Bromont World Cup DH Report #1

Day one is in the books and it wasn't a very exciting one, I only managed two runs after a big crash onto my head courtesy of clipping my pedal on a tree.
The course here is kind of strange, the top section is really good with some awesome rocky and rooty sections through the trees then it all of a sudden goes really flat with horrible hard pack bermed turns that follows along beside the 4x track then a final big jump out of the woods onto the last jump of the 4x. It goes from awesome to boring really quickly, and its super short, i think it will be under 3 minutes easily.
The 4x looks awesome for once, its over 1 minute long and has some huge jumps, a massive first berm, a rock section and all sorts of other stuff to catch people out on, it should be good racing if it stays dry.
Thats the other thing, in the last 24 hours weve had 3 big thunder storms come through and dump rain so the tracks are so sloppy right now, hopefully it drys out a bit because it was a mess today on the DH.

And on a completely random note I decided I needed some pictures up here for once so I found a couple of racing ones,

This one is from my race run at Ft William this year

And this is a random one of me I found on the BBC website from practice at the World Championships in Rotorua from 2006.

Dean Optics

Just thought id give my good friend Jeremiah Dean's new venture a plug here, after working as a sponsorship manager for a couple of eye wear company's he has decided to go out on his own and bring out a new goggle into the MTB market. His company is called Dean Optics and is already starting to take off big time here in the US with multiple National wins and podiums gaining him a lot of exposure.
Ive been running the trooper goggle all season and im stoked on it, the frame is a good size and fits inside all helmets comfortably and the lenses come with tear off posts so you dont have to worry about buying new lenses to run them.

Mt Saint Anne World Cup

So I finally got the monkey off my back and qualified at Mt Saint Anne, 3rd time lucky aparently. After 2 years of bad luck in qualifying I put in a clean run and qualified 35th, I knew as long as i had a clean consistent run I would make it into the top 80 easily. I think this has been one of my problems in the past, putting too much pressure on myself for qualifying then blowing up, exactly what I did at my first world cup of the year in Andorra.
Mt Saint Anne has always been one of my favorite tracks and this year they kept it almost identical to last year apart from a couple of minor changes near the end which took out an up hill and made the track better.
The only real difference from last year was the fact that its been raining for the past 6 weeks so the track had some serious mud bogs in spots, I needed my moto to get through some of them! The UCI changed the schedule for this round as well so we raced on saturday instead of sunday like usual which also meant we only had two days of practice to get the course dialled. I only did a total of 6 practice runs over three days because the track was so similar to the other years I knew where i was going.

My run started good and I was feeling confident going through the first woods until I nearly blew off the track going into a flat pedally section so once I got going again I was trying to make up some time. I had a pretty solid split time considering my mistake but then going into the lower woods I tried changing a line at the last second and came to a complete stop in a rocky section where keeping speed was a major key.
Even with my mistakes I still managed to finish 34th which was a good result but definately not a top 20 where I wanted to be.

Im in Bromont now for the 2nd Canadian World Cup round being held this weekend then its a cross country drive to whistler to have some fun and do some Crank Worx events. Its kind of crazy that my season is almost over, only two world cup rounds to go then its back home for the summer.

moto cross and world cups

Just a quick update for now, Just got into mt saint anne, canada for the downhill world cup round being held this week. the course sounds similar to previous years which is good because its sick. We got to put some input into the finish this morning and its going to be quick with some flat turns which will be fun.
Cam Cole, Amy Lair and me went to Unadilla, New York over the week to watch the AMA motocross round and it was definatley my non mountainbiking highlight of the year. Amy managed to get us VIP passes which got us into the pits full time and into hospitality areas and a whole bunch of other sweet stuff like that.
The racing was awesome and NZ privateer Cody Cooper almost ruined James Stewarts perfect season, he was right behind him the whole time which was awesome to see. We met him while the first lights moto was on and hes a really nice guy so hopefully he gets factory ride for next season!

International Win Number 2!

Weve just finished here in Winham, New York and I just won my 2nd US National DH round this season! I won qualifying by close to 3 seconds in wet conditions after it dumped rain on us all morning.

It stopped raining basically straight after our qualifier so it was really dry by the time finals rolled around. I was pretty confident going into the finals but was a little nervous being the last starter. I had a really clean run and hit everything exactly how I wanted and came through the finish over 2 seconds up on 2nd place finisher Gerrit Beytagh.

Cam Cole finished up 3rd making it two podiums for the weekend after getting 2nd in slalom last night, Amy Laird backed up the good finishes with 2nd place in the womens DH

After DH Cam, Amy and myself headed back up the hill to race super d, this is the first time ive raced it and I was racing the track blind because I didnt get a chance to practice the course. The start was a Le Mans format mass start so it made it pretty fun. 

I got a really good start and managed to get through the first turn in the lead and start sprinting, I held the lead for about the first minute then the XC guys started flying past on the first uphill. I was looking forward to the DH to make up some positions but going into the first single track I got a front flat tire which sucked, Cam Cole was right in front of me and got a rear flat in the exact same spot! Amy had bad luck aswell after getting a good start her back wheel fell out of her bike so she couldnt finish either.

Next weekend the US national champs are on and they don't let anyone not from America race so its an off weekend for me. Cam, Amy and me and going to head to the Unadilla AMA motocross national next weekend so its not all bad!

40+ hours driving later....

So after 40+ hours driving later we finally made it to Windham, NY for the lone East coast race of the 2008 US national series. After sleeping in the van for 3 nights in rest stops I was pretty stoked to get into a condo and sleep in a real bed!

On first inspection of the hill we weren't expecting much of the track as the hill looked small and flat but once we got up the lift and started walking within the first 30 seconds of track we knew it was going to be good.

The course builder here has done an amazing job and this is by far the best US national track ive have ridden, its really natural and he was used the terrain well making a super fast, fun track which is better than a couple of the world cup rounds ive ridden this season.

My laptop is still out of commision as i havent managed to find a charger for it yet so ive still got a load of photos to post but cant get to them!

More updates to come on Sunday after the race has been run.

Broken Computers Suck

Well not so much a broken computer but the charger for my laptop died so ive been stuck with limited internet access lately which has made it difficult to keep regular updates on here.
This last week ive been hanging out in Boulder, Colorado with Jess Vogt taking a bit of time off riding to hang out, Cam Cole and Amy Laird were there aswell so it was good to spend to spend some time with some other New Zealanders!
The highlight of the week was definately getting a chance to ride motocross at Thunder Valley which held a round of the AMA motocross nationals the weekend before, It was pretty eye opening seeing the size of some of the jumps but after a while I had got back into the moto and was jumping most of the stuff there.
Tomorrow were starting out trek to the East coast which is aparently about a 38 hour drive, we dont have to be there till Wednesday so were not gonna do too many hours driving at once hopefully.

When I finally get my laptop back up and running ive got a heap of photos to post up so keep an eye out like usual!