Im back on the west coast again now hanging out at the Bike Vault getting my bike rebuilt and back into race spec after our 3 week trip on the road to the Plattekill Pro GRT, US open and the Angel Fire MSC race.
Plattekill went well but the US open and Angel Fire I just struggled with crashes and maybe pushing a little too hard.
I felt great on the track in New Jersey at the US open, it was rocky, fast and when you opened it up it got pretty wild so I was enjoying it a lot and was confident of putting another good run in after my podium at Plattekill.
The weekend had some really random weather, the first day we were riding before practice it was about 32 degrees celcius and you couldnt even ride to the lift without sweating! Then over the course of the next 3 days it went from cold to hot to a huge thunder storm then back to hot again just in time to dry the track up for race day!
The rain before qualifying was enough to get the track pretty slippery and I spent all morning crashing, my first run involved 2 big crashes and one off course wash out, I was pretty fed up after that run because i cant remember having a run that bad in a very long time! But I managed to get it together over the next couple of runs and get comfortable again in time for qualifying.
Qualifying started out good but then about a quarter of the way into my run i second guessed one of my lines and went over the bars, scambling to get my bike and get going again i managed to ride the rest of the course pretty well and make it down in 43rd place with only the top 50 making it into finals! talk about stressed waiting for the results to come out!
After another night of rain before the finals I was sure the track was going to be soaked but after my first practice run I was surprised to find probably the driest track wed had all weekend so I was pretty happy and looking forward to racing.
The cool thing about Diablo freeride park is that its quick and easy to do runs so right before my race run I went up and did a warm up run down one of the other tracks to get loosened up after sitting round for a few hours.
Once again my run started out good and I was feeling really good on course untill about 10 seconds where i crashed in qualifying I managed to screw up my line going through the technical rock section on the track and ended up over the bars then getting hit in the head by my bike.
That was basically the end of any chance of a good result but I got going again and pushed as hard as possible to the bottom and ended up finishing 33rd so better than my qualifying time but definately not in my top 10 goal.
After the open finished it was back on the road that night and headed back across the country on another huge drive, the team van was heading back to California and I was stopping in Albuquerque, New Mexico to head to the Mountain State Cup race at Angel Fire.
I won the race there in 2008 so I was really hoping to put another race like that together when I got there because i really enjoy the track but once I got there I found they had changed it to the track they raced the world cup on back in 2005 which they had also ran a 12 hour downhill enduro on at the end of last year so needless to say it was pretty beat up and slow.
I stuggled the whole weekend from run number 1 to get comfortable on the course and spent the whole of practice trying to get my suspension set up so I wasn't getting so beaten up on the course. The whole weekend was record temperatures up there so there was no worry of rain or a wet track, it was more just trying to stay hydrated and not get sun burnt!
By the time qualifying rolled around I felt better on course but still not 100% so I wanted to put in a good run to see how I stood but about a minute in I got caught up on a rock and had another over the bars crash resulting in being really winded and having to sit on the side of the course for a while to get my breath back. I didnt realise how bad it was untill I got down and was sitting in the pits and realised my chest and back were still aching and it was hurting to take deep breaths.
I was still motivated to try pull a good result so I pushed hard in finals and was putting together by far the best run I had all weekend even with the pain from my chest nagging me. But once again disaster struck within 30 seconds from the finish line in the last set of trees, I pushed way too hard going through on of the last turns and just washed out of the turn and into some trees aparently hard enough to rip a lot of bark off so I found out afterwards!
Salvaging what I could I ended up in 16th place which was well behind my goal.
Although it wasn't a good race I still took a lot away from the race and I feel like I know exactly what I need to do for the next race so now ive got a couple of weeks to relax and get ready for the next Pro GRT at Tahoe on the 26th then its home for a month for a break!
