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World Cup finals

VAL DI SOLE, ITALYWorld Cup racing is tough, first year for Downhill, and I came out 9th overall. WHich I suppose is pretty good, but I can't really say I've been operating at my potential. Learning curve; made a lot of mistakes, took some slams, had a couple good men get broke off, won some splits and speed traps , lost some, yada yada.

Gotta have the ol ducks in a row to trust going as fast as you can in ever changing course conditions. THat, plus Pick yourself up again after crashes, ride in the present state of mind, trust your skills, have the bike all tuned right, adapt, react, etc. Kinda fun- the newness, just wish it wasn't so hard to deal with all the emotions this year. Riding the wave..

Not that I have it too rough, but there have been a lot of outside factors this year as far as support goes that have really effected me. Equipment and sponsors are amazing, and Marshy, my mechanic, has been the saving grace. He's a lot of fun and does a great job with the bikes, so I'm grateful for that, but defiantly could have used a team mate at times:( a manager, a coach for the whole season, and Bryn- he's my partner in crime. Didn't expect to be solo for most of this. So it goes.

I am happy with the experience, but can do much better. It's good to know what to improve on. Reading tracks and picking lines is such an art form with a mix of common sense and self belief. Top half of a race is usually my forte, first couple minutes, but of course no one ever sees that on freecaster. By the end of a run, I get pretty tired and sloppy which translates into pulling brakes. Had a few stall outs in the ol race today, was Especially hard to hold on here at the roughest steepest track ever- 4 days in a row. Carrying speed is the name of the game, but it's scary as hell sometimes going that fast.

Pom Pom, Troy Brosnan, and Danny Hart stole the show today. Incredible riding:) Good job. Gwin and Tracy Mosley took the World Cup overall titles.

Gonna go home early and skip World Championships in Champery. Just so emotionally drained, I don't really have the right mind set to attack anymore right now. Sorry America. The course in Champery requires 100% focus, and I have nothing left for it. Gonna come back next year with a lot more motivation, a smile, and more speed/ confidence to my riding.

Us tracks were a good starting ground, but honestly, gonna have to spend a lot more time in Europe to be in contention to win world cups. The style and roughness are advanced.

WOMEN'S RESULTS: www.pinkbike.com

MEN'S RESULS: www.pinkbike.com

Big thanks to my wonderful sponsors: Transition, Red Bull, Fox SHox, Crankbrothers, Oakley, Shimano, Maxxis, Kore, ODI, TLD, Jett clothing, jaguire, e.13, cane creek, 5.10, esoles, park tool. Thanks also to : Scotty, Justin Frey, Bamel, Martin the Masseur /physio, Bryn, Marshy, Lars, and my mom:).

Italy DH quali

Wow, track is getting rougher and rougher as the days go on. Every little section between rocks or whatever is losing more and more dirt. Ping pong down the track. Quali was set to be prime, felt ok all day:) Just had a hand slide off the bar at the bottom in a g out and crashed. Wasn't too bad, but had to go get my bike and was unclipped down the last fast shoot coming outta the woods. Not a stellar run. still in the mix, 11th. Gwin won the mens, pugin the women's . I thought from practice that Troy Brosnan was gonna do really really well, and he came 4th. He's riding a smooth track compared to everyone else. Guess ol Brendan would be onto it as well for finals. Minnaar with a mechanical apparantly, Peaty hit a tree. Saw quite a few loose moments. Stevie smith did awesome, hope he can back it up.

As for me. Glad there is another chance. I sort of like doing full run better than not, satisfying putting it together here cause it's so technical. Will have another look at some lines and handle business. Had a 4:20 yesterday, 4:26 today with a crash and an average run before that so we will see. Favorite part is the start and first two turns:) Was just so hard to hold on by the bottom....

Women's Quali Times: http://dirt.mpora.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/39079_DHI_WE_ResultsQualifyingRound.pdf

Men's Quali Times: http://dirt.mpora.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/39079_DHI_ME_ResultsQualifyingRound.pdf

Italy practice day 1

VAL DI SOLE

So after I got through the first terrifying run:) The track is actually real fun to ride. Bit wild in spots, sketchy holding on through root gardens adn rocks. Took a lot of effort to enjoy and link together. Had a lot of skidding going on early, but now kinda know where to go I suppose. Roots are becoming polished and holes forming. It's only day 1, so long to go till sunday.

