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As Jared doesn't have net access I thought I'd fill you all in. Today the seeding and quarter finals were run for both women and men. Jared had a reasonably good first seeding run leaving him in 7th position. From what I can see in the replay he wasn't going at 100%, playing it safe. Second run didn't go to plan and resulted in a DNF after messing up the first straight. A missed opportunity to go faster which left him in 11th place after both runs.
Obviously unphased, of the three quarters finals Jared won two, only being edged out of the third victory on the line by Roger Rinderknecht.
Fellow Australian rider Kamakaze also scraped through into the semis, Luke Madill didn't fair so well with a series of crashes that left him out of the running.
So who's fast? From what I've seen the usual suspects, Mike Day had a blinder, Donny Robinson had a sketchy start with a single vehicle accident in the first race, but came back in the second two, Maris looked unbeatable untill he nearly crashed himself out of his third quarter.
With one day of competition left we hvae three very tough semis and then a single final tomorrow. Check out who's in what semi here. Full results and starting times for tomorrow can be found here.
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I've had some sleep now, I feel much more with it.
Training leading up to penrith had been good, so i was hoping for a good weekend, so with 2 wins i was happy.
I flew in on friday arv right before practice and met up with team SA. I have to say, the South Australia crew had a pretty sweet set-up going for the riders. With Manayta (said man-ay-ta...AKA, Shazza willoughby) and Col Kitty (AKA Col "the cat...meow" willoughby) looking after their shredders. With all meals cooked, groceries done, registration, and travel arrangements taken care of for me, all I had to do was.....ride my bike! More states could learn from SA's setup, it was awsome. The track at Penrith was probably the best all around of all season, good track, tight and technical with deep sections, and plenty of different options on how to ride each straight, not just one distinct fastest way, and the best thing was a nice fast dropping gate for a change. So to racing, and i was getting good gates, I won my semi, and got a good lane draw for the main with lane 4, Willers had lane 1, so he was probably going to be the biggest threat, with Madill over in 8, it was going to be hard for him. I got a pretty good lap going from there, and had a comfortable win, Willers got 2nd, madill 3rd, so some more good counrty points. Sam willoughby was killing it in the juniours all day and had a pretty easy win, after a slow start, but he's well and truly got the gas advantage over the rest of the boys. Day 2, Felt better today than on day 1, which was unusual but very welcome. Some more good lapswere had, chilled a fair bit in my motos, won my semi again, then got lane 7 for the final, between madill in 6 and Kamakaze in 8. Kama was set for soem good results this weekend, he had tons of gas and was handling the track well, but it wasnt to be for him. about half way through the gate call, I started to loose my balance a bit on the flat gate, so I missed the snap a bit and it messed my first few cranks up a bit, butnot too bad, i rode a real good 1st stright and got a pretty comfy holeshot in the end. As it turns out this final also decided our ocania UCI series, Willers and myself were safe in 1st and 2nd, but whoever beat who in the main would win the overall. So Willers got into 2nd from lane 1 again and was pushing hard behind, we had some contact in turn 2 but it was all good, and i got my 2nd win in 2 days and my 5th for the series and took the overall as well. Brian Kirkham found himself in 3rd down the 2nd straight where the deep rhythum claimed him in a big way, and he was oof to hospital where they found he had broken his knuckle, which was lucky considering the crash he had...it was UGLY! This balled up pretty much everyone behind in some way, Alex Cameron has been riding really good all season making pretty much every main, and took 3rd, with Madill in 4th. Sam once again killed the juniours, and in the process scored maximum points for the series with 7 round wins, he was definately on another level to the rest of them. This also made it 4 wins for the new YETI Super X frame from it's first 4 races! Great success! So im back home now, taking it easy for a few days, and im back to training on Thursday, just 4 weeks till the supercross round in Adelaide now, and our national BMX champs the week after. All for now. Gravey! |
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Just had some more building done here at home, a nice early morning session, Rick just rocked up and started digging...what a legend! So a big thanks to Rick Shredder for that, and we have tomorrow planned as well for a solid session of digging, 2 more doubles will be done, including a nice 12 meter (39 ft) slight step up bandit which dirt is partially in place for.
Works our nice after a big weeks training to take a couple easy days and build a bit. I also have planned with my dad to build a mini SX ramp, by mini I mean a 10 meter long ramp at 16degrees, just like the first part of a SX ramp, so that will be good training to get the most out of my first 4-5 cranks. I got the bmx-tronic gate dropping like lightning, feels just like the pro gate, thats the best thing about the tronics, with a bit of thinking you can change anything on them to get them dropping just like you want them too. So hopefully that should be done in the next 2 weeks |
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This interview just went up at Bikeradar, there's some more info and pics of the new bmx up there too.
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Added some pics from the Gravey Compound Phase 1.
Phase 2 construction commences tomorrow.
