A few years ago I promised myself I would accomplish a list of things that I would accomplish before I turn 40. Things like buy a new condo, get (yet another) tattoo, start racing bikes again.... Basically things I wouldn't regret later on in life once I was strapped to a wheelchair pissing in a diaper. Well I've completed them all with the exception of thing that is just going to happen when I feel inspired.

One of the more important items on the list was to start racing bikes again. See when I was just a little guy and my balls were dropping, my face was riddled with acne, tall, skinny and akward I used to race BMX out at a track in Taylorsville called Riverview Raceway which then became Mountainview Raceway. From about 1985-1987 I tore it up and retired having just turned Expert. Basically, I turned 16 and got my driver's license.

Since 1991 I've been riding mountain bikes to varying degrees. Not so much right at the start as going to school full time and working full time didn't leave much room for a hobby other than drinking a lot of coffee. When I put my list of 'to do before I die' things, racing BMX was no where in my thoughts. I wanted to race mountain bikes. Period.

For some reason BMX has been haunting me for about the past year but I never acted on it until a couple of weeks ago when I found out Utah once again has a huge BMX scene, including a sweet indoor track. What a lot of people don't realize is how much BMX technique plays into mountain biking. If you've never ridden, jumped or raced a BMX bike a kid you wouldn't understand any of this, but if you did you see it in your and others technique.

So, long story short, I bought myself a custom 24" Staats BMX cruiser in an extra long frame to cater to my lanky ass. Staats are handmade down in my old hood, Sandy, and are some of the sweetest frames on the market. Having a pang of buyers remorse I took it out to Rad Canyon's indoor track last Friday and delved into this bizarre world once again. After a couple of practice laps, I bought a year license and entered the open cruiser class. Saturday rolls around and I manage to qualify which was a feat in and of itself considering the cruiser class is open and I was lined up against a few pro mtb DH racers who've also been racing BMX for a number of years. It was a bit unnerving being in lane 2 next to Justin Alvey with his #3 ranked number plate in my first moto in twenty some odd years. I came in dead last in the Main, but having just barely qualified against a stacked and experienced cruiser class was a victory in my book.

Well, it was another great year.  First Overall and Utah State Super D Champion and Fifth Overall in the Downhill.

Despite getting a concussion after breaking my helmet over my head, I thought things would slow down a bit.  Not really, it just made racing/riding a bit fuzzy for a while.

Big Thanks to all who helped me along the way:   Maxxis, 661, Royal Racing, Sunline and Turner.  You have no idea how all that stuff helped out this season.

And now it's time to have some real fun.....

Third time's the charm at Sundance.  Third Place back in 2006.  Second Place last year and First Place this year. 



I'm not a huge fan of this course as it is just a glorified XC course and doesn't jive well with a 6.5" travel bike.  However, we got a nasty storm in last night and it dumped water on the course making it super tacky and fast.  Which made for great and fun racing as you could just punch the berms and corner like you were on rails which helped those of us more inclined towards downhilling. 



What I was most pleased with was my time vs. Mike Holder.  He was a hard one to beat last year (and still is this year) but moved up to the 40-49 class so we don't race each other anymore.  I finally managed to take some time off of his gap on a course that doesn't sit well with me. 



I was set up to take the overall Super D series after Brian Head.  All I needed to do was show up and post a decent result and the points would just work itself out.  So once again:  Utah State Super D Champion Expert Mens 30-39.



Congrats to Mike Holder and Jay Migliore for taking the Championship in their age classes.  See you guys next year!



Big thanks to Maxxis for hooking me up with all those tires at great prices.  661/Royal/Sunline for all the great prices on armor, clothing and handlebars. 

And thanks to Turner for hooking me up with a great frame for the season.



Now it's time to close on my new place and move. 



Rumor has it there is a mega-super D down in Moab in late October....who knows...

Brian Head is always a great race.  We used the same popular course as last year with the exception of the option to launch a 10 foot drop, go around it or take the single track wide around the outside (slowest option).  I practiced the drop but at speed I was almost landing to flat.  The transition was great, but you had to scrub a ton of speed to hit it and actually land on the backside instead of on the flat. 

Once again the upper section was cardio hell.  This race starts right at 11000 feet and you can feel it.  Brian Head's been getting a ton of rain and it seems like most of the top soil has been erroded leaving a pile of rocks on any trail.  Even little, easy Color Country took a gash out of my bashguard. 

Not a lot of trail maintenance has been going on up there so everything was rough.  To Brian Head's credit they added a couple of berms and on Timberline and some new stunts on another trail we didn't use. 

Anyway, this race puts me 4 out of 4 First Places.  I missed Wyoming so that will be the event I have nixed for the overall.  Just need a First at Sundance and I'm golden.   Until then.....

