Cats-Kill or Cat-skill?

PLATTEKILL SKI RESORT, NYCatskill mountains are NW of NYC a bit, but it seems like a world away. Small little isolated towns with an old saying "When you have two rocks for every dirt, you are in the Catskills." Dunno. Country folk love old sayings, and mowing lawns it would seem:) Lotta grass everywhere. It's been so wet though that the riding lawnmowers are resting. I still don't understand why more east coasters don't get goats, maybe I can be a goat sales person in my next life- pitch sustainabilly-ty? Bad joke.

We are in Margaretville this week staying in an old colonial house with a stream out the back, pretty nice and restful. Not much to do really; Done a few laps of the town, rode around, found a gravel parking lot and made some turns and ruts:) The Venue at Plattekill is a familiar one from last year. We raced this exact track even. Went up the lift to go peep everything out, primo dirt today for the track walk. It has been pouring and pouring, but with half a day of sun, perfection.

We are ready to get after it tomorrow for practice. They changed a few minor things, like in the connector sections. It's nice to come back to here with more experince racing DH to directly compare. Wish Tracy Moseley was here, and Buhly, but I'll have my chance in Scotland to battle T-Mo again.Buhly is doing just 4x at World CUps. Maybe the US open for DH? Dunno.

Turnout- Trek is here again- Gwin, Leov, Neko, Bryn is here and Lars and I for TR , Heard rumour of Giant making a cameo?Riffle and neethling?, Specialized US riders Keene and Brad Benedict, Team DDR ie COdy Warren, Bubba Warren, JD, Memmelar, etc. Yeti National team; Immer , Eliot, and Richie Rude. Joey Schusler is healing up and almost ready to race. He's been stationed on the Joey-Cam filming the yeti boys for now. Um, Brian Buel and that crew, Grahme Pitts was winning pre practice today, KHS cronies were "saddled up". All ride Austin. Just kinda the USusal USA crew of fun and talented gravity bicycle riders.

Good vibe at these events. Hopefully we get some kind of relief form the weather. I have not raced a dry race since Windham last year!!! Even snowed on me in Australia!! Dry is a luxury.

Full moon?

Our Euro mechanic Marshy has this theory about full moons affecting rain patterns. Claims it always rains 4 days surrounding the moon. I question that by wondering if that applies to say, arizona or LA where rain is scarce, but in the mountains, it seems like he may be onto something. I personally think, I bring my own moon to events, and the rain follows me!!:) Port angeles goes off.

Pro GRT#2 FInals

HYLAND MTB PARK NORTHFIELD, NH Today was completely different to our previous practice days,,, real wet, slippery, slower and more challenging to stay upright. I had a few spills, sliding in all different directions. Learned to keep my front end light over that stuff, but rocks facing the opposite way or polished roots are tricky to manuver. Saved em all pretty good to not really have done any damage to myself or bike, but I think most people struggled with traction on the rocks. East coast has unique terrain, I kept dry tires on as did most everyone, for grip. Lars modified some cut spikes and said they worked good too. The trick was to kind of ride it like it was dry, but to be smart in places where it could go sour. Worked out, pulled off a win!! $1,500 richer too!! THx Hyland.

So we had a couple practice runs, then quali, a break, and finals. Over that time it went from wet, to monsoon wet. Downpours non stop all afternoon.Kept the bugs away, which was kinda nice I guess.

Good practice to go through the motions of changing weather, terrain, tear off pulling (which was successful this time), and finding traction.

I had a pretty good quali time , with a fall. Then my final felt better but was slower. Ground was of course way more saturated, but I was happy to make my final fairly mistake free. It's a tough call to push too hard in these conditions, just kinda have to let it unfold however sometimes. 1.Jill 2.Jo Peterson 3.Lauren D.

In men's class, Lars, my teammate,  did really good, 5th in quali, 7th overall for the day. Trek dominated though, Gwin- fresh off a world cup win in RSA killed quali with a 2.18. In the end though Neko, his teammate, and east coast l0cal won the final with a 2.20, gwin 2nd, Leov 3rd. Curtis Keen, pulled some consistency with 4th, Cody warren 5th, Richie Rude 6th, lars 7.

