Crankworx 2011 Day 6/ Ultimate Pump Track Challenge

Rain and mud

Having not lived in the Northwest this is possibly the muddiest day I have ever ridden.

Mom and sister leave

My mom and sis left today and I miss them.

Kevin Menard

One of the special things that happened today was riding with Kevin Menard.  Kevin is one of the owners of Transition Bikes, one of my sponsors.  I had spun several laps with Kevin and some other riders when Kevin began to wonder who I was and how I had obtained my sled.  I still don't think he realizes I am only 14.   

Pump Track Race

My dad and uncle walked with me up the dual slalom and giant slalom course to the pump track.  As we approached I saw Cody hanging out with the other athletes.  He seemed upbeat and after talking with him the reason was obvious.  Both he and Mitch had qualified in the top four and had first round byes.  They were riding well.

Cody and Mitch during pump track practice

Mitch gettin all style conscience during practice

As we watched qualifying continue it was obvious who had mastery over the track.  The disparity was that great.  Mitch,  the defending champion,  made everyone else look like pretenders.

Mitch sound asleep seconds before destroying another victim

In one of the semi's Mitch was racing Slavik who fell on an inside corner.  As Mitch went by he attempted to high five with Mitch, basically a gentleman's way of conceding.

Thomas Slavik on the gas

Sierra Smith looks good in jeans, sorry no picture.

Had Cody not bobbled on the final straight against Brosnan he would have advanced to the semi's.

Cody at the start of his race against Troy

Utah did real well tonight.

Crankworx 2011 Day 5/Air DH Race Day

Wheels, wheels, wheels.  Today my dad was going to pre-ride the enduro course to give me the beta and lo and behold someone had ripped off our trail bike wheelset out of our truck.  No pre-ride today maybe tomorrow.   To add to the wheel drama I failed to switch my wheelset to race wheels for the Air DH.  Doh!!!!!  And my mom's car had several wheels/tires without enough pressure in them and to top it all off someone ripped of her windshield wipers.

Back to the race.......the wheels cost me about 3 seconds and I failed to ride the faster line as I went into autopilot and hit some jumps that were not necessary to hit.....another second or two.  Never the less, I was crushed by a local kid (13 seconds) and even if everything went off to perfection would have had a hard time making top three (podium).   Ended up 8th out of 43 kids.

At this point in my racing career the local knowledge is hard to overcome.  Eventually my breadth of experience will trump local knowledge but at this point its hard to take, as podiums are thin and far between.  After talking with several pros I am going to change my training regime and should be very competitive next year.

On a lighter note.......several of the pro Air DH racers made the decision to not race and just steez out the course.  Brendon and Troy came down together (one waited for the other) and had some fun doing it.  That is the thing about Whistler........no matter what happens.......you can always have a good time.

Tomorrow should be interesting...........           

Win Some You Lose Some

Today was a bear of day.
  

I had a very bad race today but you win some and lose some.............. I guess.  Today was practice for the Red Bull Joyride comp and it was pretty cool watching them huck from the lift.  I am looking forward to watching it go down.  Here are a few shots.

Unknown Rider

Super crazy flat spin whatcamacallwizzmo

Continuation followed by backflip

Looking down the gladiator pit

I can't believe Crankworx is half over.

Kokanee Crankworx 2011/Phun Day at the Hits

     Today was a fun mellow day here in Whistler.  Because of the amazingness that went down this post is going to be short on words and long on photos.  A quick rundown of today went like this

...............practice on the Garbo DH with crash and broken finger.  Lots of muddy phun in store for tomorrows race.  Expect carnage.

...............After practice feeling pretty bad, so back to the condo to get treatment, eat, and sleep.


...............After recuperating it was off to Crab Apple Hits for a photo session.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words so here are around 8,000 words worth of pictures.

Unknown Steez masters

Brendog playing locomotive in a long train

Brendog and Zink

Neethling, Strait and Riffle later in the same train

In all seriousness they broke the whipometer

Kyle Strait had a sick whip but this re-entry was just too interesting to pass up

With all the style flowing I had to "get sum".

REALIOUSLY??????????

Stay tuned its getting interesting

G

Kokanee Crankworx 2011/Canadian Open DH Race Day

     Today was the day of the Canadian Open DH.  The Canadian Open is the biggest DH race in all of Canada outside of a World Cup.  Many of the top riders in the world attend this race.  Steve Smith, a Canadian, won the race with some serious competition from riders coming from all corners of the globe.

    The track was muddy and very slick with gnarly roots and smooth greasy rocks.  It has been raining for weeks up here and the conditions favored the locals, although I am sure everyone had a bit of a wild ride on their race runs.

