US National Champs: Double Podium!

This year our US national champs race was held at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA. The DH course was to be a sub 2 minute run without much elevation to work with. The 4X course was actually built well, with a really tricky last straight-away rhythm section. The schedule was a bit screwy with practice starting on Friday, so I didn’t show up until Thursday afternoon. The weather was going to be hot! 90 degrees plus the whole weekend!
After talking to a few of the riders I decided it wasn’t worth walking the short DH course on Thursday. There wasn’t anything too gnarly, and it was going to be a course that required very little mistakes! The shuttle was taken in brand new Toyota trucks and you could get as many runs as you’d like with the short times. I decided to start on my YETI ASX short travel DH bike, otherwise known as the “Fontucki Flyer”! I knew right away that this was the bike for this DH course. I went with my usual set up with a 2.35 high roller on front, with a Larsen 2.35 on the back. After taking 4-5 runs, I really felt like I had a legitimate shot at winning the DH National Title. The shorter course was very similar to my local track in Fontana, and I felt confident in my bike and setup. I ended up taking 9-10 runs and by the end of the day I felt like I had the course wired. We also had 4X practice and qualifying that evening. I decided to ride my YETI DJ Hardtail, because the start was going to be super important. I also switched to some lighter Fox Forks to help with getting good starts. Lots of people were struggling with the last section of the course, as it took some tricky timing to get through it. I definitely like when courses require some skill as it tends to separate the riders pretty well. I qualified 2nd behind Lopes, with my bro EC in 3rd. I was pretty stoked with my time, and I knew I had a legit shot at making the final.
Saturday we didn’t have any DH practice, as all the amateurs would be racing all day. The 4X finals started at 6 pm so it was a pretty mellow day. I slept in till 11am and showed up at the track around 2pm. We started practice at 5 pm. I felt really fast on the course, but was struggling a bit with my gate starts. For some reason I can’t seem to get the timing down of the random 7 second start. Since they only took 16 riders into the final, it was only going to take 2 rounds and you’re in the final. My first round I had Lars Sternberg, Mikey Haderer, and Drew Powers. Lars got the holeshot on me, but made a mistake in the first turn. I got by him and cruised to the finish. 2nd round I had Lars, EC, and Ryan Finney. I chose lane 2, Finney was in 1, EC in 3, and Lars in 4. EC got the holeshot and beat us to the first turn. Lars and I battled through the first turn and came out side by side. We bumped a few times going down the 2nd straight, and somehow Lars ended up on the ground?!? I guess it’s tough to move the Big House out of the way???
I moved on to the final with Lopes, EC, and Cody Warren. Lopes had lane choice and chose lane 1….. (Weird move?) I chose lane 3, EC took 4 and Cody was in 2. While sitting in the Gate EC tapped me and asked if I was good with my gate pick? I wondered why he said that, but just replied, “Yup I’m all good”. I don’t think it really mattered, because EC timed the gate perfect! He smoked us all to the first turn! I came out of the first turn in dead last, but made a move on Cody Warren in the 2nd turn. I came out in 3rd and basically just followed Lopes and EC to the line. Lopes made a race out of it, and almost nipped EC at the line. EC won his 2nd straight national title. Stoked for my older bro! I ended up in 3rd for the bronze medal.
Sunday was the National finals for Downhill. We had an early practice session from 7:30 am to 9:30am with qualifying starting at 10:00 am. The course had changed quite a bit from all the amateurs racing on it the day before. Some of the course markings had changed, and there were some pretty deep ruts that had formed. I ended up taking 4 runs before qualifying and felt like I had my lines pretty dialed. In qualifying I sprinted pretty hard out of the gate but rode pretty conservative the rest of the way down. I was a bit disappointed with my time, and it was definitely going to take a better effort if I wanted to be on the podium. Fortunately they added a quick practice session before the finals. This worked in my favor, because I felt like I only needed to work on a few sections to get my run really dialed in. I took 3 practice runs and really nailed my last run. I felt like with a good run I could have a shot at the title. I felt like I needed to take around 4-5 seconds off my Semi final time. The heat was really a factor with temperatures hovering around 90 degrees. Luckily I had my mechanic Damion at the top holding an umbrella for me while I warmed up! Thanks D! My final run started out really well! I sprinted the top section very hard and felt strong going into the technical part of the course. I railed a few turns and had one minor bobble towards the middle of the course. I concentrated on exiting the corners as fast as I could, and made sure I sprinted out of each one. Towards the bottom there was a pretty tricky off camber corner to a tight switch back. I ended up being pretty late for the first switch back, and had to take it pretty slow. I lost a bit of time there, but overall I had a pretty solid run. I took 4 seconds off my qualifying time, and came down in 2nd place behind Ryan Finney who was only .2 seconds in front of me. Duncan Riffle came down and went into the lead by .7 seconds. He held onto that position to take the National Title. Ryan Finney was 2nd, and I ended up in 3rd for another Bronze medal. It was a very good weekend for me! I was the only rider to be on both podiums.
My next race is the Norba finals in Snowmass, CO. I have a legit shot at winning the 4X overall title, and need to finish better than Rando in both the Slalom and 4X events. I also just found out I made the Worlds 4X team as an automatic selection! Overall it’s been one of my best years to date! See you in Snowmass!

