This will be relatively short as I'm relegated to one hand.  Crankworx is by far my favorite event all year long.  Great mountain, a week of riding and racing, catching up with friends, but the Garbanzo DH has not been nice to me!  Three years ago it was a broken right hand during the race and this year its a fractured right wrist which required resetting, surgery, and 12 pins and a plate to put back together.

While my season is done, I'll be out to a race or two to support the team and recruit for next season.  Remember, keep it rubber side down.

Just got back from a day of riding with Nick, Boe, and Tyler out at Port Angeles.  We got to PA at about 10 a.m. to clouds, but no rain, yet.  We caught up with Lars, Scott, Ian, and a few others that were doing some trail work.  They've done some great work on the trails!

Before getting some runs in, we helped Lars build the whoop section in preparation for the first Fluidride Cup on April 4-6th.  The whoop section is just before you enter lower Pro Course and right after a new double coming down from Moto Guzzi.  While it's going to cause more than a few experts, semi-pros, and pros to think twice, it's a great addition to the course. 

Once we finished the whoop section it was off to do a few runs.  Of course, it was also time for the rain to start!  We got in 6-8 runs in total while the rain continue to progressively increase.  In total, I think I wore goggles on 2 of the runs.  I'd clean them off and after the top part of White Knuckle, they'd be ruined.  White Knuckle is high speed and a fender would've gone a long way to helping the goggles last.  While the conditions were wet and a bit slick, the course really holds up well to the conditions of the pacific northwest. 

Riding with the three gents was great too.  Towards the end of the day, we all put in a few faster paced runs and pushed it a bit.  Felt really good and pushed it past a few limits here and there.  Regardless of the weather, it was a great day trip!

As previously mentioned, I'm not going to make the mistake I did last year. With that in mind, I'm out riding the Santa Cruz V10 early and often this season. I'm finally starting to get back into the groove.

I'm feeling pretty good on the bike, especially considering where I was last year this time not to mention that I'm on the 'Steve Peat Training Program' which has me throwing a few back more often than not.  We'll see how it works out come Sea Otter.  I've got a feeling I'll pay the price there given all the pedaling.  Regardless, I'm having more fun riding now than I have a quite awhile.

Did a bit of riding out at Du-of-all on Saturday and then a bit at South Seatac on Sunday. Looks like the DNR is trying to put the end to the shooting and riding at Du-of-all.  About 2 miles from the bottom of the trail, they've installed a new gate.  Not to be deterred, we rode the 2 miles, then hiked the 20 minutes just to get to the top for run numero uno.  Plenty of exercise just to get some practice!  Conditions were a bit slimier than a few weeks ago.  Not too bad though. 

South Seatac was pleasantly quiet on Sunday thanks to the PA Shuttle day.  Would've liked to get over to PA, but can't complain.  Nate, Ty, and I got a good 2-3 hours of riding in and got reacquainted with the jumps.  Click the photo above for a summary of the day.

About 5 years ago, I decided it was time to learn dirt jumps.  I got a 20" bike and headed to the jumps at the south end of Greenlake in Seattle.  While it would've been great to learn on an intermediate line, Greenlake only has a beginner and expert line.  C'est la vie.  At the time, I didn't know any other place to go.  After a visit or two, I got the sack up to hit the expert line.  I nailed the first jump two or three times and started to feel pretty good.  That's when disaster struck.  I landed front wheel high, slipped a pedal, and did $1K worth of damage to my shin.  

Fast forward 2-3 weeks later... I'm out on my Santa Cruz Chameleon at Tapeworm hitting some basic dirt jump-esque jumps and I sample the dirt yet again.  This time it was a ninja roll after sliding the front tire in slime between doubles.  At this point, I decided dirt jumps weren't for me and there was nothing to be gained from learning how to do them.

Fast forward 4 years, I've been getting the bug again.  About a month ago, Nate and I got to the lifts at Whistler a big early (yes, it was my fault Nate, the lifts don't open till 10!).  We decided to kill some time over at the Whistler dirt jumps.  I hit some of the easier intermediate jumps and started to get a feel for it.  I vowed to come back before the years end and dedicate some time to doing a few more of them.