Did a full run at the end of practice for a time. Like how it's really obvious that it's just about riding the track, nothing else, no mind games nothing, just get down. I got lots of time to make up in the last couple of sections of the course, was braking cause it's sketchy and tiring. Hands are sooooo throbbing at the end of a run from braking mostly and the roughness of the holes, relentless steepness. It;s good to know what a full one feels like early.

New Troy Lee Designs body armor has been awesome. I don't normally wear that kind of stuff, but had a full top and bottom suit on today in the heat. It's got that shock doctor stuff, so it is soft till impact. Pretty sweet. Why not really, so much gnarly shit to land on here. Doesn't really hurt to have it, and their protection is hardly noticeable, well the shorts are a bit warm, but that's my only beef really. Think there is a lighter version. 4000 times better than those dainese suits that make you look like a turtle...

Val Di Sole, Italy

VAL DI SOLE It's so nice to be back over in Italy; good food, coffee, mountain-scapes, steep rooty rough tracks, etc. Just a really pretty place to be, feels a lot less european than France.

Did a little track walk today, man, never really seen a track this full on the whole way down. I've haven't ridden here, but it looks fun and scary at the same time. Lots of erosion. Will be honest, not excited for the first couple runs,hate first runs. Oh well, should get a lot of time to get er dialed.

Baguette-ville

FRANCE Been posted up in Morzine, Fance for a couple weeks now between races. Quite the place to ride, sort of a new level of technical; It is rooty, steep, and rough, then main trails out in the open hardpack have big holes and braking bumps everywhere else. Absolutely brutal on the ol hands.

I've been mainly sticking to the wooded areas where there is some dirt left, but the roots n stuff I haven't seen anything like it. spanning the entire width of the trail, like spiderwebs, Big holes too. Good training for italy next week.

Have ridden at a couple different resorts now. Even tried to xc mission over to a few, but got shutdown from the weather. closing lifts in the rain from thunder maybe? Guess you can ride and link up chairlifts, so it's mostly all down hill.

18 days down, 23 more to go. Kinda missing normal breakfast, only so many baguettes with ham and cheese you can eat. Good riding though. Kinda of an eat, sleep, ride kinda place.....

World CUp #6- Labresse final

LABRESSE, FRANCE 9th today with a pretty depressing run. It was really wet, full spikes, so I wasn't really comfortable hitting a  couple main jumps with big speed sucking ruts before them, felt too sketchy. GUess the other girls got through it though:(. Hopefully one day soon I'll learn to let it roll a little faster and stay off the brakes, and not freak out every time I unclip of get offline, It is my first World Cup year. 2nd year ever riding or racing a dh bike, but still:(.

Minnarr took the win as did tracy.

Going back to morzine now... Couple more weeks here...

Labresse Qualifying

Setting some good top times. Like seeing #1 next to my name. Woo!! Middle part of the track was not so good for me, need to let it roll. On the brakes, got a few little bits to work out, grr.. Jeeze. I still rode cut spikes, but it was bone dry out there, grass and spikes are like peas and carrots. Raining now, so should be super fun to get a little wild!! Men's quali

World CUp- Labresse, FRANCE

LABRESSE, FRANCE After about a week of riding in Morzine, Marshy and I finally arrived to soggy Labresse. 2 years ago in 2009 was the last time there was a World Cup here. Bryn raced it , not me, (before my DH campain), but the track is almost completely identical routing. Think all they did was get out the lawn mower and built a roofless house that we ride through to hit a drop:) funny. Couple jumps n stuff too, but a nice old school track to mix it up. Good variety this year.

It's only wednesday today, so nothing going on, but I went out for a hike cause it was better than sitting around all day in the room. Rain and all- i'm hardcore. Haven't been able to fall asleep before 3 am all week, so gotta fill the day somehow.

yeah, so , big pedal out the start, 40 second sprint, no braking. Some mega G outs, lots of grass, rocks, off camber, jumps, etc. Shorter track than normal too, which is always good for sprinters.

Peaty took a victory here last time, as did Frenchie. We will see what the future holds.

DH'ing in France

I bought a seasons pass yesterday to the Portes du soleil, and hit up 3 different resorts with Marshy- my mechanic. He  has lived her for 10 years, and knows all the tracks, so we are having a good time riding together. Bonus for me is that he looks after my bike at the end of the day, which is amazing!! Thank you Marshy!!. think 12 resorts linked up in total, spanning France and Switzerland, so hundreds of tracks. Bit muddy out there yesterday, but drying up fast, sun is out!!. Can't say that I've even tapped into the potential here, but covered some ground. Main lines at each resort, Morzine-the pleney, Les Gets, and super morzine have kind of ruined my hands. So rough, it's hard to hold on by the end. Guess the edges of the tracks are better than the middles, but the less ridden tracks in the woods are the go. So far , best track of the place was in Lesgets, captain something or other, in the trees off the main path a ways. And run of the mill on super morzine.

