided to donate our money to the family of the kid who passed away at the Angelfire round instead!.

Oh almost forgot. Those of you who know Keith Darner (he runs these Mountain states cups) normally he has 3 little Jack Russell terriers that follow him everywhere. Anyway, he is now up to 6 Jack Russells!!!, it's like a flock!! pretty funny (one missing from photo).  Yeti owners + employees are here riding, taking pics, filming video, etc. Conroy, Steve, college, John Reynolds, etc. It's rad to see other companies supporting grassroots racing like this. Fun event so far!

Rich Houseman's mom, and dad Cheese, are here too. cheese was super amped, per usual. They just moved to the Rockies from Cali,  Cheese used to be the regular MC at fontana races, think he may have a new role on here at the mountain states cup:)

Anyway, Gonna have another crack at practice to get all dialed in tomorrow and race sunday. Dunno if it's just a coincidence, or if someone thought it it'd be a good joke, but I got #69 as my racing number- about 15 people thought it was hilarious enough to point it out, squids:).   Later.

Next up..

Bout to do another road trip down to Aspen, CO. The route is across Wa, into northern Idaho maybe ride Coeur D' Alene, down to utah and over to COLORADO. Lars and I  are gonna Blast the Mass next weekend as a little warm up for National Champs- regional event: Mountain states cup. Yeti land. Aspen is always a good place to visit, "Harry: I expected the Rocky Mountains to be a little rockier than this. Lloyd: I was thinking the same thing. That John Denver's full of shit, man." dumb and dumber will be on loop- c ya.

http://www.racemsc.com/events/blastthemass.html

World Cup Crayons

I love this kind of thing!!. Guess as part of the Soccer World Cup , Nike hired out an artist- Diem Chau to carve  a set of players f as promo pieces. I have seen her work before, so this is pretty cool. . http://tinyhaus.blogspot.com/2010/06/nike-world-cl

Northstar pro grt results

TRUCKEE, CA Such a lung burner of a race at Northstar!!. The combination of elevation, hot dry dusty conditions, and all the pedalling over 4+ min left us all in a world of hurt. I am actually still coughing a day later, but could barely talk or do anything for a good 20 min after my run.

I knew buhly would be in her element on a course like this, so I had to throw down a good run and pedal as hard as possible. She had a crash though, so my time stands as the top time of the weekend. Good to see pruitt out racing, she is a talented rider, as is Leigh d, so our field had some depth.

Pedalling Didn't seem to be a problem for World cup leader Greg Minnaar. He usually kills it whn it comes to fitness courses, but bryn was right there riding really well!! it is so rad to have top guys attend these events. Races in the us are growing because of it. All the Santa Cruz big hitters, Minnaar, peaty, Cedric, just missing Josh bryceland who almost lost his head last week.

They also brought in Larry longo to announce on the weekend, he is the best! And knows a lot about the sport. Think he will be doing some commentary for the wyndam world cup, not sure if that's freecaster or what, but fans will be stoked.

Pro dh Women's finals 1. Jill 4.29.7 2. Kathy pruitt 4.37.5 3. Leigh Donovan 4.45.2 4. Jackie harmony 4.45.6 5. Rachel Bauer 4.46.9

buhly DNF

Men's dh results 1. Greg Minnaar 3.59.9 2. Bryn 4.03.3 3. Steve peat 4.06.5 4. Cedric gracia 4.07.3 5. Mitch Ropelato 4.07.4 6. Mikey sylvestri 4.07.4 7. Eliot Jackson 4.10.3 8. Kevin aiello 4.11.0 9. Jd swangen 4.11.7 10. Logan binggelli 4.12.2 11. Lars Sternberg 4.12.5

facebook photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2063046&id=1513875482

Northstar Pro Grt

LAKE TAHOE, CAFRI: quali. Fun day of riding, dust was insane all through practice. Hard to find clear gaps from all the riders. Not much regulating goin on anywhere. For the actual qualifying they did get a bit of water out there on some of the lower turns, which was a nice surprise.. From my experience, quali was my first full run, and man, there is so much pedalling! I was just having fun flowing, but should have definatly put in more work! Maybe I blew myself up, cause i owned the first 30 sec:) four and a half min is a long time at altitude. Buhly is a real strong pedaler, so I now know what needs to be done, and it's gonna hurt.

Mens race, syndicate boys got maybe 3-4 runs on the track, but I guess they do their testing here, so no big deal. Lift was running so slow with all the people riding the bike park all mixed in. Anyway, peaty took a bit of a digger in the 2nd turn. Brad benedict, local hero, pedalled his brains out and took the victory over minnaar by .2 . Bryn was 4th, but top 4 are all fairly close. WOMEN'S DH 1. Buhly 4.32.5 2. Jill 4.34.0 3. Pruitt 4.38.0 4. Joanna Peterson 4.44.3 5. Leigh d. 4.47.5

MENS QUALI 1. Brad Benedict 4.08.0 2. Minnaar 4.08.2 3. Mikey sylvestri 4.09.4 4. Bryn 4.09.9 5. Kevin aiello 4.12.8

12. Larssternberg

THURS: First day of practice up at Northstar today. I guess what has made the biggest impression on me is just the dryness of it all. Being from the NW we haven't seen many dry days at altitude- dust bugars, and a bit of a headache. All good though, track is pretty straight forward and flowy, nothing really technical, but the looseness of the turns will make the push for speed interesting. Chairlift access is always a bonus, 4.5 min with lots of flat pedaly bits.

