Collegiate Nationals

The Collegiate Nationals were held today at Sugar Mountain Resort in Banner Elk NC. I've already heard unconfirmed reports that SEI's two collegiate riders, MotoMike Thomas and Steven Trottier pulled the first two spots on the Division II podium for App State! Congrats dudes!! More on that story as the details come in!

Matt's 2008 Specialized Demo8 II for sale- $1700.00

I'm selling my '08 Demo for $1700.00. You can email me at mattgriff78@hotmail.com or you can call me at 864-630-1504 if you are interested.

Thanks,

Matt.

North Carolina State Championships

This was a big one for me. Since I haven't been able to make several of the races this season, I really wanted to get a good result here. I've spent countless hours at 26 West bike park over the course of the past several weeks dialing in the course, I've ridden tons of cross-country and BMX, and every pedal stroke I took was one more stroke towards a good result at this event. I loaded up on Friday afternoon (thanks to the teacher next door who volunteered to take my last class period for me!) and headed to 26 West Park. When I got there, it was cold and rainy. I look over and see all my buds sitting in the tent with their street clothes on, looking particularly unexcited about the prospect of riding in it. Qualifying was supposed to be from 4:00 to 6:00 that night so I new I was going to have to go put on my gear, find my happy face and go ride, regardless of what everyone else was doing. I guess my determined positivity got everybody else motivated enough to do the same and after a couple damp practice runs, we all agreed that we were happy about our chose to ride! Anyway, Qualifying finally got started at 6:00 and only four people attempted to qualify. Ethan Quell won by 15 seconds. I got a nice second place behind him and Doug Ferguson was third, just a couple seconds off my time.

Friday night, Kenan, Dave, My sister, Nate, and a bunch of their friends had a great time in Asheville, eating hippie food, but it was actually really good!

On saturday during practice, Jeremy started out the morning with some bad luck when he somehow crammed his rear derailler into his I-9 wheels while he pedalled around the parking lot! He roached about 6-7 spokes out of his back wheel. Jeff from I-9 got him going just before his race run and he rode what he called one of the sketchiest rides of his life to pull in with a pretty respectable time, considering what he'd been through. It's so nice to have local sponsors who know our stuff and can hook us up in a jam! Dave had a good ride as well, keeping the wheels on the ground on a track that was easy to blow up on. I was feeling like I owned the place all day and knew I had a good result in store if I kept on pace. When I crossed the line after my race run, I wasn't confident that it was good enough for anything spectacular. I'd made a few mistakes that I thought would be pretty costly. Turns out, Ethan won by 10 seconds, Doug F. got second, and I was one second off his pace for third. To date, that's my best pro finish, and my first time on the podium, so I'm pretty happy about the way the weekend panned out for me!

Big thanks to Ryan Taylor for putting everything together, Thanks to Kenan and Kat "Hip-Hopkins" for letting me and Dave Crash at their house and hanging out with me after the race!

26 West practice session

Next weekend, 26 West bike part will be hosting the "NC State Championships" for DH. The SEI crew has spent a considerable amount of time at the park this summer and fall and we spent this past weekend up there brushing up our lines and taking a sneak peak at the new section that's just been cut in for the pro course. This course is going to demand riders to bring a whole skillset in order to be fast. Its got lots of jumps, several of which are pretty technical, its got tight fast wood sections, funny turns, a technical rock jump, one short fitness section (aka a parking lot) a super fast part with more jumps, and a really tight, steep section to finish on. Jeremy, Dave, and I feel pretty confident with everything and I'm looking forward to a really fun race this weekend.

Road Bike Weekend

Due to questionable weather and limited gasoline availability, I decided to spend this weekend on the road bike. It has been a long time since I've spent any significant time on a road bike.

Although I am fortunate to have some of the upstate's best cycling routes just out my front door, I have concluded that it is still not as fun as mountain biking. I am hoping to go do some laps at the BMX track this week, and hopefully I'll get some more DH riding in next weekend!