Today was that day.  I went over around 7 p.m. and by 8 p.m. I had the complete intermediate run dialed.  What a rush to finally get the rhythm; no question a mental block all these years.  The first few runs were completely sped-rific.  I was casing the most basic table tops and bailing out of the jumps I'd done the previous time.  It took awhile, but I finally got the flow going again and was able to nail all the ones I'd previously done back in July.  It was getting late and I was getting a bit tired and decided that I'd get one good run on each of the entries and then call it.  All of a sudden I uncorked the last 2 of 3 jumps that I'd not hit to-date.  I went back and did a few more runs, nailing the intermediate line end-to-end. 

Next task - eliminate my 'racer style' and hit some of the expert line jumps.

Here's the evidence.  Would've been more evidence, but we kinda forgot to charge the battery in the camera.  Doh!!

• It's a jump machine.  My first run down Crank It Up had several flat landings.  Unlike the V10 which stays glued to the ground (as one desires for a dh race rig), the VP Free simply launches.
• It's agile.  This goes hand-in-hand with it being a jump machine.  It feels like you're riding rails through the turns too though.  I've been practicing some different body positions the past few days based on watching J.D. Swanguen and Sam Hill and this bike is confidence inspiring.
• It's not a V10.  I rode Garbanzo today, namely Original Sin to Goat's Gully to In Deep to Fatrobat.  Original Sin wasn't that big a deal, but Goat's Gully was gnarly on this bike.  When you're riding the V10 thru there, you simply don't realize how steep and rough it is.  With a steeper head angle and less suspension, you do. 
  

I'm back in Whistler for the next couple of weeks.  Look forward to a bunch of posts re: trails in and around Whistler.  I'm looking at PHD, Comfortably Numb (an IMBA Epic), and have talked with the boys at Tantalus in Squamish about getting a some runs in down there.

We're also starting to work on the 2008 version of Project 529...

Okay, here's the scoop on last weekend's Willamette Pass Series Finals, also the Oregon State Championships.

- Watching rookies rock it!  One of the goals of Project 529 is to (re)introduce people to mountain biking.  There's lots of 9-to-5ers who have a moutain bike in the rafters of their garage, collecting dust. This year we've gotten a few more folks out of the trails and a couple have even come out to race.  Carl is one of our newest members, he's been hitting up some of the Wednesday night XC rides and has also joined the Gravity team for races at Hood and Willamette.  He's just purchased a Santa Cruz V10 in preparation for a full season next year.  Point here... it's been awesome seeing folks like Carl get stoked on riding and racing their bike.  It's gotta be one of the more rewarding experiences.
- Carl, Clinton, and Nate's definition of country music.  This one is hiliarious.  Carl breaks into "... elvira...", Clinton responds with a "... chattanooga...", and Nate, well, Nate breaks into sound effects along the lines of "... bowchickabowwow...".  Not sure about all you folks, but both Carl and I delineate between country and porn. 
- Clinton's great borat story.  Driving to the races with friends is part of every weekend race adventure.  Sometimes, the drives get long and can be quite boring.  It's important that each person bring some good stories to the table to help pass the time.  On this trip, I did not.  My borat story went something like this... "I heard this dude at work quote borat perfectly.  It stopped me in my tracks.  I forget the quote though".  Good story, huh!?!
- The demographic of a downhill event.  While sitting at the awards for this race, we collectively noticed something.  If you don't have a tattoo, you're an outsider.  I figure that the percentage of people without a tattoo was about 10-20%.  This bullet point is as good as my borat story.

Today was the shortest day of riding at Whistler, ever, for me.  Arguably one of the most frustrating too!  I went out around 4:30 in the afternoon, figured I'd get 2 hours on Garbanzo and an hour on the lower half of the mountain... 

I made it all the way to the top of Garbanzo.  I even made it down Original Sin.  Of course, I got a wake-up call in Original Sin when I went sideways off into the bushes in the rock section, but no big deal, that stuff happens.  I went into Goat's Gully, mostly good.  I stopped after the high speed section cause I felt like the rear was going flat.  I checked, all was good.  I continued, hammering thru the root section after the steeps only to be thrown completely sideways again, like I was sliding into second base.  I'm thinking... 'damn, a bit rusty today'.  I proceed out to the road between Goat's and In Deep.  I stop, the rear wheel just doesn't feel 'right'.  My spidey-sense is in full effect...

...for crying out loud folks, I blew up yet another wheel!!  The rim was fine, but the spokes were insanely loose.  I could finger tighten every single last one of the darn things.  This is ridiculous folks.  That's 3 wheels in 10 days of riding!