Big House

Thanks to these Sponsors:
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Deer Valley Race Report:

I flew into Salt Lake City on Wednesday and arrived in Park City, UT around 6:00 p.m. that evening. Fortunately “Big D” and “Sharpie” had already set up the trailer, so that saved me some work! Thanks guys! The pits seemed a little slow and there were some complaints about the 4X being an hour away in downtown Salt Lake. I decided not to walk the DH course, because I’d heard it was pretty close to last year’s course.
Thursday we had DH practice, and 4X practice in the evening. After my first run on the DH, I felt relatively comfortable because the course was close to the same as last year. The “Waterfall” section was a little more blown out, and the “Barney Rubble” section had a few more exposed rocks, but other than that it was all good. I only did 3 runs, but I seemed to be riding pretty solid, and I cleaned every section on the course. We headed out to the 4X course around 4:30 pm, and when we arrived we weren’t all that impressed. Basically we were going to race on a BMX course that had been worked on for the last 2 weeks to repair huge mud bogs. We did gates and rode the course until we were bored, and headed back to the condo.
Friday we had DH practice in the morning, then qualifying and racing for the 4X. My plan was to take it easy in DH practice in order to save some energy for the 4X finals. I banged out 2 runs and called it a day in DH. We then headed out for 4X. We packed up an Easy-Up, some chairs, cooler, and the magic green carpet! It was blazing hot down there, and it was nice to have a mini set up to stay cool. I ended up qualifying in 5th, but felt pretty sluggish. The heat was getting to me, and I knew the course was pretty physically demanding. There were only 21 pros who tried to qualify, so we went straight to the round of 16. I made it out of my first round pretty easily, and advanced to the semi final. In that round I had Jared, Lars Sternberg, and a Czech guy named Peter Hanack. I got a pretty crappy gate start and went into the first turn in dead last! I tried to make a few moves, but to no avail. In the consolation final, I made a pass in the 2nd turn to take the 5th spot. I wasn’t too stoked about my result, and I lost some points to Rando for the overall title. I was definitely riding with a pretty heavy heart, as I had just learned that one of my very good friends had passed away in a motorcycle accident. R.I.P RKM!!
Saturday was a pretty quick day with only having DH practice for 2 hrs. I did another 2 runs, and felt like I had the course as dialed as it needed to be. Sunday morning I only did 1 practice run, and decided to just ride a safe qualifier in the semi final. I ended up in 21st for the semi, and felt like I could scrub some time off for the final. In the final I thought I rode pretty solid, and ended up in 18th place. It’s weird but that’s one of my best results this year in DH. I’ve definitely been concentrating more on the Slalom and 4X stuff, so I think that’s been affecting my DH finishes.
This Deer Valley race was lots different than years past. There were less people, less hype, and an overall negative vibe from the people. It’s too bad because this race used to be one of the biggest on the schedule. Let’s hope we can turn this stuff around, and bring some good vibes back to the gravity portion of MTB racing!

Big HOuse


Thanks to these Sponsors:

Yeti Cycles
Fox Shox
Scott
AXO
Shimano
Maxxis
DT Swiss
MRP
Control Tech
Topeak
Chris King
Thompson
Monster
Kicker
ODI
Dylan Dean Designs
Finish Line
Fizik
Toolshed
Signs and Logos.net
SponsorHouse