Paris Mountain DH

Hated missing this one, this was the one chance I've had to race a hometown event but due to a commitment I had, I couldn't make it. My sources tell me it was one for the history books though. This was one of the best marketed races I've seen in a long time. It was professionally advertised and expertly promoted. From what I hear, the atmosphere had the same intensity as a big race like the open or an old school National series race. Spectators turned out en masse and the roster was stacked! This stretch of trail is one that we do on a weekly basis, so I knew the SEI crowd was going to be fired up. Sure enough, Mike, Jeremy, and Dave put it up in the top 10 while Steven pulled in a respectable 14th. Wish I could have joined my boys on my mountain, but maybe next year. From the response this race got, I have a feeling this won't be the last time Paris Mountain has a race!

A trip back in time

The longer I ride, the more I sit back and reflect on how long I've been riding. I've been wanting to do a post like this for a while now and since I just got a new camera, I thought this would be a great opportunity to dig through all my old jerseys and post them all in a blog entry.

When our team started in 2001, our title sponsor was a small shop in Easley, SC called Trails End Bicycles. It's no longer in business (hopefully no thanks to us!) and when it went under, we had to look for a new sponsor and a new name. That's when we changed our name to SEI Racing (South East Independent) and hooked up with Sycamore Cycles in Brevard. Since the beginning we've seen a lot of changes both within our team and within the sport of downhill mountain biking in general.

I've joked around that our team reminds me of one of those bands like Van Halen or the Ramones. They've been around forever but some of the faces have changed. Right now, Jeremy Raney and I are the only original members of the band, and hopefully they'll let me stick around for a little while longer.

Our team has seen the sport change a lot over the years. The courses have become more challenging, the technology has become more advanced, and just when you think the limits of what can be done on a bicycle have been pushed to their limits, somebody takes it a little bit further. Through my time with SEI racing, I know I've pushed way beyond the limits of what I thought I could do when I first started.

We've also had a lot of great sponsors over the years. Some have come and gone and some have been with us since the beginning. If it weren't for all of our sponsors over the years, it would have made it extremely difficult for us to do what we've been doing all these years. Our goal is to always make it worthwhile for our sponsors to continue their support and we look forward to continuing for many years to come.

Well, enough of the flapping. Here's were it all started. This was the only jersey we ever had specifically made for our team. That was thanks to Interim Health Care in Greenville SC who gave us a generous sponsorship for 2001 and 2002. Our original team members were Myself, Jeremy Raney, Cecil Linder and Tyler Williams. In 2002, we added Butch Green David Thacker. For both years, we rode Turner Suspension Frames. Michelin tires hooked us up with an unbelievable sponsorship and continues to be a main sponsor today.

In 2003, after Trails End shut its doors, we were in a bind. With no title sponsor, we knew it was going to be difficult to get new equipment sponsors. Our longtime bud and former teamate Tyler Williams and I hatched the South East Independent title one night. Chris Herndon, then owner of Sycamore Cycles, offered us a sponsorship package through his shop. During this season our team expanded to include Ryan Bloch. We continued riding Turner bikes for '03.

I'm fully aware that this shot is sideways and that's OK. This was our 2004 Jersey. This was the year that we decided to "go moto" with the NoFear kits. We looked like candy canes that year but at least we were flashy! Tyler Williams went on to bigger and better things (Dental school in Charleston) and had to leave the team after a debilitating shoulder separation. Cecil Linder also left the team to start a family. Turner Bikes remained our frame sponsor.

In a backlash against the candycane motif of the previous year, 2005 saw us back in black with our names and an arbitrary number printed on the back. We got back with Sycamore Cycles after a brief hiatus during the 2004 season. David Thacker and Ryan Bloch both moved on after this season. Turner bikes hooked up the frames again.

The great white kits of 2006 and 2007 were again provided by NoFear. In 2006 we begain riding Specialized frames. Butch Greene left the team in 2007 and long time Florida Freeride super-star, DemoDave Perez moved up to the Greenville area and expressed an interest in getting into racing. He joined the team, along with Moto-Mike Thomas, a young shredder from North Carolina.