My new Israeli friends cliam the best tracks are on the pleney lift, so that's the go today I think. Love how they all met bryn last year and now have tr450's .

I'd be out there right now if it was for the ol 'lag of z jet, keeping me back . Half days are probably the smart thing to stay fresh anyway. Some of the girls I race are out here every day, frenchie, pugin, emile, etc. Ripping around with local knowledge. Just gotta find a practice buddy, dunno if they are keen, never really ridden with girls before....

Got a solid chunk of time here, till sep 5th. Miranda is coming out after Labress, so that'll be super fun!! Woo. I'm outta here. Sorry for no pics.

Morzine

Well, 3 stops later I finally made it with all my bags to Morzine, France. Nothing like the ol Seattle, Chicago, Newark, Geneva route, thx lars. Heard a lot about this place, big Mtb destination. Our mechanic Marshy lives here, and so far he's right, it's really nice. Chair lifts on both sides of the valley, steep mtns, bikes everywhere, sunshine, gardens, river. If only my bike was built and I could keep the ol eyelids open. Saving the fun for tomorrow. I'll be based here for the next 5 weeks between races, so lots of time to do stuff.

LaBresse, Fra next week, Italy a few weeks after that, then Switzerland for worlds.... Later.

Washougal MX

From crankworx friday night we made it home pretty late, slept for awhile, then picked up Luke Strobel in the early am, and drove the extra 3 hr mission down to the outdoor motocross race at Washougal. It's right at the bottom of the state near the columbia river, scenic all around. Bryn had been looking forward to this for awhile. He did a lot of off road extreme crutching all around the track. Hill climbs, rock gardens, etc:). Live action is always more exciting to see the speed, hear the sounds, wander the pits, get a mega sunburn, mingle with rednecks, eat Washougal dogs, kettle corn,  etc.

Exciting racing too, easy to see how the top guys pull away from mid range guys, same as downhill, better execution of skill, brake later, etc. Parallel world. I wish I had a motor sometimes, and squillions of doallas like these guys and their semi trucks and elaborate staff.

Dungey won,  his riding is so textbook and he earned it, but he's not really the fan favorite in our camp. Poor ol canard just came back from a broken femur and busted it again. Bryn was not stoked to hear that. Femur buddies stick together, it;s a horrific injury to endure.

Good times. We caught the freecaster stream of the crankworx slopestyle from luke's phone while we were sitting in traffic to leave the venue. best of both worlds.

Crankworx Giant slalom

WHISTLER, BC CANADA Giant Slalom I think is still finding it's groove, but the course this year was a hell of a lot better than last year!! Last year was a dual that was super dangerous heading into the first turn, take out city. So this year they ran one person at a time with two runs combined time format. The best year was when there were two courses side by side and it was just a bigger faster slalom event. Dunno, I had fun and won, love the Transition double, it's my favorite bike.

Took home a bunch of cash, and won the Queen of gravity crown for crankworx; slalom, pump track , GS wins, adn a silver in A line DH. Crankwor was kind to me. Mitch Ropolado was the king:)

Nice to have a couple weeks with Bryn there to support too:) He's crutching around pretty good these days:)

Slavik won the men's GS race, followed by Johannes Fishbach, Blake Carney. I thought Lopes looked really really good in practice, but just not quite quick enough.

Ladies, it was me, buhly, and an danni.

Crankworx Pumptrack challenge

Pumptrack turned out pretty good after a half day of rain. We were up there in the afternoon for practice in wet muddy conditions, so it got pushed back till the evening session. After a lot of hussle from the staff and some sun, the dirt dried out and the race was prime.

Turnout was huge, people surrounding the arena, stadium lights, live broadcast, etc. Little different format than last year, without the platform in the middle. pursuit format instead. Think all they needed was a flashing light for which side won the race, so the fans could tell, but other than that , pretty fun!!. Looking forward to a track next year hopefully with a few more tech lines and turns, that would be sweet.

crankworx dual slalom 2011

WHISTLER, BC Started Crankworx out properly this year with a win in the slalom! Woo. Mitch took the victory as well vs. Sic Mic. Gatto came 2nd in the ladies match, Manon Carpenter 3rd,,, Love slalom, and the little red double does too!! Thanks to Transition, Red Bull, Oakley, our co-sponsors, Bryn for coming out to support (his first major outing since his femur break, 3rd day on crutches), and of course the fans. Dirt.tv has the vid... More updates later... We pinned it back to seattle to get bryn home. I'll be back up for Air DH on the TR250.

