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Weekend started off well. Friday Downhill practice went smooth and lines seemed to work well for me. The troubles started in Giant Slalom Quali's when I found out the girl had given me the wrong number plate, which led to me racing under someone elses name. I had built up a Flow DJ singlespeed which I intended to use in this event, but in practice I found my gear was alittle off and I was maxing out at the bottom of the course before the double. Luckily, on my second practice run, everything worked out and felt pretty good. Slalom Quali's went well, placing 2nd behind Richie Rude, very happy considering it was my first time riding a hardtail bike that was a singlespeed.
Saturday Downhill Quali's is where my bad luck got worse. The course was dry, only top 25 Jr. Amateurs were making it in so I knew I couldn't take to much of a conservative run. A quarter of the way down, I passed the first rider in front of me in the JBL rock garden, without losing any time. Once out onto the fireroad is where things got bad. I got the rider who was released a minute before me & is known as "slash". Proceeded to not move after yelling "rider up" for nearly the second half of the course, when it opened up to the bottom grass turns, I tried passing 3 times, 2 of those times our bars hit... no excuse for him to not let me by. I'm sure the crowd was enjoying it, but I sure wasn't. At the bottom, I was offered a re-run & sent back up to stage for my 2nd run but found out I qualified 15th with that abortion of a run. I did not have to risk doing a second downhill quali run.
Saturday night was Giant Slalom finals, where things got heated. Brad, Richie and myself were all pretty close in time, couple tenths here and there each run. It was definately exciting for myself to be able to keep my own with kids who have traveled the country, when i'm just a kid who does a few races each year and travels to my local Diablo mountain and back. I ended up in 3rd for Giant Slalom finals.
Sunday Downhill is when my bad luck really hit me hard. A horrific thunderstorm rolled in and 1 rider before I was supposed to do my run, they put the race on "hold". I thought it was unfair, having 10 kids race in the dry and the rest of us go in the wet, but as everyone says, "that's racing". After the storm, I stage up top and realize I am now #1 to be on course since the other kid did not show due to the conditions. That is when I knew it was all over before it started. Sure enough, first corner looked normal, but it was about 3inches of mud slop with a top layer that looked like dirt. I tried to save it, but the front end was completely gummed up. I slid out, both embarassed and pissed, I got up as quick as possible and tried to control the front end until the mud shed off, but it was to late. All of the rock gardens were still fine even after the rain, I was suprised when I came into them, thinking they were going to be treacherous. All in all, the only positive I can see from this weekend is that I did not get injured, not a single flat tire or mechanical problem, and I proved to myself that singlespeed bikes can be just as fast as geared ones, although i'd prefer a few gears. I guess 2010 US Open will be my next oppurtunity to prove myself.
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So far this year has been quite well. I competed in the first race of the H2H series finishing 1st in Sport <18. I missed the next 2 H2H XC race due to allergies and not being able to breath from the pollen. Next race up was the one and only USOPEN of Downhill Mountain Biking. Started off the weekend well trying some new stuff and also borrowing a DJ hardtail to race in my first ever DS event. I played some strategy on my DH Qualifer...instead of pinning it I took it nice and easy coming in a slow 74th position, which was alittle to close to the bubble of 100 rides then I wanted(time was a 3:23). When the Finals came on Sunday I pinned an extremely fast but clean run minus coming unclipped in the grass turn before the final RedBull jump, losing a second or two but can not complain...finishing 24th overall again(same as last year) with a time of 3:07). I suprised myself for making the final cap of 32 riders for Amateur DS as being my first time ever doing it on a borrowed bike with street tires, singlespeed and no front brake! Qualified 26th and in the Finals got knocked out in the first round by .005 ending up in 27th overall. Back to XC...Stewart DarkHorse XC finishing 2nd. Onto this weekend which was the Bulldog Rump XC race and National Qualifier for Mount Snow. I came into this race hoping to win where I would be able to qualify, not knowing that they took the top 15 and this race was also a NJ State Championship event. So, I came out of this weekend with a 2nd place overall, qualifying for Mount Snow National and also being the NJ State Champion for Sport Class. Next big events are the Windham National and Mount Snow, seeya there.
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