This year, 2008, our Royal jerseys were purchased and printed by FreerideSouth, a Florida-based mtb forum site. We picked up Steven Trottier, another young NC pinner. This season, Jeremy, Steven, and Mike decided to try out Morewood Frames, a company out of South Africa with their US headquarters located in Asheville NC. Because of our relationship with Sycamore Cyles, we are able to ride Specialized and SantaCruz and Morewood because all three frames are carried in their shop.

With this season drawing to a close, we are already looking forward to next season and the changes we'll see then! We've had a great time and we really want to express our appreciation to our sponsors. Without sounding to much like a cliched supercross interview, we especially want to thank the crew at Sycamore for being so cool with us. We also want to thank Michelin, Cane Creek Components, Thomson Components, E-13 and Crank Bros for helping us out so much over the course of several season. For some of our newer sponsors, like SRAM, and FreeRide South, we have appreciated everything you've done for us and we look forward to working with you for seasons to come!

Thanks for reading,

Matt Griffin.

26 West Bike Park

Over the course of the last 2 weekends, I've been taking the short scenic drive down Interstate 26 to the 26 West Bike Park. I went on opening weekend back in June and I can't say I was disappointed because I new that the new park was somewhat underfunded and I had a feeling that opening weekend would not be without it's glitches. After not having gone back over the last couple months, I decided to go last weekend. Since they will be hosting the State DH championships in a few weeks, I wanted to dial in some lines and scope things out. I must say that last saturday was one of those days that makes you feel glad to be alive. I woke up late, watched the World Cup Downhill finals in Schladming Austria live on freecaster.tv, and then drove up to 26 West to spend the afternoon pealing of DH runs, one after another. The park had improved considerably since I first went, the lift operation worked flawlessly, and the trails had really bedded in nicely.

I went up this weekend and was able to really get my lines down pat and I'm really looking forward to the race. There's a really fun new rock jump line that they've built for the expert course and they'll be adding on a whole bottom section that from the looks of it will be pretty much scary fast and steep! I nailed a couple of lines that I hadn't been able to hit last weekend which is always a good feeling. The only bummer for today was that the lift was not running due to an inspection complication and we had to ride up in the back of this crazy dude's mom's work van. There was only seat room for three, so if you didn't get in early, you were sitting on the floor of the van. It's never fun being packed into a vehicle like that with 15 stinky dudes but you gotta do what you have to sometimes. It didn't make matters worse that the driver was chain smoking cigs while bragging to us about how many DWI's he'd gotten, how fast he could make it to the top of the hill, and doing his best to prove it to us. Yikes!! Anyway, it was a great day of riding and I'll be back to 26 West soon

Snowshoe Race III, by Mike

Mike Thomas, fresh off a season wrecking finger injury, stayed super focused through a retarded ordeal of a recovery process and finished on the Podium at the final Snoeshoe race of the season. Not only that, he was rocking his brand new Morewood Izumi DH bike! Mike, I hope you don't mind but I lifted this of your blog!

"I left home for Snowshoe Thursday afternoon in the rain and it didn't stop the whole way to Snowshoe. Late Thursday afternoon the trail crew at Snowshoe decided that they needed to change the track so it would hold up to the wet weather that was expected. Luckily the rain held off pretty well and didn't come back until a short shower Saturday afternoon. Practice went well with the occational crash every now and then. Come Sunday it was time to race, and I wasn't really sure how I would do. This would be my first race of the year and I had no expectations coming into it, I just wanted a nice clean run. Since I had no points from previous races, I was the first Elite guy down the track. Soon as they said GO, everything came together and I felt as if I had been racing all summer long. It was awesome, I just tore out of the gate with what seemed like endless energy on a track lined with people scattered all over watching. My run came together pretty well with just a small bobble, brushing against a tree with my left shoulder. When I got to the bottom everyone was yelling and I couldn't have been happier to be back in the game again, it felt awesome seeing everyone. I ended up the day with a 5th place, my best placing so far at Snowshoe. I had fun all weekend just cruising run after run with friends. Collegiate season starts this weekend, more updates to come..."