The ol tr450 is loving it, so am I. Dh is sooo much fun in any situation. Really nice people on tour here in the us. Even a bit of international talent, Bryn, minnaar, peaty, rando, kieren Bennett, n more. We should have the best of US women here too; Pruitt, Buhly, Leigh D, Jackie h, me, etc.... Maybe a Canadian or two?

Anyway, more practice, mor pedaling, more tahoey goodness. Nor cal is beautiful.

Tahoe bound...

After another glorious week in B.C., it is now time to head for drier ground in Northern California. Feels like forever since I have raced, but round #3 of the pro grt is upon us. I used to snowboard a ton at Northstar when I lived in the bay area, but now with the bike park open, this sweet resort is kicking year round. I'm excited to check it out. Bryn just got back from 6 weeks of continuios travel last night, so he's flyin down, but Lars and I are loaded up, and already in the thick of it. We broke up the drive a bit, went to visit Chico at Dakine in Hood River, then made it to Bend oregon for an evening slalom/ pump track session. Such a RAd place, Kirt Vories n crew were out shredding as well. Power session before dark. Anywho, heading the rest of our mission in the am,7 hrs more...

Suppose to have sone serious talent at this race. Obviously transition racing:), yeti boys, odi, etc. World champ, Steve peat making the trip. Santa Cruz bicycles is somewhat close, so I'm sure that, as well being a supporter of us racing has drawn him in. pretty decent pro prize purse too, nice work northstar, $1500 for first. Progrt.com

I'll keep ya posted . Jill

new character

Got a new little DH character to match my art theme:)fresh helmet on the way as well, can't wait!!

NW cup #3

PORT ANGELES, WA

SUNDAY: Lars and I held it down on the Local front for Transition, taking both pro men's and women's victories at NW Cup #3! These races are pretty fun, really good practice, lots of shuttles, probably the best announcing ever, and a sweet crew to ride with. It's important to support grassroots racing whenever possible.

Race day saw a 6am wake up call, breakfast, coffee, warm up, and at practice by 8am. Only good thing about being up that early was the nice flat light from the morning fog. Trails were as perfect as I have ever seen em. Qualifying and finals in the same day, but it felt like an eternity between the two. In Quali I was pretty confident that I had a top 3 sewn up, based on participant numbers:) Race run- the plan was to be smoother, ie faster, but I scored the exact same time as my qualifier, rode a ton better though. baffling. Best thing I took away was knowing my fitness is improving. Adapting from 30sec-1min efforts to 3-5min flat out effort has proven to be a challenge. Just happy to have kicked the excessive coughing stage after each race, who hoo.... Proud of my teammate Lars too, who went undefeated for two runs. Transitionbikes.com, word.

Here are some photos documenting the weekend's excitement... facebook.com/album <<<<RESULTS >>>>>

Pro Women 1. Jill Kintner , Seattle, Wa- 3:18.61 2.Miranda Miller, Garabaldi Highland, BC, 3:26.88 3. Stamm, Cassandra, Carnation, WA- 3:58.89

Pro Men

1. Lars Sternberg, Bellingham, Wa- 2:58.38 2. Brad Benedict, Auburn, CA- 2:59.70 3. Kyle Thomas, Issaquah, WA- 3:05.68 4. Barty McDaniels, Pacific, WA- 3:05.75 5. Charlie Sponsel, Lake Oswego, WA- 3:06.10

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SATURDAY: Could not ask for a nicer day. Sun was out, 70 degrees, blue skies, ocean view, snow capped mtns, primo moist dirt. PA was going off :) super small turnout for round 3 compared to the mega pro grt last round, but that means more riding. Glad I convinced Miranda Miller to cruise down from Canada, cause we are the only two, maybe one more, on the list for pro women. Think there were 19 pro men. All good, plenty of cat 1,2, and 3 to make up the numbers.

So funny how everyone was complaining about 70 degrees being so hot, nw blood melts in the sun. Shuttle ride up in the back of the u-haul was pretty much like a stinky sweat bath, I nearly spewed several times, motion sickness and heat don't mix well.

Tight crew of local support though. One of the owners of Transition, Kevin, came out to race, actually 4 of the 7 Tr employees are here supporting the race series, so it's pretty fun, super low key. Feels a lot like an epic shuttle day. I even shuttled runs to the cross country dh sections, all down, no up, schweet.

Racing tomorrow...... Stay tuned

Transition - NBD

The guys at Transition are hilarious, watch this video ... Time Bandits 2, is also a pretty funny with the highlight being a pony and an electric mobility scooter...

Oh Canada.

Since I live pretty close, and had a bit of spare time, I pinned it up to Canada in the sprinter to visit homies and ride. Squamish, being the outdoor Capitol of the world, got me especially excited. Xc trails for days that have decent climbs, but fast technical flowy decents:) I was permagrin the whole ride! My new favorite spot:) You must make that town a mandatory stop if headed to whistler, pemberton too apparently. Anywho, Strand and Miranda had the hot tips for trails, so we gathered a crew of about 8 and packed in good solid days. rode whistler bike park for one day, pump tracks, xc, bike paths- just a happy place to be on a sunny day. Went to north Vancouver as well to visit dennis "air" beare. Rode some downhill dirt jumps, but the highlight was the fourty year old drunk shirtless guy yelling whewww over every jump he jumped. Nice touch was a cig hanging out his mouth:) Sorry I haven't had many updates, ive been leaving my computer at home a lot. Kinda sucked to not watch the freecaster from Scotland, ha to get Twitter updates. Bryn was there, maybe he'll fill you in.

In Port Angeles again right now for round 3 or the NW cup. Goo practice for the things I need to work on... Back up to Canada after this though, then south to northstar @ tahoe for some nor cal shredding.