Cheers
Jared
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Tue, 07/03/2007 - 2:50am — Jared
Raced the G3 event in Keystone in Colorado on the weekend, what is a G3? Basically its 2 differenbt Dh courses, and one super D, run over 2 days, and the best overall time wins, and there was a $10,000 purse for the pro categories.... It was never going to be easy with the length of the runs at Keystone and the courses starting at near 12,000ft altitude, i headed up with Justin on thursday night to get in some practice on friday, and after a couple runs on each course was feeling ok about the race, got in a couple more runs on the saturday morning so that made me feel a bit better about racing, still didnt really know where i was going on the courses though.... So the 1st of the dh runs on Saturday ended up being the most painful experience ever, it was almost 11 minutes long, very stop-start and pedally, but a good fun run, it was just very painful to race on..... With most of my training being based around 30-40 second races these days i didnt have the legs for 11 minutes flat out..... Justin killed it though and put 15 seconds into me, i took 2nd though, and Curtis Keene took 3rd about 5 seconds back from me. It was a weird run, from the altitude and pedalling my whole body turned to jelly by 3 minutes into the run, then i was just trying to survive, i felt so much slower in sections than in practice coz i just couldnt breathe at all, i had one off that i could have saved but was just too tired to try, haha. we then had about 5 hours rest before the super D.... it was more like a long pedally DH than a super D, but i rode the Yeti 575 anyway, a lot of guys went for the DH rigs though, the 575 felt awesome the whole way down, and it was super wild on the fast rough stuff! we went off at 15 second intervals with seeding being based from the morinings DH, so i was off 2nd behind Justin, this was quite an intersting run, everyone had learnt from the suffer fest in the morning that pacing yourself was going to be the way to go, so that was the plan, I got going and got into a good rythum almost straight away, and i was just trying to reel justin in where i could, and make the most of the small bikeon the flatter bits where Justin was on his 303, but everytime i'd catch him up a little, a fast rough section would come up and he could get a gap again, and by the finish and 15 minutes of super D he had maintained his 15 second interval and put another 2 seonds into me, it was a super fun race though, i could just see him the whole way but just couldnt shut down the gap, we both put a bit of time into the rest of the pro field and consolidated our positions of 1st and 2nd.... Only the last leg to go early Sunday arv, and that was the usual Keystone DH course used at all Dh races held there, it was a fair bit more Dh like and shorter than the 1st course at just over 8 miuntes long, still a leg and lung burner though, but it could be pinned the whole way,
i was feeling pretty hammered from the day before but once i got going i felt good, i just wanted a clean run, coz i had to make up 17 seconds on Justin for the win which was going to be very tough, and had about 30 seconds on Curtis keene in 3rd by this point. On my run I ran into a tree about 5-6 turns into my run....just not thinking at all, it kinda pissed me off, so i just pinned it from there, probably should'nt have, i felt the rim hit rocks a few times and could have easily flatted, but i got down in 8.14, for a new course record, and i got 8 seconds on Justin, he was just trying to get down in one peice to get the overall, the smart plan it was and it was enough to get the overall, after 35 minutes of racing it came down to just 10 seconds between us, Kain Leonard rode super solid all weekend and got ahead of Curtis for 3rd overall, Curtis took 4th, and Eli Krahenbuhl took 5th overall.... it was a real fun weekend all up, lots of suffering was had, but really good training, maybe they need to make the courses just flow a bit better, take out some of the little tight uphill lines would be my advice, but then again it is meant to be a differnt kind of event, not just pure DH, so maybe its good just how it is...... anyways, im back in Denver now packing for the world cup in Austria this weekend, so more reports from there..... |
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Willingen, Germany (June 3 and 4) - The Yeti-FOX Factory Race Team had its best weekend yet. Jared Graves had a near-flawless 4X, and Justin Leov is regaining his speed after hurting his shoulder in Vigo, Spain.
The 4X course was long with huge jumps -- German style. Jared Graves qualified 4th and reached the final with a trio of BMX powerhouses: Michal Prokop, Joost Wichman and Roger Rinderknecht. Since Graves qualified slowest of the four, he started from the far outside. Oh well, no matter. He snapped all those guys, pulled around the outside and led from there.
Toward the end, Graves had that dangerous thought: "Oh my gosh, I`m in the lead; I`m gonna win this," and he slowed down a bit. Just then Wichman pulled alongside, and it was ON: A full sprint to the finish, and Graves took it by a wheel. He isn`t the burliest guy on the circuit, but he sure knows how to pedal. Before gravity racing he was a top Australian XC racer. That can`t hurt.
Team manager Damion Smith was stoked for his boy. "We`ve had little troubles here and there, but it all came together for this one. It was awesome." Graves raced his Yeti Dirt Jumper with a FOX F100 pumped to perfect stiffness and his standard tires: Maxxis High Roller front and Larsen TT rear.
The downhill was almost entirely human engineered -- German style. Right out of the gate, riders made a couple strokes then boosted a five-foot drop. A series of a half dozen monster jumps added moto flavor and made for great video (Check out Clay Porter`s magic at www.yeticycles.com.). Lower in the woods, the course remained teutonically manicured, with even more jumps and some fun drops over rock piles. If you took good lines, there were basically no bumps.