Congrats on everything Moto! Visit Mike's blog at motomike138.blogspot.com.

Snowshoe Race II, by Dave

Dave and Steven travelled to the second snowshoe race this past weekend and it looks like they had a great time! Big thanks to Dave for helping me keep this blog thing going for races I can't make it to!

Snowshoe Powerade Race #2 July 25-27:

Oh yeah.......Snowshoe #2! This time I was really stoked because I had the family coming up with me! We left at 5am on Thursday morning and I was swimming with my son at Split Rock Pool by 1pm.

Friday morning I decided to take it easy and go down to the lake on the Basin side for some hiking with the family. Around noon I headed back to the condo and then out to the Western Territory to check out the race course for the first time. After my first run I was smiling ear to ear......the track was SICK! The course had a bit of everything.......road gap, off camber traverses, step downs, steeps, rocks, super steep sections with multiple turns, gnarly rock gardens (lower Hare Ball), rock drop to flat, and a brand new section that was wide open high speed with a couple of jumps! After run number one I hooked up with my riding partner in crime Steven T. We proceeded to do runs almost up until the bus stopped at 5pm. Headed back to the condo to get cleaned up and then took Tami and Ryan out to dinner. After dinner they were playing The Fantastic Four on a big screen in the village and since my 4 ½ year old is in a "super hero phase" right now it was a must see!

Woke up Saturday to some more spectacular weather. Infact, it didn't rain all weekend with the highs being in the mid 70's.......nice! Headed out to the race track of course to keep turning runs out. The Western lift was running so you could get in more runs than you could handle. I was feeling really comfortable on the course and having a good time and then......SLAM! I piled it up pretty good in some rocks hitting my right knee and hip (my hip is a nice shade of purple as I type this haha!). I was hurting pretty bad and actually sat on the side of the trail for about a half hour before I decided to continue. Eventually I was able to get back on the bike and continue practice. It took a couple of runs, but I got comfortable again and by the end of practice was having a good time again. After practice I decided to ice down the knee and then headed over to the pool to swim with Ryan and Tami.

Sunday morning I woke up and was really feeling my age! It was pretty funny actually......I had to soak in hot water for about 20 minutes to loosen up my hip. By the time I got suited up and down to the track I was about 40 minutes late for the 9am-11am practice session. The pedal from the village down to the race track actually got the knee and hip feeling pretty good. I took the first run at a pretty chilled out pace, but I realized that the injuries weren’t going to affect my race run much at all. Practice ended at 11am so I headed over to the start shack to see my start time.........3:26 pm!! So I headed back to the condo for some food and to elevate my right leg. Was pretty cool too because I got to see Carlos Sastre take the top spot on the podium for the Tour de France. At about 1:30pm I headed back over to the trails to warm up. I heard things were running ahead of schedule and start times were pushed back around 25 minutes. So Tami and Ryan took the chairlift down to the finish line and I went to do a few warm-up runs. I was using a new trail called Ninja Bob and was linking it up with Powerline sometimes and Sweet Dreams sometimes. Got back to the top just as they were lining up my class....so I had about 20 minutes to race time!

My race run went pretty well. There were several places where I knew I needed to concentrate to make my lines and I did in those places, but got off track in a few places where I wouldn’t have expected it......I’m learning thats racing! Anyways, I crossed the finish line and was greeted by my wife and son! And Tami told me that I had the quickest time in my class.......for the moment! They lined us up from last place to first from the race the previous month which I finished 6th. So the 5 fastest guys were still to come. Needless to say that the start order pretty much held true to form because I ended up in 5th place and only 6 seconds off the podium. I was definitely stoked to move up a place and actually have a more competitive time from the previous month, but I still wanted to get on that podium! I have one more chance next month.......so we shall see!

As for SEI "young gun" Steven T.......another very impressive performance! Steven ended up flatting in the rock garden and had to finish the race on a flat. Despite the flat Steven still got on the podium in 3rd place and only two seconds off of second place! So big props and congratulations once again to my young badass teammate!

Totally looking forward to the finale in August.......Snowshoe is putting together some awesome race tracks this season!