The silver lining - I taught myself how to true a wheel this evening.  It's all back together and I'll be testing it out tomorrow.  You can bet your bottom dollar I'll have a spoke wrench in my pocket!

It's been 4 days since Crankworx finished.  I've ridden 3 out of those 4 days (yes, I'm rubbin' it in). 

• Monday was lame as the lift lines were ridiculous, not to mention that I flatted (see previous post). 
• Tuesday was a day off - lines were huge and I figured a break was called for. 
• Wednesday I did some casual riding; hitting a bit of Garbo and a bit of the lower mountain.  I hadn't realized how fun Fatcrobat is till this day.  It's rooty, but it's got some nice flow to it.  That and you have to do the top part of In Deep to get to it.  In Deep rocks.
• Today, I decided to push it a bit and do some race pace Original Sin/Goat's Gully/In Deep/Fatcrobat runs.  In 2 of the 4 runs, I paid the price.  To add insult to injury, I paid the price in the same damn turn.  The first time I tried a sweet new inside line.  It was sweet, till my ankle got attacked by a root.  Damn that fahqin' hurts!  I didn't crash, but I was hopping around on one leg singing trucker opera.  The next time, I tried the far outside/high line.  It's a fresh/new/smooth line.  Unfortunately, I dropped the front wheel into the old line and then proceeded to fall hardcore down into the old line.  From start to finish it was a good 10 foot drop down, skidding across the dirt and rocks.  It reminded me why I wear the upper body armor.  It would've really hurt if I wasn't wearing it and no way would I have stood up and rode away!  Here's a pick of 'crash corner' in Goat Gully's for your reference...

Latest Pro sightings :: Mikey Haderer, J.D. Swanguen, Tyler Morland, Steve Smith. 

Wheels

I'm so sick of ruining wheels.  Last year, I wasted 6 or 7 rims.  They were DT Swiss 6.1's and I should've known better to run the soft wheels.  While I never flatted given their soft compound design (the rims 'unique selling point'), it was expensive to constantly rebuild wheels.  This year I gave the DT Swiss 5.1's a try.  They're both lighter and harder than the 6.1's and while I'll definitely continue to use them on my Santa Cruz VP Free for all mountain riding, you won't see them on my Santa Cruz V10 downhill bike any longer.  I'd already killed one rear rim back in May (the 1st day out on the rim) and this past week I blow up yet another rear rim and totally demolished a front rim too.  I'm headed back to the Mavic 823's on my downhill bike... 

The best part is that my luck continues to suck.  I replaced the DT Swiss 5.1 rear rim on my Santa Cruz V10 with a Mavic 823.  Unfortunately, I used a cross country tube and today, 5 runs in, I flatted it.  Argh...

Motocross Stars

Whistler is crawling with plenty of them this weekend.  Makes sense.  Washougal was this past weekend and there's a weekend off in the schedule.  Today, I saw David Pingree, Billy Laninovich, and Tyler Evans out riding the hill.  I'm pretty sure Troy Lee was riding as well and I'll be damned if that wasn't Ryan Hughes walking thru the village.  Pingree and Laninovich are up riding with Lopes and Co.  Evans looks to be in a group with Tara Llanes and Richie Schley. 

Anyhow, enough of the mountain bike/motocross 'star' stalking... arr, reporting.  I'm creeping myself out.

It's a wrap...

Wow!  What a week.  Crankworx is one of, if not the best event, of the year.  I look forward to this event more than any other.  It's location in Whistler, BC, the courses, competitors, and competitions, the friends and people, it's by far the most fun mtb time of the year.  The bulleted summary...

• Winning Biker X has to be the top memory.  I finally got my Crankworx victory.  It'd been awhile since I'd been atop the podium and it felt fahqin' awesome.  Taking 2nd in Air DH was almost as good a feeling...
• Hanging with friends is all goodness.  Over the week, I got to hang with a group of 10-12 different friends.  Whether riding on the hill, taking practice runs, or simply chilling over a yum dinner, it was good times all week long.
• Meeting up with a folks in the industry, whether it be Sean Hiemdal (manager of the Monster/Mad Catz/Iron Horse team) or Brian Pellett or John Dawson (SRAM), reminds you why this sport is so much fun.  It's nice to see folks setting the tone are still down to earth.
• Crankworx Slopestyle - it's insane what these guys are doing.  The vets, Zink/Strait/Berrecloth look to be handing the torch over to some up and comers like Prochazka and Semenuk.  The future is bright, very bright.  Quite honestly, I hope they chill out the courses a bit and let the riders show more style and amplitude on hard but reasonable stunts.

