Race Report May 2007
Duryea DH in Reading, PA
A unique down hill event held in the middle of the city park. This legendary freeride event was back this year as a NORBA sanctioned race. It was missing some of the crazy stunts, such as jumping a car and the infamous airlines launch but it still had the same laid back atmosphere of the previous events making it the perfect season opener. I had a few bike setup issues to work out and did not have the best run but still had a great weekend hanging out with the team “SVB Racing” and just getting back on the DH bike and getting the bugs worked out. Special thanks to Brian and his parents for setting me up for the weekend. The food was awesome.
Plattekill DH Series – Race #1
Back to the grand dad of all east coast DH race series. The first course of the season was so fun with such amazing flow you couldn’t stop doing practice runs. It was also dry which is strange for an early season race. I was having so much fun I had a mostly clean race run with a bobble half way through where I almost went of course. I knocked it back a click or two on the last third of the course to keep it clean and ended up 6th out of 19. Maybe I should have kept it pinned? All in all a great race.
Diablo Domination Series – Race #1
Yes! My local freeride park is open and now its time to get used to the terrain before the US Open next weekend. Rocks, rocks, and more rocks made for a technical track. Smoothness was key to maintaining your speed. Practice was going great but come race day our luck ran out and it rained. I didn’t get the race run I was looking for but it was good to get some riding in on the mountain to get primed for the US Open.
Diablo Freeride Park US Open of Mountain Biking
One weekend its wet, the next it’s a dust bowl. This is quickly becoming the largest most competitive event in the US with 200 pros and 300 amateurs battling for 60 and 100 qualifying spots respectively. The course is the same each year with minor changes to improve upon an already classic course. This year’s changes combined with dry dusty conditions made it the fastest course yet. Did I mention the World Cup style booter near the finish line, too much fun. With some tight competition I managed to qualify with only 30 seconds separating 100 riders. Nobody came out here to loose. During my race run the next day I crumbled under the pressure, crowds, cow bells, and air horns. I just lost my concentration and crashed. I need to focus better and block all that out. Planning to turn it around in June – It’s on!
That’s it for May. Pictures and video will be updated soon. June report to follow the end of the month.