BIG DADDY!!!

No pics yet, but in big SEI news, Jeremy and Crystal just became parents of a healthy baby girl, Rowan Addair (sp?) on July 22! Wow.... Just image having Jeremy as your dad! Congrats dude!!

Dave Writes: Dark Mountain II

Dark Mtn. King of the Lake race #2

On the weekend of July 12th and 13th was the second race of the Dark Mtn. King of the Lake Series. This series is put on by Matt Adams and the Brushy Mountain Cyclists Club. http://www.bmcc.us/id94.htmtm This event is always a ton of fun with a chilled out atmosphere and lots of racers with good attitudes!! Each race hosts a Time Trial, Dual Slalom and a Super D. SEI "Young Gun" Steven T. had a strong showing on Saturday placing 4th in the Dual Slalom event! I showed up on Sunday to join Steven in racing the Super D. We both raced in Expert with the format being the best of two runs. After all the racers had crossed the line and the times were posted I ended up in 5th place and Steven right behind me in 6th. It was an extremely hot and muggy day, but a great day of racing nonetheless! Definitely looking forward to the last race of the series in September..............

DemoDave Goes to Snowshoe!

Demo Dave got his literature on and wrote up a good review of the first snowshoe race.........

Snowshoe Powerade Race #1 June 27 – 29:
Well it was time to head up to “The Shoe” for the first race of the series! Snowshoe puts on awesome races so I was super stoked for the weekend! Unfortunately for one reason or another practically everyone that I normally travel with could not make the race. So I had to drive up myself after work on Thursday. Fortunately the extra $$ I would spend on gas I would save on lodging since my good buddy and SEI Team sponsor (Andy/FreeRideSouth.com) hooked me up with a FREE place to stay for the whole weekend. I left Greenville at around 3pm and got to Snowshoe just after midnight. I lost two hours on I-77. Tractor trailer accident where I literally sat parked on the highway for two hours. Anyways, I was glad to make it up there and was ready for 3 days of riding/racing!
Woke up Friday morning and went up to the MAC and bought my trail pass. The plan was to just chill out and do a bunch of runs with Andy and his son Joel. Conditions were dry and I was pumped! First run was down the Western Territory where we checked out a new trail called Ninja Bob. Well that first run took Andy’s brakes out. So he needed to head up to the MAC to get them fixed. So after the bus got us back to the top Doug asked me if I wanted to check out the race course (which I didn’t even know was open yet?)………so I said let’s do it! When we got to the bottom I could barely remember many parts of the course……because it was so darn LONG!! After that run I bumped into teammate and SEI “young gun” Steven T. So I think we put in a few more runs on the race course…..then headed over to check out the dual slalom track, grab some lunch and get in a run on the Basin side. After that we did a couple more runs on the race course and it was time to catch the last bus of the day. When I got back to the condo I noticed that like only two spokes on my rear wheel were tight! So I headed over to Silver Creek where Doug was camping. Luckily for me Doug was there and was more than willing to help me out! Thanks Doug!
Woke up Saturday surprised because it didn’t RAIN! Which was great news for me since I’m still kind of new to racing and not to comfortable riding in wet conditions. Started off taking a couple of solo runs down the race course. I was really starting to feel good on the course. I was dialing in the technical sections, but knew I would suffer on the pedaling sections (which there were a lot). At some point I ended up hooking up with Steven T. again and we basically did a bunch of more runs….which was awesome! Then at about 4pm……..RAIN, RAIN, RAIN!
Woke up on raceday to cloudy foggy skies and the ground was SOKED! My practice was from 9am-10am. I only got in two practice runs and the course was a sloppy peanut butter mess in the woods. This was bad news for me since the majority of my practice was in perfect dry conditions……but I’m learning……that’s racing! The good news was that my race run was at 2:30pm and it didn’t rain anymore that day. So by race time the course actually dried up nicely. There were still a lot of slippery off camber turns in the woods, but much drier than the morning practice. My race run went pretty well. I only had one crash (which was good considering conditions) where my front tire washed out on a wet off camber turn. Besides that my run was pretty clean, but it was another reminder to me that my fitness needs work! Espcially if I’m ever gonna get on a podium which I hope to do this sumer! Anyways, I ended up in 6th place in Men’s Amatuer 30-39. And “young gun” Steven T. pulled through for SEI with a podium finish in the Men’s Amatuer 18-29 division. So congratulations and big props go out to Steven!