Pulled out a 1st place in the Expert Mens 30-39 Super D yesterday.  It was a 5 mile XC fest and times were around 20 minutes.  I ended up putting in the third fastest time of the day.

Today was my third downhill ever.  Managed a 4th place in the Sport Mens 30-39 after an over the bars crash second turn in.  Oh well, not too bad considering I went down.

One month until Brian Head.  Time to get my cardio going.

Well once again the Deer Valley curse has gotten the best of me.  Seems every year both at the National event and the Utah State series I either manage to choke or have a catastrophic mechanical up there.  Which is a bit sad as with the past 3 years the courses have really catered to my strengths. 

I managed 9th out of 16 in the Open Mens 30-39 and to be honest for a moment there I thought I had that race in the bag.  I managed to catch the guy who started ahead of me rather quickly and then passed another rider near the finish.  The Turner RFX just nailed the downhill sections and both the high speed/loose and the chewed up/moon dust corners. 

In hindsight I lost that race at the start line and on the climb.  Obviously I need to work on my cyclo-cross mounts as I seriously flubbed that up which cost more than a few seconds.  And I just died on the climb.  My legs felt like someone had tied a boat anchor to the bike even though I prepared for it and dropped my gearing down from a 38 to a 36 tooth ring.  For the rest of the course I decided a heavier MAXXIS 2.5" Minion 3C was the best choice given how many people were flatting and the added bulk up front really helped on those chewed up corners filled with cantalope sized, loose rocks.  I had trouble during a few practice runs with rear tire choice and settled on a MAXXIS 2.35" LUST Ignitor with a tube.  The extra thick sidewall helped avoid flats and the Ignitor seemed the best overall choice for that diverse a course.

Overall I had a killer run, but those two errors cost me the race.  The course they put together was one of the funner courses I've raced and would love to get up there and do it all over again in the future...win or lose. 

The season's just kicked off and is going great so far.

A few weeks ago I got a wild hair up my butt and entered The Bountiful Bomber DH race at Bountiful, UT.  One of the more technical and fast courses in the Utah State DH series, I got spanked there in 2006 and haven't raced DH since.  After making a few slight modifications to my new Turner RFX and dusting off my full face I headed up and pulled out a solid Third Place in the Mens Sport 30-39 against guys on dedicated DH race bikes. 

Earlier this afternoon I saddled up for the first Super D of the year:  Wolf Mountain Mayhem.  Ron at Salamander Promotions gave me the honor of designing this course as it was the first time we've been able to race at this new resort.  For those of you not familiar with Ron Lindley he is the 'inventor' of the Super D format, holding the first Super D races down in Provo, UT back in the '90s.  He later introduced it to NORBA and they've ran with it ever since. 

Although we were a bit limited due to the smaller size of the mountain, it ended up being super fast and technical enough to keep the XC guys from dominating.  This was also my first race as an Expert and pulled out a First Place in the Expert Mens 30-39.  Once again, the RFX stepped up to the plate and performed flawlessly.

Big thanks to Turner for designing such a versatile frame and 661/Sunline/Royal for the knee pads, chest protector, bars and clothing.  And I cannot forget Maxxis for putting out such great tires.

Next weekend is the NMBS #4 at Deer Valley.  See you there!

This weekend was great.  I threw on some 2.5" Maxxis Minions, a 50mm stem, a DRS chainguide and some flat pedals on the RFX and raced the Bountiful Bomber downhill race (race #1 in the Utah State Series).

I was at a bit of a disadvantage running a trail bike with an RP23 against guys on 8" travel dedicated DH race bikes, but I figured a win would be stellar and if I bombed it (no pun intended) it would be no big deal.

I have to say the RFX definitely stepped it up. 

First run:  6:08, 6:10 and my time of 6:11.  Third place

Second run:  5:53, 5:58 and my time of 6:08.  Third place again and I managed to scrub 3 seconds off my time even after hitting a tree and coming to a complete stop.

Final:  Third Place Mens 30-39.  Not too bad for a "little" trail bike going up against the big bikes.

I took the RFX out on it's second ride today up on the Bountiful Bomber DH race course.  What can I say?  The bike performed near perfectly.  I could have sworn I was on a full blown 8" travel DH bike.  Even with that little RP23 things just worked and they worked right. 

There's really not much more to say.....

I've been riding around on the 5 Spot pretty much non-stop with the exception of one week and a race on a Niner hard tail.  The 5 Spot's a great trail bike but after much thought and trial and error I came to the conclusion that I needed something with a bit more travel.  I rode a 6.5" bike all last year and that amount of travel always felt good...so I purchased a bronze RFX from Go-Ride today.  I'm waiting for some parts to come in, but am stoked at the idea of a bit more travel and change.

Pictures to follow soon enough....