CRANKWORX wed

WHISTLER, BCBeen a few days, but another race day today. This time Air DH down a trail called A-Line. It's mostly all jumps, kicky jumps that were not really meant for full speed, but its a good chance for some to work on scrubs and staying as low as possible. Being that I don't really ever pop jumps or anything, and am racer through and through, it's right in my little zone. The only thing that makes this trail pretty difficult, is remembering which jumps to break check so you don't die, and pedalling in every place possible for almost 5 minutes. I guess when you come to Whistler and ride this trail, it all seems pretty cruisy, but let me assure you, I'll be near blackout status racing this by the end.

There was rain a couple days ago, so pretty good traction yesterday. Sun is out today though and about a billion people have been riding this trail, so it's gonna get "drier than Ghandi's thong", nice?. Some people have 6" bikes, with single crown fork, semi slick tires, etc. and their hands are wrecked. I found that even on a dh bike, I gotta check to make sure everything is tight each run. There are serious chattery rough sections and holes in the turns. Not bumps that are, say, breaking bumps before turns in predictable spots. THey are in the exits of turns, or at the apex. I honestly have no idea how these holes even form, It's crazy. Bike parks.

Slalom Finals

Gee Atherton and Micayla Gatto won the Slalom last night. Good head to head racing, lot of tight battles to the wire. We ended up having only 4 ladies qualify. I had awesome practice and qualifying, then come race time, having to sit around I was just off my game, dunno what happened- made a mistake, and went to the small final for 3rd. Kinda weak, but losing sort of pissed me off enough to restore my motivation.  Gatto won some cash and was all psyched, so congrats to her.

Mitch and Gee were in the final, and I think if Mitch would've stayed up he was in it for the win. Bryn took 6th, we think. He was riding so smooth, super fast. Got knocked out by mitch in the round of 8. Slalom is the best type of gated racing, hands down.

Crankworx- Saturday Slalom

- WHISTLER, BCSlalom is the first event to kick off Crankworx!!!. It is one of the best racing event here, in my opinion:); most people enjoy competing in it a lot, full cast of pros, fans can spectate the full course, follow the action, etc. They rebuild the course from scratch each year too, and this year the course is extremely tight and a little tech. You gotta find good rhythm to sinc up the turns. After yesterday's scorcher/ blowout, today has been mostly rainy, misty, nicely watered,,,Much better conditions.

Was a little surprised to see our little buddy Mitch Ropelado racing. He broke his collarbone at nationals a few weeks ago, if you remember. Anyway, got that all plated up 2 weeks ago, and is ripping this track apart on a single speed, single brake, kinda set up. Pretty rad, but what a maniac, qualified 4th by only a couple tenths. He actually had a crash this morning in training, landed on a rock. No problem with the collarbone, but I had to help him butterfly band-aid a big gash on his back.

Last year's winner- Kyle Strait, was seen with a cast on his hand, bumming. I know he was really looking forward to this event too, he  will have to wait till next year to reclaim that title.

Lots of international talent, should be good tonight!!!. Men's quali results go like this:

MENS SLALOM QUALI 1. Sic Mic 2. Stevie SMith 3. Gee atherton 4. Mitch Ropelado 5. BRYN ATKINSON :) 6. Lopes 7. ? Prokop?? 8. Troy Brosnan

WOMEN"S QUALI 1. JILL 2. Buhly 3. Ragot 4. Gatto

Whistler bound

WHISTLER, BCCrankworx time is upon us. Heading a few hrs north up to whistler, for the greatest Canadian event of the year. Bryn is back, so he and I will be racing about 5 events each over the next couple weeks. Slalom, giant slalom, pumptrack, a-line, and Canadian open.... Crankworx.com

Transition dealer days

BELLINGHAM, WABright n early monday morning, Lars and I built up our downhill bikes, and set off for some awesome riding in the N-dub with a few of the domestic transition bike dealers and Tr guys from the office. Dubbed - summer camp, these days are full of riding, BBQ, plenty of laughs. I had the best time, mostly super pumped to be back on home soil riding epic trails, and around people who just love to ride. Transitionbikes.com

Crankworx Co dh finals

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!.

Italy world cup

I'll know when I wake up, but good luck to bryn At the World Cup in Italy. Dh finals are tomorrow. Freecaster.tv at like 7am. Go get em!!!!'

Crankworx CO Saturday

WINTERPARK, CODh practice today as well as Slopestyle. Being that we are at a mountain resort with a bike park, there were so many people around the venue today. Bunch of familys, people riding bikes, spectators, etc., so on that note this venue is pretty good. I think if the dh course ended at the fireroad section about 4 min into the run, I'd be having a great time, but it continues at least another 3-4 min after that.

Top half of the course is actually really good and challenging. Some steep rooty rocky bits, skatey turns, traversing shelves, rocks, etc. It's just the bottom that is draining the joy outta this place. Really really really unmotivating. Oh well. I had fun working on sections that I needed to. Trying to save some energy for tomorrow. Have only done like 8 or 9 runs total, but should be good. I wouldve thought that more Colorado locals would be here, maybe they knew how painful this track is to race, dunno. Either way, riding is riding and that is all the reward we need:)

Slopestyle just finished up. We were watching the jumbo-tron from a nice shady spot until the wind got all crazy, cam McCaul broke his femur on a front flip, few other guys struggled too, so then they delayed the event. Our viewing spot was shady, but I was getting really annoyed by all these xc bandits standing right infront us, and the screen, Lycra-ed out looking all gross, also still wearing helmets eating lunch. Put some pants on and take your helmets off for crying out loud, arrghhh. Had to leave.

Anywho, Luckily for the slopestyle guys the wind died down, but Lars and I were already on our way to a tasty sandwich spot in town. Semenuk was pulling some flawless runs, and has really nice style, so the victory was his. Guess one guy did a double tailwhip on a big gap, but that wasn't enough.

Dh quali and race tomorrow, on a plane that night, transition dealer days mon and tues!! Then crankworx in whistler!! Can't wait!!!!!'

On a little side note, I was bombing down this open grassy section, and a bee nailed me at full speed right on the tender vain in my arm they usually draw blood from!! Such precision, missed my elbow pad by about a mm. Straight injected venom, nice.

Crankworx Co Friday

WINTERPARK, COWell, no rain most of today. Slopestyle course dried up enough from yesterday to get qualifying done. We had dh practice at the same time, but I overheard top 10- most of the big names were in there. 1.Zink 2.berrecloth 3.watts 4.mccaul 5.Mitch chubey 6.Sam pilgram 7.soderstrom 8.Amir kabbani 9.gullevich 10.Paul bass. That's the cut.. Hopefully the weather holds and those guys get to run their final tomorrow.

On the Downhill front, part of the couse is good, and the entire bottom half is not. I was so unmotivated to ride the bottom half, just flat and a ton of effort, so flat my back was sore. 7 min course at altitude. I confronted the uci about shortening the track to fit the 2-5 minute official rule, and of course there is a clause, weak. Gotta make due I suppose. Tomorrow is a new day, and my attitude will change once the pace picks up. Didn't make us happy that the couse has been open all week for people to poach.

Only 4 runs in, it'll tak

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.