Europe Part Un.

Our first trip of the season was only a short 2 race trip which was to 2nd and 3rd rounds of the World Cup held in La Bresse, France and Valnord, Andorra.
After a fairly busy night after the first round of the Pro Gravity tour that was held at Port Angeles, WA we finally got packed up and on the road to Seattle International Airport at about 2am which seemed early but by the time we got there we missed our first flight heading to LA but luckily just had to wait a couple of hours and got another flight there in time to quickly get some nutritious Burger King for dinner then realised while we were in line we were actually getting called to the plane, turns out the 4 of us were the last people left to board so we had to do a bit of a sprint through the airport to the gate.
Our flight to France was on Air NZ so all the guys got to see how good their service is, we actually ended up getting two rows of 4 seats in the middle of the plane so with only 2 of us in each row it made for a bit more of a comfortable trip.
This was the first World Cup La Bresse has ever run and it turns out its in the middle of no where so after about 3 hours of driving through the mountains we ended up where we started with no idea where to go, after a quick drive around to find some wireless internet to steal we ended up in a car park at about 2am trying to find directions. That was untill the cops blocked us in and started getting quite grumpy, turns out they ended up being quite nice after they realised we were lost tourists and they ended up escorting us about half way to La Bresse.
After spending half of the next day asleep in our awesome log cabin accomodation I woke up to find out I had caught some kind of cough/flu which gave me one of the worst coughs ive ever had, it hit me really hard in my chest so i was constantly coughing and struggling to really breath normally.

Practice in La Bresse was the hardest practice ive ever had to do, I would get about a minute into the run and have to stop to be able to breath again, my chest would just tighten up and make me start coughing again.
Over the course of the weekend i think i ended up doing a total of 7 runs which is usually what I will do on the first day of practice to learn the track.
With qualifying being the first full run of the track for me I was a bit worried I might not be able to actually hold it together for the full run but making it to the finish line i had a decent qualifyer and was somewhere in the 50s making top 80 so I was happy.
After random rain all through the weekend it showed up again just in time for race runs with no warning, not expecting it i was sitting in the tent at the top of the hill with no tear offs on my goggles watching as is was pissing down just minutes before my run. Getting into the start gate it was still pouring rain so I had no choice but to try hold it together as good as possible.
After about the first 30 seconds my goggles were covered in rain spots making it hard to see but the track was awesome in the wet and I was having heaps of fun. Unfortunately though I ended up making a couple of anoying mistakes because of slick spots catching me out and ended up only holding it together enough for 72nd which was disappointing.

After La Bresse it was onto Andorra for the next round of the World Cup, with a similar beginning to the last trip we made it our accomodation at about 3am but found the keys in the door so we got to actually get some sleep for that night.
Having raced in Andorra last year I was pretty familiar with it so I didnt end up walking the track and just went straight into a very wet practice to find the track was identical to last year and didnt even look like they had done any work to it since last year so lots of braking bumps and exposed roots which made it tough but was awesome to have a challenging course.
By race day the track was some good deep ruts and was getting fast and even more fun. Qualifying was rough and after an off track moment I got it back together and made it through to the finals somewhere in the 60s.
After a bite to eat for lunch and a bit of a break it was back up the hill for finals after my mechanic Mike D had got my bike into race spec and running smooth. I put a good run together except for a minor moment where i was headed straight off the track but got it back together and had a lot of fun getting wild for the rest of the run ending up in 47th place, my best world cup finish so far for the season, the craziest part was my team mate Ryan finished in 48th only .01 behind me!

USA Pro gravity tour no.1

Next on the list was the very first event for the brand new Pro Gravity Tour that has been started in the US and being run by my good friend Jeremiah Dylan Dean.
The race was being held in Port Angeles, Washington which I was stoked with because I raced one of the Fluidride Cups there at the end of last season so I was excited to go back there again.
It was decided during the week before we needed a better set up in the van so me, Ryan and Tyler got out the tape measure and got all the measurements for the inside of the van then I went to work with a pen and paper and came up with a plan that I was pretty sure would work!
So after a shopping trip to Home Depot(same sort of thing as Mitre 10 mega) to get supplies it was all on, I had a plan in my mind and I went to it making some minor modifications as I went.
The result worked out pretty awesome and now the bikes go in and out o the van a lot easier and dont get destroyed for being banged together.




After a few hours of packing we had everything loaded and started our drive at about 2am on our 13 or so hour drive to Port Angeles, with a couple of pit stops and breakfast at Dennys we made it to PA in one piece and ready to get set up for practice the next day.