The weeks done, now I get to chill out a bit, relax, and spend another week simply enjoying Whistler.

Friday, July 27th - 2nd Update

Qualifying went great.  I had two very smooth runs, no issues.  These courses are ones that will knock you on your ass if you push it too hard.  You've got to be consistent and let it come to you.  It's a particularly hard balance to maintain when the races will be won by hundredths of a second. 

More importantly, I just witnessed the most colossal mountain bike event fahq up.  I've seen some bad organization at the NORBA's, the Beacon race in Spokane this year was a mess, but the Crankworx Dual Slalom takes the cake.  They had to delay the race till tomorrow morning due to timing issues.  I'll leave you with that... 

Friday, July 27th

It's been a long, but awesome week so far.  There really is no better mountain bike event all season long.  The courses, terrain, and village combine for the ultimate destination to ride/race your bike.  That's not even to mention the people you come across.  Everyone's pretty darn chill and cool to hang with; no agendas, no corporate ladders, just riding your bike and enjoy some time away from the 9-to-5 grind.

Air DH went off on Wednesday.  No questions asked it's one of the more fun downhill courses of the year.  There's simply nothing like it.  I landed 2nd in the results.  Nothing to complain about.  I'll have to train a bit harder to get that top spot though.  More appropriately, I need to relax a bit better before the race as I rode rather tight. 

Not much to report really.  It's been all about ride your bike, hang with friends, have a few drinks, maybe a few too many drinks, and repeat over and over again.  I'll post again after the dual slalom later tonight.

Sunday, July 22nd

Just got off the mountain and got cleaned up post-Garbanzo DH.  What a weekend it's been so far.  1st in Biker X and 4th in Garbanzo DH.  Lots of smiles; not much to complain about!  

First, a quick comment about the event and the courses... it's simply the best event of the year.  The atomsphere, the courses, the hospitality, you name it, they nail it.  From a racer perspective, they've got the results announced and posted, they do a good job of moving things along, and the competition is always solid.  From a spectator perspective, you've got all the amenities of Whistler village, bands playing on main stage, and some good racing to watch.  If you haven't come yet, but it on your list of to do's.

Last nights Biker X...  hell yeah baby, 1st place!  I was feeling good (and nervous/anxious) about this race the last part of the week leading up to it.  I love the course, training has been great, and my Santa Cruz Blux 4X is so much fun.  While I missed my 1st qualifying run, I was able to put down the fastest Master's time in my 2nd run.  The best part was knowing I had more speed for the races; a big confidence booster.  My training with James Wilson of MTB Strength Training is paying off nicely!  The semi-finals were relatively uneventful... I got a great jump off the gate and led start to finish, throwing a bit of style in during the race run.  The finals were a bit more eventful.  I was 3rd out of the gate and knew I was going to have to work for it.  I was able to make a pass for 2nd at the end of the first straight and then focus on 1st.  I almost, almost went down in the 2nd turn after I lost the front tire and had a bit of contact but was able to keep her upright and not lose too much momentum.  Brian Oronfrichuk then gave me a gift when he left the door wide open in the 'S' turn after the high speed straight and I took the opportunity to make a pass stick for good.  I protected the inside lines in the next 'S' turn and took home the win.  It's been awhile since I've been atop the podium and this one felt real damn good.  Looking fwd racing dual slalom next Friday... 

Today's Garbanzo DH... we did one run of practice on the course this morning and it was wet and soupy!  Thankfully J had some tear-offs and I set-up my Spy goggles with 5 of them for the race run.  That was a huge help in having visibility througout the entire run.  I made 4 rather large mistakes though starting with the tree fort re-routing.  I came to a complete stop and had to hop off the bike and push over a knoll to get back going.  I wasn't too happy about that.  There were then 3 other moments where I came to dead stops on the course due the slippery mud that sent me off in places I'd preferred not to been.  All in all a solid run.  One of these days, I'll sit atop that podium, today was not the day though. 

Rest day tomorrow.  It's time to celebrate the Biker X 1st place in style...

