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Originally posted on 7/19/2004 I pretty much rode bikes this weekend, and notta lotta anything else, with downhilling all weekend starting at Keystone on Saturday, then Vail on Sunday. Saturday was excellent conditions, I don't think the track at Keystone has ever been better. I feel like I slowed down, concentrated on being smooth and flowing though each of the sections, and wound up being way faster overall. It probably helped that I was also chasing Yeti factory rippers Ross Milan and Jared Graves down the hill! There's one part where you have to "navigate" down three burly steps packed tightly together, then gap from a stump to backside of a big rock, while missing that tree just on the left of the rock. I came in smooth and on target, weight low and centered, and for the first time ever, just let go of the brakes and floated down it. It was way cool! Ross was at the bottom and cheering me on, saying I came through that section faster than he did, and that I looked über smooth and fast. Nice! It's not everyday you ride that at the end of it you can say... "I am a better rider than I was when I woke up" but Saturday was certainly that for me. Other Saturday action was seeing blogger-stylish E.Monsma on the lift at Keystone. That was pretty hysterical, seeing a fella that I don't know and have never met, other than through voyeuristic blog-reading. I thought about giving him the big shocker wave, but decided on a simple "what's up?" style greeting instead. I don't think he recognized me at first, but I know he figgered it out after a while. Later Saturday I got to hang with my friend Ryan who I graduated college with. Way cool, fun time. Low-key, graphic-designer-laden house party with great people, tasty snacks, and cold beer. Vail on Sunday was for fun, not pushing it and just relaxing. Several breakout rain showers made the trails really tacky and grippy in some places, and really teacherous and slippery in others. Magic Forest with it's crazy rock hip jumps, flowing berms and steep, rough runnout stepdowns gave way to steep, North Shore-style trail Old 9 with lots of off camber, wet roots, butt-cheeks-on-the-rear-wheel descents, and a few wooden bridges thrown in for fun. At the bottom of Old 9, hook in to Mainline and it's a berm-rallying pedal-fest to the bottom. To mix it up some, throw in a run on the '94 World Cup DH Course and get your turn, turn, root, bump, bump, turn, root on. Or for an Epic DH™ hit the Matterhorn which swoops way out into West Vail, with loads of fun, high-speed corners, some steeper skid-fest chutes and lots of fun woodsy singletrack. Ah yes... Riding! It's weekends like these that make me happy to have a job that I can go back to on Monday and catch up on some rest!
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Originally written on 6/8/2004 So yeah, I spent the last couple of weekends at Angel Fire riding bikes and having a sweet ass time of it all. In case you were all wondering where I done been for a while, that's where. That and working my ass off, riding a ton, and generally having two of the most stellar weeks of my life. Memorial Day weekend I went to Angel Fire just to get some much-needed DH riding in. I haven't really been on my downhill bike for a long long time, and it was excellent to get out, bombing some real gnarly-style trails and having a good time. I got to ride with tons of cool peeps, including (but most certainly not limited to) the Mojo Wheels crew, half the Yeti Cycles factory squad, world champion downhiller Missy "The Missile" Giove, and a couple of Australian Funn/Foes riders. Needless to say, muchos muchos fun was had, and I got to pick up a few tips about throwing elbows from The Missile.Then, this past weekend (june 6-7th) was the Chile Challenge race at Del Fuego Los Angeles. SICK SICK SICK is all I can say! So many good times were had by one and all that I almost wet myself with enthusigasm. The DH start list read like a World Cup event, with riders from all over the globe competing in the elite pro category, and the racing in the amateur ranks has gotten fast again, which made my job a little harder to say the least!Saturday was pretty rough for me... We didn't get to Angel Fire until 1 a.m. the night before; and between no sleep, registering early in the a.m., no breakfast, and 4X practice and qualifying first thing followed directly by DH practice, I was more than whupped. Sour mood was taking over, so I called it at around 2 p.m. to get some lunch... And what a great idear that was! 3:30 rolled around and it was again time for more 4X practice, followed by elimination finals. Turns out I qualified 16th out of 16 riders in my class, which meant that my first moto would be against the fastest qualifier, and two middle-pack guys. Well, I was all set to gate-snap these buffoons and crank my way to a 'darkhorse' victory, but was foiled when I find out (the hard way!) that I was in too high of a gear to get outta the gate quickly. 4X 1, Evan 0. Went out in the first round, but also had the cleanest, freshest, fastest and funnest run down the track of the entire day, so I was most certainly not bummed to 'hit the cooler' so they say and enjoy the rest of the racing while drinkin' a frosty cold one!My big surprise of the weekend came when it was time for my race run on Sunday. There was more practice from 8-9 a.m. (what is it with these damn race promoters?) So I fired off a sloppy but acceptable practice run to knock the cobwebs outta the system. Then it was wait wait wait until my start time, 1:35:30 p.m. Joy. Then the lift shut down, and delayed things by 25-30 minutes, so I was looking at a 2 p.m. Start time. Jeesh! The lift got going again about 1, but we shuttled ourselves up the hill with my boss's truck to make sure we had enough time. Turns out we did, so for shits and giggles we hauled ass down a different trail to get the blood pumping and legs warmed up. Immediately I got on the lift and headed up, 15 minutes before my race start time. Sweet.Here comes the surprise: my race run was technically awful. I hit a tree. I slipped and popped pedals all over the place. My upper body was so fatigued I was braking in sections that didn't need brakes. I fell off the bike in a rock garden whop! I made at least half a dozen mistakes, at least 3 of which brought me to a complete stop. I should mention that none of my mistakes were met with any physical harm, everything is in working order and I didn't incur any additional scrapes, cuts, bruises, etc. Perhaps I learned how to fall better? Anyways... The cool part? Last year my run on this course was flawless... Feet stayed on pedals and tires stayed on the ground, no falls or stops, and I was a full minute faster this year over last!Last year, had there been 34 guys in my class, I would have placed 32nd, with the 33rd and 34th place guys having flat tires or broken chains or something. This year, it was all about 25th out of 34 guys! I'm way stoked... I have no place to go but up up up and although I am a little puzzled as to how I got faster for sitting on my ass for four months recovering from just about the guh-narliest injury one can have, I'm not going to 'look the gift horse in the mouth' as they say, and keep on moving forward. I finally feel as though I'm racing at the 'expert' level (whatever that means) and it's a pretty rad feeling!Life is to frikkin' precious to be asking too many gosh darn questions and not to be out there living it!
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