The track we raced was different to the one I raced last year but it was still an awesome track with some cool jumps and tech sections to keep you on your toes. I was having fun all through practice and started to get pretty agressive through some sections as I got more and more confident untill a tree decided to jump out in front of me on the fastest part of the track and catch my shoulder, luckily it didnt do any damage except for a bit of bruising so I was good to go again for qualifying that afternoon.
I had a resonably conservative qualifying run and came down in 3rd place so I was happy and looking forward to finals the next day knowing I had a lot more time left in me for the final run.
I did the usual couple of practice runs I allways do on race day morning and felt good to put a solid run together that would hopefully be good enough for the win. My race run started out good and I hit the first half of the track really good and felt confident in myself untill disaster struck and something hit my chain guide sending me flying over the bars and straight to the top of my head, dazed I got up as fast as possible and tried to get what result I could with the rest of my run. Unfortunately the crash had cost me a lot of time and I ended up finishing somewhere just insid the top 30.
I didnt realise untill later while I was getting changed I happened to glance at my helmet and noticed a crack, it turns out that I had basically snapped my brand new custom painted helmet through two places! I was gutted but looking back it was better to break my helmet than my neck, I feel it was proof that neck braces are worth wearing because the reason the helmet broke was because when i crashed my helmet got so compressed into the brace it broke the helmet!
A delayed concussion decided to show up later that night aswell which wasnt very fun, it made packing a complete mission and all I wanted to do was sleep.
The next morning it was on the road again at 2am! This time on the road back into Seattle headed for the airport so Mike D, Theo, Ryan and myself could catch our flight to France for the 2nd round of the world cup series.

The begining of another season

Ive been a bit slow (slack) at updating my blog this year so i thought id try get back into it and get some reports up about the races ive been at so far this season.

After a few weeks of testing and training in California my team mate Ryan Condrashoff and I flew out to South Africa for the first round of the World Cup downhill series being held in Pietermaritzburg, neither of us had ever been there before so it was a big learning curve. Pretty soon we found out the places not to go and where to stay clear of after the sun went down!
Our travel didnt end up working out too well and we turned up the afternoon before practice started, that wasnt too bad except that our bikes were missing and we had no idea where we were going! so with the map we got off the world cup website we headed for the track but after about 2 hours of driving we got to where the map said the race was but turns out it definately wasnt there!
so on pure instinct we ended up finding the track about another half hour later.
Luckily our bikes turned up later that evening so we did a quick bike building session and got ready for practice.
The track was really different to anything we usually race on, it started off on a cool steep tech section which quickly flattened out to the point where it actually had a long gradual uphill before it dropped back down into the trees again before jumping out into the 4x track which basically saw it out to the finish line. It was definately the flattest world cup track ive ever seen.
Unfortunately on the Friday morning, qualifying day, I woke up to a nice dose of food poisoning and was quickly in the bathroom throwing up and feeling horrible. I ended up spending the whole day sleeping in the car while Ryan practiced and only managed to get myself out and ready for my qualifying run after eating a total of one piece of toast and a banana the whole day.
I was amazed to actually hold a run together considering it was my first of the day and actually make the top 80 for the finals in 65th.
I had the track pretty sorted so I decided to take Saturdays practice session off so I could rest up and try get some energy back after the food poisoning had hit me.
Race day came around quickly and I felt as ready as I could be to race so after a couple of practice runs in the morning I was excited for finals because I felt like I could pull out a decent result on a track that didnt really suit me.
My race run started off good hitting the first couple of sections good then on basically the last technical spot in the trees i washed out my front wheel at the top of a steep rock face that you had to brake really hard for. With my bike going out from underneith me I had no where to go but over the top and slid down the rock face (which had chicken mesh on it) into more rocks at the bottom then had to climb back up to get my bike. Unfortunately it was all over from that point for me, I got back on and finished my run but id lost too much time during the crash to salvage a good results so I made my way to bottom and finished up 80th of 82 so definately not the way I wanted to start my world cup year but no major injuries from the crash so it was all good.

After 2 days of flying back to the US it was one night in a sort of familiar bed then back on the road to the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California. Luckily for me and Ryan we got it easy and got to make our own way down the race in the little red race truck since we had got back the night before.
I was pretty excited for Sea Otter since ive never been before so it was cool to see how big everything was. The race is held at the famous Laguna Seca car racing track so it was awesome to see the actual size of that too but i really just wanted to get a car out there and go for a hot lap!
The DH track at Sea Otter is fairly flat and pedally so everyone on the team ended up racing on our Intense Tracer's, a 6" travel all mountain bike with the new X-Fusion Vengance all mountain fork up front which was being released to the public at the event.
Sea Otter allways has a pretty big media presence which is good because the track has lots of jumps and cool corners to photograph so it was a good chance to get shots of the new X-fusion fork in action so I did probly twice the amount of runs I usually would at a race!
My race went pretty good except for one decent mistake which cost a bit of time but it was a lot of fun and had an awesome spectator turn out which was good to see. I ended up finishing in 32nd which was a bit worse than I expected but I learnt a lot of things that I can take into next year and I think I can pull out a far better result.