On course like this, the times tend to be close. Graves ripped a clean 2:02.09 and wound up 11th. One second faster would have been five places. Leov`s shoulder didn`t bother him at all on this bump-free run, and he rode a 2:05.79, good for 31st.
Willingen`s speed, smoothness and jumps demanded a firmer, more planted ride than typical rocky World Cup downhills. On the FOX 40 forks, the boys increased high- and low-speed compression by about four clicks, and they slowed down the rebound. On their DHX shocks, they added air pressure to increase the Propedal damping. The result: A pair of very snappy Yeti 303 DHs.
The dirt was spongy, with some gravel on top. Graves rode Wet Scream mud tires, with the center knobs trimmed for faster rolling. That seemed like a great way to hook into the soft ground. Clever.
The team is getting its program dialed. This weekend they`ll rock the Sugar Mountain NMBS in North Carolina. The forecast calls for thunderstorms. Better keep those Wet Screams handy.
SPONSORS
The Yeti-FOX Racing Factory Team rides the best products on the market.
- FOX - Front and Rear race-tuned Suspension
- Shimano - Drivetrain, chain, brakes, pedals, footwear
- DT Swiss - Swiss quality wheelsets
- Maxxis - Rolling the best rubber on the circuit
- Chris King - The finest headsets on the planet
- MRP - The best chainguides available
- Topeak - Pumps, tools, and bike stands
- Thomson - Stems and seatposts
For more information contact:
Mark Fitzsimmons
Chris Conroy
www.yeticycles.com
www.FOXracingshox.com
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hey gang, got to a computer for a few minutes so hers whats been going
on....
Vigo world cup, well arriving at the airport in vigo was a new experience
for me, turns out we were on teh same flight as the barcelona football club
who were playing in vigo that weekend, there was about 10,000 people that
came to see them at the airport, and the local police had set up a walkway
for the team to come through, through the fans and out to their bus out
front. So the other people on the flight (me included) had to go through teh
same walkway, as it turns out i was the first person to get all my bags from
baggage claim, so i started the walk through thousands of mad soccer fans,
only since i was first out they thought i was part of the team and people
were swamping me....coming and shaking my hand...wanting pictures and
autographs....they thought i was with the team!!!! it was so crazy!!! i got
some video on my phone..its nuts!
anywya, the dh course was pretty cool, pretty gnarly and super hard to have
a clean run on, oh so easy to make mistakes on, i went for a pretty cruisy
qualifyer, as you do, and came in 13th, less than a second outside the top
10, so all was good there, for finals i didnt feel nervous at all, im not
sure weather that was a bad thing or good thing, but anyways, my run was way
too scrappy, just trying to ride too fast, made quite a few small mistakes,
and ended up 15th, so it was ok i guess, but im really really wanting to be
in the top 10 for dh.
4x went ok as well, i qualified 3rd, all the times were real tight, the
course was cool, 2 massive drifty turns that bmxers sucked ass on, and
planty of big jumps and the first 2 straights were all rythums, problem
being my gate at home drops a touch slower than this gate, and id been doing
so many gates at home that when i got on this gate i kept going too late,
itd been drilled so firmly into my head at home when to go, i couldnt get my
head around it, by the time racing came around my gates were going better,
but still not fantastic, but i easily made it through to the semi finals,
where i blew my gate real good, there was no real pasing to be done, and the
guy that id just smoked the last 2 races before went on to win the semi and
through to the final...not happy, i had the small final then for 5th-8th, it
was more like a main final, i had Cedric, Chris Powell, and Lucas Tamme
(super fast bmx bandit) and as luck would have it i got my shit together and
got a near perfect gate and won the small final for 5th.
Lisbon downtown was yesterday, and i dont really want to talk about it, the
streets of lisbon are a polished cobble stone that i similar to riding on
mud without the mud, its so so soooo slippery. imagine riding on a polished
wooden floor, thats what its like, i slid into a wall in qualifying and
stopped dead and just squeezed into the top 25 final with 19th, but i knew i
would be going a heap faster in my final. atthis race all you get is a
maximum of 4 practice runs then race, and after 4 runs i still hadnt got teh
hang of teh cobles, i was trying wayy too hard and was sliding around every
turn, usually a front wheel slide, which is not very fun, i had a very
frustrating final and never once found any sort of rhythum, atleast i didnt
crash, but 14th was all i could manage, and thats all im going to say about
it, it was a pretty crazy race though, the amount of people that watch is
phenominal, and its shown live on portugese tv, after a shitty qualifyer i
sat in the hot seat for quite a while and that was cool
from now were going to stay in Switzerland at claudio caluori`s house and
we`ll be doing plenty of dh and xc in the next week getting ready for ft
william that is the weekend after next, so i cant wait to get back on the
dirt again and pin it!!!
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currently resting at home after a long season, thinking about what i want out of next season,
getting back on the bmx bike for a fair bit of racing here in Australia, and eventually preparing for teh Aussie national series
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