Saturday, July 21st

Just finished the Biker X... 1st place baby, 1st place!  I'm stoked.  I'll drop the full details tomorrow.  I'm headed to bed now to get some zzzzz's in preparation for the Garbanzo DH. 

I'll be posting daily starting tomorrow...

Bailed on Willamette Pass DH #2 this weekend.  The lure of Whistler and getting some runs in on the Crankworx courses was simply too much.  With the weekend complete, I have no regrets!

The riding was insane, the partying epic. 

First, the riding...

Rode with Andrew and J on Saturday in the early afternoon.  We did a few runs on the lower mountain and then headed up to Garbanzo.  At some point, we ran into some germans that were enjoying their 1st day at Whistler on brand new bikes, Sasha and Matthias.  While J, Andrew, Sasha, and Matthias continued riding in the afternoon, I hooked up with Tuttle, Matt, and Ian for some race pace runs, especially up on Garbo.  We ran Original Sin to Goat's Gully to In Deep to Freight Train.  We were pushing it, big time, and I'm pretty sure that's the fastest I've run most of those trails.  I finally nailed the bridge double on In Deep too (it was basic, I was wussin' before).  

Sunday I spent the day running the Canadian Open DH course, at least the rumored to be CODH course.  It's pretty gnarly for a race run.  Well, at least the freshly cut section by Joyride that's virtually straight down.  It's gonna get insane after folks tear it up during practice.  The topper for the weekend was the last run, A-line.  After pushing it on more technical trails all weekend, the run felt absolutely amazing.  In particular, I felt like it'd got my corner speed up which had been missing all season.  All in all, good times on the hill!

Alas, the partying...

J was in rare antagonist form.  In an effort to keep me at the Longhorn post-riding, he 'stole' my bike.  I panicked for about 30 seconds till I noticed the entire Longhorn patio laughing at me.  It was on... a bit of dinner combined with 19 total tequila/red bull shots, many pitchers of brew, etc. lead to a $400 tab... and it was only 11 p.m.  We went back to the condo, showered, and all met back up at the Amsterdam. 

We'd been teaching the germans the concept of a wingman.  This led to some trials and tribulations throughout the evening.  Given Sasha wasn't able to make it out for the later part of the evening, we're hoping Matthias passes on the knowledge.  Oh yeah, J also convinced a scottish dude to buy 10 shots for our group; our scottish friend was a bit disappointed with the bill, but we enjoyed the shots.  At some point, J introduced me to Dana.  Come to find out, Dana had seen the whole 'stolen bike' skit at the Longhorn and was having a good laugh at my expense.  Funny, haha!

The night was capped with the group of scottish guys serenading a bride-to-be out in front of Savage Beagle, J piggybacking some random girl who'd cut her toe to the infirmary, and Matthias climbing on the roof of a couple girls condo.  Epic!

Spent the weekend up at Whistler; conditions were absolutely great.  It was sunny and 70/80's all weekend. 

Got to the lifts a bit early on Saturday morning, so went to the dirt jumps and did some sessioning.  For the most part, I suck at DJ's.  The last two times I've ridden DJ's, I hit the ground hard and got stitches.  Thankfully I ended that streak this weekend.  I was able to nail the first 5 hits on the intermediate line.  Looking fwd to more time on the dj's in the near future...

Lower mountain is starting to show some signs of use; braking bumps, boniness, etc.  That said, trails were still rocking.  I spent Saturday morning riding the Blur 4X and sessioning the mountaincross course.  I really love that bike.  I also ended up doing some runs on A-Line with the 4X bike and it totally rocked.  Riding a small bike makes you work a bit harder, but it's sweet to throw around and the skills learned on the small bike make you such a better big bike rider.

By the end of the weekend, I'd ridden just about everything on either the Blur 4X or V10.  The best hit of adrenaline was either the huge 30 ft. table in the mountaincross course or the wooden step-down double on Lower Joyride.  Fun stuff.

The upper mountain was near perfect.  Nate and I did run after run after run up top, from No Joke to Original Sin to In Deep to Goat's Gully to Duffman and more.  While there's some puddles and mud at the top of Original Sin (about 200 yards worth), after that, all the trails were nice n'tacky.  Riding up there is the best practice on the planet.  The Garbo runs are like 3 connected downhill race runs - just can't be beat.

Next weekend is Willamette Pass DH #2...