Round #2 of the Golden State Downhill Championships was held up in Tehachapi, CA at Woodward West.  I’d never been out there, so I decided to drive out early Saturday morning for the race.  After about a 3 ½ hour drive, we arrived.  Donny Jackson set us up with a room right at the top of the hill, which was super convenient! 

The Course was definitely on the short side, but was really fun to ride.  I tried the first run on my ASX, but soon realized that my 4X YETI would be much faster.  I could pedal out of the turns lots quicker, and I could charge the jumps harder on it.  I had my 4X bike set up really stiff, so I needed to take out some compression from both the forks and rear shock.  I also changed my rear 2.0 Larsen out for a 2.35 Larsen super tacky.  I did about 6 runs on Saturday, and I really felt like I had the course dialed.

Sunday was race day, and about 15 pros had signed up. Including my older bro EC, who I know won the event last year!  I did 3 practice runs in the morning, and although my legs felt a bit heavy from the day before, I knew I had a solid chance of finishing well.  The format was 2 runs, combined time for your overall.  My goal was basically to sprint the top section, Sprint the middle traverse, and maintain speed all the way to the line.  As I left the start house in the first run, it was cool to hear the crowd yelling for me, and it gave me some extra motivation.  I had a really solid run, and finished 2nd behind Brad Bennedict by only .1 of second.  Interestingly, both Brad and I were the only 2 pros on 4X style bikes?  Looks like we made the right choice!  For the 2nd run, I knew I had to dig a little deeper, especially on the traverse in the middle of the course.  The cheers on my 2nd run were just as loud, and I found myself sprinting hard right from the top.  I nailed all my lines, and threw down as hard as I could on the pedal section in the middle.  I knocked off a little time from my first run, and ran a 1:11:99.  This was good enough to win the event!  I’m stoked to win again, as it’s been sometime since I stood on the top Spot! 

 

Thanks again to Donny and his family for putting on a solid race!  See you next time! 

Big HOuse

 For the first time in a LONG time, weather was nice throughout the entire event, besides a little wind!  I drove up Wednesday morning and arrived late afternoon.  The venue was pretty much set up the same as always, except the YETI pits were on the opposite side than in years past.  After talking with a few of my teammates it sounded like the Downhill was in really good shape, with some of the top section redone.  I brought up the ol’ Fontucki Flyer, (ASX) because usually the course suits that bike well.  The Dual slalom looked similar to year’s past and I’d definitely be riding my YETI 4X for that. 

 

Thursday was DH practice in the morning, and I was doing a clinic with Kirt Voreis and Joe Lawwill on the Dual Slalom in the afternoon.  I set up my ASX with a 2.35 high roller in the front, and a 2.35 Semi Slick High Roller on the rear.  The DH was really fun this year.  The top section had some cool jumps and the rest of the course had really good flow.  For the first time, you were actually stoked to go back up and do another run!  I did 4 runs, and called it a day.  I felt pretty solid on the ASX, and decided to stick with it.  We did a clinic with 6 riders on the Dual Slalom and that was really fun. There was one mishap with one of our students taking a digger and separating his shoulder.  All in all the riders learned a lot and hopefully will be faster because of it! 

 Friday was DH practice in the morning, then the rest of the afternoon off.  Practice went really well for me, and I was feeling like I could crack the top 20.  The field was pretty stacked with numerous world cup riders in attendance.  I still felt like I had a decent shot, as the short course fit my style! 

 Saturday was Slalom day!  The course was a bit choppy, but really fun.  I went with my standard tire choice of 2.35 high roller front, and 2.0 Larsen TT rear.  I also softened up the front and rear suspension a bit, to get it to stick a little better in the off-camber stuff.  On my very first run down the hill I ended up rolling my tire off the rim, so I added a bit more pressure to make sure that didn’t happen again!  I qualified 8th overall.  I had one pretty fast run on the red side, but sort of rode tentative on the Blue side.  My first round I went against Dave Wardell.  I managed to get through that round pretty smooth and won both rounds.  My 2nd round I went against my old buddy Steve Peat.  I got a really good start in our first round, and managed to squeak out the advantage by .09!  2nd round Peaty got a good jump, and I was behind from the beginning.  I tried to make up the difference but Peaty was riding really solid.  He beat me by .5 to advance.  Day over for me, but I was stoked on my riding.  

 

Sunday was DH day!  I switched out my rear tire to a 2.35 Larsen which ended up tracking a bit better than the Semi Slick.  I did 2 fast runs, and 1 slow run in the morning.  I felt like I had the track dialed.  After a really good warm-up, I was ready for my race run.  Right out of the gate, I could feel that my legs were feeling pretty good.  My run was smooth and consistent, and I ended up 13th on the day.  That’s a pretty solid result for me, and another good ride on the ol’ Fontucki Flyer!

Big HOuse