Custom!

Just thought id post a couple of pics up of the awesome 661 evolution helmet that Jeremiah from Dylan Dean Designs painted for me for the season. Ive known Jeremiah since I started racing in the US in 2006 and hes been a good friend ever since and has an amazing eye when it comes to helmet painting. I gave him some colours and a basic idea for my helmet and he worked his magic on it and turned it into something sick, check it out.



Unfortunately on the 2nd day of wearing it I managed to land on my head and write it off which was pretty gutting, I think I felt worse for Jeremiah after all the effort he had put into it for me! Luckily though version #2 is in the process and should be on my head sometime soon!
check out www.dylandeandesigns.com for more of his work!

2009 is going live

Ive been in the US now for about 3 weeks and now im 2 days out from heading for the first round of the Downhill World Cup in South Africa with my new team mate American Ryan Condroshoff.
Everything is very new for me this season, after the last 3 years privateering ive got the full back up of the team which is awesome, right now my mechanic Mike D is stripping down my bike completely and rebuilding it so its like and then boxing it up ready for the flight. I dont know what to do with all my free time!
Im on a new bike for the first time in 2 years and it is awesome, we are racing protoype Intense M6evo frames which are unreal, the frames were handbuilt and so far is the best riding bike ive ever had. super light too with mine at 37.9 pounds at the moment.Im pretty excited about South Africa, the track looks good from some photos ive seen and its somewhere new ive never been so it should be a good trip, ive heard theres some awesome beaches around where we are heading too so that could fill in a bit of spare time if we have any.

Its official, im on team X-Fusion/Intense for 2009!

After about 3 months of holding my tounge(sort of) about this deal its now offically out for everyone to see.
Its gonna be a huge change for me this season being able to focus on my racing and training and not having to worry about how im going to afford to get to the next race! Im excited to start racing over seas and im working hard to be fit and ready for it.

Check out the official press release:

PRESS RELEASE

X-Fusion Shox Announces 2009 X-Fusion/Intense Factory Race Program And Roster.

Here at X-Fusion we love racing and the lifestyle that goes along with it. After two successful race and media campaigns in North America X-Fusion has decided to take it to another level. We are going International!

We will have a four rider team in 2009 with two riders putting in a full worldcup effort and the other two making a positive impact on the North American race scene. We have joined force with Intense Cycles to make sure our riders are on the best bikes possible when attacking a race course or shralping for Theo Dilworth's camera lens. We are very excited to be working with one of the most prestigious and influential companies in the industry.

Our worldcup team will be made up of the X-Fusion veteran Ryan Condrashoff and the newly signed rider out of New Zealand, Kieran Bennett. Ryan placed 5th last year at US National Champs in DH and made a very strong statement at the two Canadian worldcups proving he can ride at the level needed to be competitive. Ryan states, "For me being on X-Fusion/Intense is a dream come true. I love working with everyone at X-Fusion. They're an awesome company to be involved with and now to be on Intense Cycles, I know I couldn't be on a better bike!"

Kieran Bennett had an amazing season last year with almost zero support. He was the 2008 Oceana DH Champion, Had two NMBS victories and was the highest ranked privateer at worlds last year at 13th. We are excited to see what he will be able to do with the full support of a race team in 2009. He also is excited as he commented, "I'm stoked to be joining the X-Fusion/ Intense team for 2009!"

The North American team will consist of new up and comer in the pro ranks Tyler Wilson, and myself, John Hauer. Tyler Wilson has been getting coached by the DH legend Chris Kovarik and has tons of motivation and drive that will help him continue his success. As far as myself goes, I am absolutely pumped to be in the position to help out X-Fusion and these riders grow together and have tons of fun doing it. I will be focusing on the events that I feel are the most fun and that challenge me personally.

This season is going to be eventful and exciting and I really feel we have a great group of guys. I'm also excited to have our Mechanic Mike D with us for another season as well as our video mastermind Theo Dilworth. Our plan for 2009 is to create a ton of media so people can enjoy our riding, our trips and our lifestyles with us all season long.

Lastly, I would like to thank all the sponsors that came together to help make this possible. Huge Thanks too…

X-Fusion
Intense Cycles
Six Six One
Royal
Sunline
Formula Brakes
Gamut USA
Intense Tire Systems
Crankbrothers
WTB
Dean Optics