crankworx schedule

I'm keeping a fairly mellow schedule this year for CX, just gonna do 4 events on small bikes. Double, bank, and 250 for A-Line. Gonna bring Bryn up on fri & sat for slalom action and to hang out, then commute home. Hopefully the sprinter will be back form the east coast for the later part of the week, returning on tues afternoon.. Dual Slalom A-Line Pump Track Giant Slalom

http://update.whistlerbike.com/2011/07/12/crankworx-trail-closures/

home again

SEATTLE, WASo nice to come home to family. Mom, the pup, Bryn , and I had a sunny day on the lake in the boat:)

It's Been a month since I saw Bryn, and he took his first crutch assisted steps today in rehab!! He's doing so much better, using his arm, getting around, driving. Not healed yet as the femur break was kinda complex, but doing really good with flexibility , range of motion and all that. Still a bit of pain tho. He lost his ass muscle on the right side, pretty funny all flabby, but on track. 5-6 more weeks till proper walking hopefully. Had a MRI today- news tomorrow.

Gona enjoy these 3 days home, then off to whistler on friday. From there 6 more days home, then Europe ifor 5 weeks.

windham finals

Not really a successful race run in WIndham:( I felt amazing in practice leading up to finals, but was a bit nervous, made a couple big mistakes, survived, but was just not at full potential. So I'll just be patient, work on braking efficiently, and try again.

Some good things to come out of this were: more experience, and I moved up a spot in the ranks to 10th , which is a protected position for qualifying at the next round.

Last couple weeks have been difficult. I'm loving the riding, but had a few big crashes and am really just sore and disappointed. Miss having bryn with me, this solo campaign isn't really ideal for a first timer, but I'm doing my best. Lucky to have marshy on the wrench, and scotty as my coach helping out.

It is my first official world cup year, but I hate losing!!. Not an easy pill to swallow for someone like me. Guess that is what will continue to drive my improvement.

Rachel ended up winning the women's class. Pinner off the brakes. She seems to step it up in the races, which is pretty cool. Pugin too, is riding well.

I went up to watch the men's final. American support to the max, flags waving, music pumpin, cheering, etc. Our boys did pretty good, with Gwin obviously dominating, but luke strobel in 15 and Bubba Warren (cody's little Bro)  getting 23rd at his 2nd world cup.

The whole Gee and Minnaar Battle is a bit funny, seems like the younger guys are less caught up in all the overall title worry, and are just out there to ride fast. peaty, who is rad, was 2nd and back up to where he should be in the ranks. He took the sign Peaty's plunge, the spot he crashed last year, up on the podium with him. Real funny.

Windham, NY - World CUp

I finished 6th in the qualifier yesterday after a bit of a weather delay with the thunder and a few sprinkles. Track is running fast. Extra day in the extra dry with xc racing going on. Practice today was fun, just getting everything dialed in with the dust. Race day tomorrow- sunday!! Ready to go.. Thx to dirt for the photos and coverage:)

WOMENS QUALIFYING

Race Day in Quebec

Yesterday was nice and sunny, mostly dry besides a downpour during practice. Stage was set, track was running fast, no complaints really. Race run didn't exactly go as smooth as I was hoping for.... going good up top, till the turn into the hip under the lift. My from wheel slid out just before the take off, as I was about to pull up, and it was nasty. My body cleared the jump, bike hit the front of the landing ,  and I went tumbling down the hill near the berm, few cartwheels, kinda dizzy, then. Had to find my bike from up higher and carry on with a numb shoulder and a a bit dizzy. Almost went over the bars a few times after that not being able to hold on. Still managed 12th? and it's a bit of a miracle I'm not hurt, sore as hell, but no damage. gnarly high speed crash. FOr sure a little stiff.  Mt.St.Anne wasn't very kind to me this week, even though I loved her speed and technical sections. Can't wait to finish a run:( speed feels good. no more #13, up to #11, kicked that curse at least.

So stoked for Brooke McDonald, he is on it, and such a beast:) Seen him take a few slams and still pull everything together. Troy Brosnan's run was amazing, running at full potential as just a little guy 17 years old and growing still. Josh Bryceland, dunno how he pulled off the 2nd, so pinned obviously. Super weird to see Minnaar go down while on point for the win. Gee too with a flat. These guys are pushing so hard to beat eachother. Anyway, good stuff.