The people who own and operate Hyland Bike Park were great hosts. THis mountain has a lot of variety, worth checking out, and is the only Bike specific chair lift operated park.

Pro GRT Practice days- NH

NEW HAMPSHIRECouple days of practice and still having fun, getting 'er dialed in. The track is changing a lot, but this rain is really gonna mix things up tomorrow for race day. Bit of a debate on tire choice on the east coast. I rode some spikes today but didn't really like em on the rocks and stuff, wasn't sloppy or mucky yet though, just moist. Tomorrow is a new day. Wish us luck.

This is a really good track, fairly technical the whole way. 2 or 3 flat sections but the rest has a good slope and some flow, rocky everywhere. Roots have come to the top too and getting polihed. There are some wide sections with line options, but the key is kinda carrying momentum along the straights afterwards..

Hard to resist scratching the bazillion bug bites per leg too. Rampant flies and mosquitos out here, seen a lot of bug masks and candles. Just found two ticks crawling across my stuff too. Sketchy. Rain has settled them a bit, but if the sun comes out and it gets all steamy, man, it's gonna be insect war out here.

Lars and I are holding it down out here in the east. Bryn is racing in Port ANgeles this weekend and will be out here with us for the next race in NY and the us open.

Few pics from our homies working for Decline Magazine. Coverage at declinemagazine.com

Pro GRT #2- New Hampshire

HYLAND MTB PARK, NHHere we are back in the North East... Seems like it wasn't too long ago we were just here, but always pretty fun. Hyland is a bit of a destination MTB spot here in New Hampshire, the park has the biggest Slopestyle section I have seen. It was featured in NWD 10, for those of you who watch bike vids. Anyway, quite a few dh trails and other stuff. Nice lodge and facilities. Super buggy here though, almost as bad as Ft.bill. Good thing I exported/imported skin so soft bug spray to combat these savages.

I did a few random dh runs on my 6" trail bike and found it pretty good on the blue trails. DH race course is a bit tougher though, has some rough spots, lots of rocks, g outs, and would for sure use a dh bike to go full speed. I only walked it, but it looked real good, super fast. Here is a helmet cam video from aaron chase if you're interested. http://www.pinkbike.com/news/HMBP-Pro-GRT-Course-Helmet-Cam-with-Aaron-Chase-2011.html

Practice tomorrow... Later..

Red Bull stack

Love red bull and AirTrix for a beautiful collection of art. :) wish I had more space and nice shelves to do em justice.

Fresh eSoles

Just wanted to say thanks to eSoles for making the best custom footbeds for me!! Been using their ePro cycling specific, and casual fitness footbeds for about 3 years, and wouldn't go without!! These stand out because of their 3D TruCapture® , a patented biodynamic air pillow scan of your foot, which gets a true alignment, not just a mold of you foot. Bunch of pro road cyclists use these, golfers, olympic medalists, runners, even Kanye West knows what's up... So there you go, If ya can get to one of the Kiosks, these are the go. Check their site. esoles.com

Next up...

Been home for a bit now, but only a couple days left till we go on the road for 10-11 weeks straight. New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Scotland, Austria, Tahoe, Colorado, Quebec, Windham NY, Whistler...

West coast tripper

Been on a bit of a road trip the last couple weeks throughout california. Nothing makes me more happy than riding new spots every day and seeing homies. The ol sprinter is the best thing in the world!!! like a mobile studio garage apartment, got everything I need:)

So after the dirt series camp, I hung out in Santa Cruz for a few days. Parked on cliff drive one day, had the door open with an ocean view, wireless from the neighbors, and could ride my bike over to a tasty taco spot:) There is also some awesome pump tracks in the area. ET (evan Turpen) and I were hitting a new track per day. He is a bit of a freak show on a pump track, I made a video if ya wanna see.. http://vimeo.com/22978928 We both only had our slalom bikes- doubles, so pumped em up to 220psi in the rear and pumped pump tracks all day...