     One of the craziest places on the course is Hecklers Rock.   Around a thousand people mass on or near the rock and heckle racers and chairlift riders.  Nobody is sacred as everyone gets the treatment.






     My race run was going well, but I caught up to the girl in front of me and she did not yield until she went over the bars.  This caused me to have to slow substantially and lose focus and as a result I crashed.  Even though my race was over I pinned the rest of the course.

On the hot seat but not for long.....

     Once I got to the bottom my dad asked me all about what my race run was like so I told him.  He said I should protest for a re-run because the girl got in my way.  I got my re-run and ended up 5th.  Not that great of a result, but I have plenty of races to go in the future here at Crankworx.

     When the pros were going down I met up with Luca Cometti.  He is a very fast 15 year old from Southern California......... who can pedal like mad. We rode some A-Line/Crab Apple Hits/A-Line laps, he is very fun to ride with.  I thought he was going to die a couple of times but he managed to pull off some super sick airs.  Ended up riding from 2 p.m. until the lifts closed at 8 p.m. mostly sessioning the crab apple hits and A-line.  Another sweet day in the books.

Crankworx 2011 Day One/Dual Slalom Race Day

     Today started with a Canadian Open DH practice run.  I stopped lots of times to look at the course, and I accomplished my goal, which was to begin the process of learning the course.  There are many lines in most parts of the course, but few turns.  Its pretty much straight down the hill with tons of roots.  With all the rain we have had, it has gotten pretty rowdy, rough and fun.

After the DH course scope out it was time for Dual Slalom qualifying.  It was wet and greasy and I ended up qualifying in 6th place out of 12 kids, which isn't so hot.  It was, however, good enough to get me into the brackets.

Getting over the techie spine at the start of the Dual Slalom

Johannes Fischbach and Guido Tschugg during practice

Next it was back to the Canadian Open DH course for more practice.  This time I used a spike tire (Maxxis Wet Scream) on my front wheel and the course felt more manageable.  After a couple more DH runs it was back to the Dual Slalom for the finals.

      In my first heat I raced a local boy and got beat by a pretty big margin down the first run.  Dual Slalom is more about being consistently fast than being a one hit wonder.  On the next run we switched courses and the racer with the smaller composite time wins and advances.  During this run he slipped a pedal and pretty much almost died.  I advanced on which meant I was in the top 4.  I got beat both times in my next heat, which meant I was in the small final racing for third place.  My two final runs were pretty fast but not fast enough to take third so I ended up in 4th.  Both the van Steenbergen bro's looked way fast and they both won along with Jill Kitner.  Tom and Bas van Steenbergen as well as Jill Kitner race for the same bike company as myself....Transition.   It is always nice to see some Transition's up there on the podium.  Dual slalom is not my cup of tea so I know I can do better in the future races.

Soooooooo........the mens Pro Dual Slalom was sick with Mitch Rip aloto, the local Utah boy taking the win.  Way to represent Mitch. 
        

First Full Day in Whistler/Crankworx Dual Slalom Practice

Today was a really fun day here in Whistler.  A couple of warmup runs, then dual slalom practice, followed by an unbelievable after dinner freeride sesh with a bunch of great riders.

The day started with two runs down Dirt Merchant and lower A line.  I am going to do 6 races while here so after the warm up runs I met up with my dad and we went to athlete registration to get our race packet.  On the way to lunch we ran into Cody Kelly and Mitch Ropelato unloading their van.   

After lunch I got my 4x bike and headed up to practice.  I started out working on the top part and slowly worked my way down the course.  I'm still having trouble in one section, but I should be able to get it down in practice tomorrow.  The van Steenbergen brothers are looking very fast.

Bas van Steenbergen looking fast and smooth

Me working out the bugs

Kyle Strait squashing a double

Andrew Neethling and Danny Hart/Giant Factory Team Riders

     Next I went back to our condo to eat then headed back out to have some DH runs.  At the bottom of the lift Troy Brosnan got a huge group of like 35 people to go ride Crab Apple Hits.  Crab Apple Hits is a strait trail with 5 or 6 perfect 40 to 50 foot doubles that kick you 15 to 20 feet up in the air.

     It was crazy once we got to the start of Crab Apple Hits.  Nobody would go but then everybody went at once.   People were bumping bars but by the time we got to the first jump we all got into a very tight single file line.  It was the most fun I have had on my bike in a very long time.

     I ended the day riding with Cody Kelly, Mitch Ripalotto and Elliot Jackson a Yeti Team rider ....  I cased a 20 foot step down to a big roller, crashed, and broke 2 spokes on a set of practice wheels.  Day over and in the record books fun fun fun.