Also did some dh runs in Santa cruz with Brad, Amado , and Katie. I only have the TR 250 from sea otter, but it is riding so nice on a variety of terrain!! Then cruised up to Nevada City to see scotty, and we continued north to ride at Chico with some new friends. Awesome day up there, really good DH tracks, guess we got the first ride of the season on em. Thanks to Kyle Warner and friends for showing us the ways. And in case you were wondering, Scotty still shreds!!! Hits everything pretty much first or second run, fearless:)

I'm now in Ashland, trying to figure out where to go:) quick ride somewhere, then kinda heading home. It's been cold and wet in seattle, so I wasn't really in any hurry. Too happy on the road with all my stuff and bikes, almost better than home if Bryn were here. Good variety on the west coast though!! Helps to have friends in almost every good town.

Dirt Series Camp

SANTA CRUZ, CA Just finished up a big weekend of guest coaching at the Dirt Series camp in Santa Cruz. Nice to have some sunny weather and meet people from different walks of life. Helping fellow riders is a pretty satisfying thing to do, give back a little, but it's so rare the opportunity comes up with the schedule.

Hardest part for me is just talking so much. It;s all day instruction for 2 days from 8am -8pm usually. Lots of effort and brain power, but Always a fun experience. I really like spending time with the other coaches, and seeing people improve under my guidance:) Thanks to all my participants, it was a blast!! 50 women in attendance- sold out ever year!! Yeah santa cruz.

Dirt Series has the best thing going, fundamentals, trail rides, time at the local shop, learning, guided rides, bike fit, etc, dinner, coffee, etc...  Every single person walks away learning something, including me. Perspective. :)

Taught a private pump track lessons on one day , jealous?? sign up next year...

Thanks to Candace for running such a rad program, Kathy Pruitt for letting me stay at her pad, and epicenter for letting a massive Transition van park at the shop all weekend:) Trek sponsors the series, but I had no choice, sprinter is my ride...

Otter DH finals

MONTEREY, CA Facebook is pretty dialed to upload photos, but here are a few rippers to tell the epic tale of the death sprints known at the Sea Otter Classic DH. Track is fun, but it has a lot of flat sections, and some uphills to match the down bits.

Jared Graves and Melissa Buhl won pro DH races today. I came 2nd, just a bit off on my lines, needed to press harder. Buhly is a bit of a champ here at the otter, she has won this event several times against the best in the world, so I'll take the deuce and build from here for the next one:) Miranda 3rd. Mens podium. Jared smashed it on his little 4x duel suspension bike. He was one of the only ones to run this set up, a rough ride no doubt, but he has been known to do DH runs flat out on a hard tail, and is more than suited to this event. He was strong to the line. Neethling with 2nd, Timmer, then Bryn for 4th, Eric Carter 5th. Lars and Miranda straight face lurker.

Pretty sure I only saw Bryn charging this massive triple, but it was rad, fans were well impressed...

Theo Loved it!!

My pal Kathy Pruitt, was here spectating. She was hurt pretty badly last summer and is taking sometime off from DH to do school and stuff. Good to see a homie back in good form.

Pain of winning..

Otter Slalom finals

MONTEREY, CA Jared Graves and I took the Sea Otter Slalom Victories!!! Guess this was the first slalom win here for Jared, my second.

Slalom day is always the best of the otter. There should be more of this format,,, fans love it, you ride your own race, anything can happen, good match ups, etc. Anyway...Felt pretty low key compared to years past with all the World Cup guys and girls skipping on this race to be in South Africa early for next week's world cup.

Got plenty of slaloming in for one day. practice and quali this morning, little nap, then into the finals. Poor Kyle Strait was also doing the speed and style event, which was piss poor planning by whoever scheduled things. They also had DH practice going on, but no one who raced slalom could really afford to go do it in the little break that I used for a nap:)

Quali was pretty good though, I safely posted the fastest time for the ladies- top 8 advanced, while Jared and Lopes tied their times in the Men's field of 32. That set the tone for the brackets and race match ups. They pair fastest with the slowest and start eliminating by head to head match ups from there. Red course , blue course, combined time differentials advance.

The track changed a bit, but held fairly solid as the sun was out all day. Wind was more of a factor in the finals than changing traction, actually pretty strong for finals, felt the shift from a tail wind to a cross wind in the rhythm sections. Gonna always have a Few big holes in corners form the natural springs, and crumbling dirt down into the turns to make it a Bit slippery. Boggles my mind though how they tear this course down every year and build it pretty much exactly the same. Would be cool to spruce up the flow a bit, but whatever, fun course to ride once a year...

I was feeling pretty good all day. Defiantly been noticing how my downhill skills have been elevating my game. Bars are wider and higher, position more off the back, turning better, spotting smoother arching lines. It's fun for me to still be gaining ground. Anyway. Had 8 ladies today, so not as many sprints as normal, which was nice for the dh sprint-fest tomorrow. I was anticipating a buhly head to head battle in the final, but she had a crash in qualifying and we met in the Semi. I used up quite a bit of sprint in that round treating it like a pressure final, which pused me into a few little mistakes in the final vs Johanna peterson, but all good. Still managed the W.

In the boys rounds, the top 8 were all super exciting to watch, but Lopes vs jared was always gonna be the heat. Those guys were pretty even up top, but jared managed a big gap on the last straight. Then in the second run, jared had it and Lopes couldn't quite hang down the final stretch, shut it down. Talking to Lopes afterwards, he said he used up a lot of his energy in the round before finals vs danny, and just didn't have it for Jared this time. Doesn't help that he raced short track yesterday, but he was still flying out there:) Typical smooth , pedaling everywhere.

Bryn made it to the small finals, he had jared in the semis, so ended up battling it out with Danny Hart in the small final. They were really close, bryn won the first run, then danny laid down some powerhouse sprint to squeak out the bronze.

Big day tomorrow, we are watching Seattle Supercross right now on tv, then off to bed. Ol Strobel was there live, punk. Big day of DH tomorrow! Excited to see how we manage.

Big thanks today to Transition for making such a great feeling slalom bikes, and fox for tuning them up for us. All of out parts and sponsors have been great!!! TR

Otter DH practice

Check out my tuck in the high speed section on Vitalmtb.com:) Practice went well today. The 250 is the best sea otter bike of all time, loving it. SO nimble and light, eats up the chatter. Stoked!!

2011 Jett Jerseys!!

Well after a small customs delay, our jett jerseys are finally here!! just in time. Slalom race tomorrow.

CHAMP

My little riding buddy back in oz, Joel Willis, just won NSW State Champs!! Just wanted to say congrats to him!!! Good to see he's keeping up his end at home.:) .

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Otter-y

Monterey, CA First day at the venue today. Kind of a condensed Sea Otter schedule this year, whoever scheduled the practice stuff must have been kinda new, but in a way it's better. Thurs set up, Fri dh practice, Sat slalom all day and race, then sunday race DH, 4 days get in get out.

Lots of other stuff going on though for cat 1-2-3 amateurs practice, product launches, kids zones, , New bikes, fresh gear , bike set ups, media guys all over, etc.

Leigh Donovan is here with her family, so her daughter grace, Leigh and I were out riding the little zones, checking it all out..

Sun was out and the tracks are pretty dusty, windy too, so it'll be dry as a bone if this keeps up. Dunno what else to tell you except the double and the 250 (my bikes) are ready to go, and feeling good!!! Spent the day tweaking them out, getting dialled. Thx Justin, firsty n Rich:). Can't wait. Thank you to all my great sponsors!! TR, Fox, Crankbrothers, oakley, shimano, Kore, Maxxis, e.13, 5.10, odi, tld, Jett clothing, Jaguire, cane creek, Cadence Works ti bolts, park tool, cti, etc...

DH Course got a bit of a face lift. I wouldn't say anything super duper major, but for sure better than it has been as far as better transitions to flow, turns, rerouted bottom. THis is not a place where technical ability is gonna win it for you though. All 6-7 corners are pretty bermed up and straight forward. There is one off cambered bit that will be very slick come sunday afternoon, But guaranteed there will be suffering from the sprints! Especially to the line, last bit of track has a major flat sprint. Hard to say how much better it will be, I haven't ridden it. Maybe ask team Giant who had pre session to film it. Looks like they got it down.

Here's a little Cat 1 slalom acton shot for you, wooo!!!

otter bound!! WA-OR-CA Roadtrip

Quick turn around! Got outta Port Angeles around 6, stopped for a lovely dinner with my auntie and uncle in Bremerton, slept, woke up cleaned our gear, did laundry, repacked the entire sprinter, drove 6 hrs and are now in Bend, Oregon!!. Am slalom here in bend with a few of our favorite locals!! then off to Monterey for Sea Otter. Later

Pro grt #1- finals

PORT ANGELES, WA First National race of the season done and, well mudded, cause there was no dust:) Weather conditions are a part of life, and it seems to always rain on sundays. No matter, came away with a big win on home soil and a great start to the year!!

Pretty long day of sitting around. One practice run at 9 am this morning, and I didn't race till 2:55pm. A lot of the cat 1-2-3 classes had dry conditions, but by about 12 it was pouring. Not that big of a deal in the NW cause the soil loves it, but kinda a big deal for visibility. Rain in your face is never a good thing while trying to pin it.

I had a few tear offs ready to go, pulled one before my start and they all came off. I'm So hopeless at pulling tear offs grr. Anyway, had a decent run going but felt less aggressive than I would have liked to be. Good enough for a victory though, so that's always a plus. Miranda was behind me, then Katherine short. The more full runs the better at this stage, it's on like donkey kong:)

In the men's field, team giant took 1-2-3 again, danny hart, neethling, duncan. 16year old richie rude took an amazing 4th on his new Yeti ride- junior shredder!!. Bryn came 5th but hit a tree - he's fine but disappointed. Lars had speed all week, but kinda had some squirrels in his britches- got squirrely:). Strobel crashed yesterday and hurt his shoulder a bit, not good, but will be ok, 12th.

Track was defiantly slower Rollin at the top, ruts were kinda deep throughout . Dunno, still pretty grippy, still on maxxis minions.

Seemed like the hecklers were doing their jobs. Megaphones, cowbells, mooners. http://www.vimeo.com/22224435

Funny as hell, kirt Voreis bought a cardboard lifesize cutout of the vampire characters from twilight, which was based here- There is actually a few fan shops in town. Anyway, sporadic placement, but vampires were hiding in all sorts of crazy locations on the track. Scared me a few times, especially when the sun went away...

Big thanks to our coach- Scotty Sharples of Race Brain coaching. He will be with Bryn and I at most of the major events!! For me, I perform better with his help. Extra eyes, knowledge, experience and wisdom!!! Scotty is the best in the Biz...

Pic of Lars shredding the bottom of the track..

Pro GRT #1- Quali

Photos: 1. Bryn shredding, 2. One of the owners of Transition/ media wizard Kevin Menard, 3. Estes- the MC, 4. Finishline area, 5. Danny DH hart- winner of Quali

PORT ANGELES, WA Another primo day out here in PA. Clouds have rolled in though and the forecast is not looking good for race day, but for quali we all had perfect dirt. Lift lines were a bit long this morning, but moved fairly quick. THere are a some fresh new sections that are kinda tricky. Track is sooo good though, just hauling ass and finding flow, better track than last years' event. Guess they maxed out on participants too, had to turn a few away, there are over 400 riders.

Team Giant took the 1/2/3 top spots in pro men's quali; Danny Hart 2.50.04, Duncan Riffle, Neethling- Little surprising, but good for them. Bryn was 4th, lars was 9th. Luke strobel was 24 with a big crash. Eliot Jackson was the fastest Yeti guy today . CHris Del Bosco is back to MTB after dominating Skiier cross and being an olympian/ champ at that. Bubba Warren was the fastest junior. Q was the fastest cat 1 Master:) , I won women's pro, Miranda 2nd, Jamie 3rd.

There are a bunch of photos on my facebook page form each day. Check it... QUALI - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=1513875482&aid=2111176

DAY 1 - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2111019&id=1513875482