Can’t wait for the next one………….

Can't Stand the Heat? Get out of Georgia!

This past weekend, Dave, Jeremy and Myself travelled to the swealtering blue hills of georgia (which happened to be 7 degrees cooler than the suffocating piedmont of SC) to race the first race of the Carter's Lake MiniDH series. What a fun course! It was only about a minute and a half long (hence MiniDH) but it was action packed from top to bottom. From the start gate, you had to be on your game through big gap-out drops, tight turns, hip jumps, ski jumps, creek jumps, berms, rock sections, and high speed sections. Its hard to believe what a variety of things they were able to fit on such a small hill with such a relative little bit of pedalling. The only draw back was the inferno-like temperatures. The worst part was standing around in the heat. I hate standing around in hot weather. All I wanted to do was turn it back around and go down the hill so at least the wind would be in my face. Anyway, Jeremy was the big man for SEI, laying down the power with a 5th place finish against a competitive pro class. Dave and I pulled up the rear as we showed up a little late and didn't get enough time on the track to get really comfy on it by race time. The real fun started for me after the race when Brady O was kind enough to run several shuttles for us. I feel like I had the course dialed by the end of the day, but that's racin'! You got to make it count when the man says it's time to make it count. Anyway, I had a great time riding, can't wait till the next race in the fall, and Thanks to Brady and his crew for an awesome event (They doubled their numbers this year, hopefully they can double again next time!) The plan for next week is to be at the Grand Opening of the new 26 West Bike Park. I'm really excited about this place as it really has the potential to be a new mecca of DH for the South East. It's something that I know can be achieved here and I'm hoping this place gets off the ground, grows, and we can finally get some respect!

US Open of MTB

On memorial day monday morning at about 6:30 am, I was just rolling back into town after this years U.S. Open in Vernon NJ. We arrived in Vernon on Thursday evening just in time to walk the course as the sun was going down. It boasted its usual gnarly rock gardens, flowy berm sections, and huge red bull finish line jump. Friday was practice day and I knew right away I was probably not going to be posting my best time ever. I'm still getting used to my bike and if nothing else, the Open provided me a great opportunity to figure out exactly what changes I needed to make before my next race. (Wish I'd figured that out before I drove 13 hours!) I raced the pro qualifying on Saturday after a short practice session and needless to say, that was the end of my racing as I didn't come close to making the top 60 cut. Probably one of the most embarrassing finishes I've ever had. I really don't know why but I just couldn't get it together and really felt out of myself the whole time I was on the course. Big props to Steven and Dave who both qualified in the Amatuer Class. As anyone who has ever raced the Open knows, the Amatuer class is no joke. To qualify for either the pro or the amatuer race is a big deal so congrats to Steven and Dave for stepping it big to make it in! Anyway, besides the racing, the whole experience was great. Diablo freeride park has so many DH trails, you could ride all day without hitting the same one twice, but so many of them are so fun that you can't help but ride them again! The atmosphere was great. We felt like real high-rollers staying at the "Appalachian" right at the bottom of the track. Funny story- The ride back home was uneventful for the most part. I took the wheel in NJ and made it all the way into NC where we were going to drop Steven off at his car that he'd left in the parking lot of a Super-8 motel. When we get there, not to my suprise, his car had been towed! After waking up the owner of the towing company and driving all over kingdom come to find the place, we finally got Stevens car back and Dave and I set off for home. I rolled in as the sun was coming up and slept most of the day monday thinking to myself, "Maybe next year".



We saw some bad crashes while we were there, so to everybody who got jacked up, heal up quick!

Massanutten!

You'd be hard pressed to find anybody who's ever raced at Massanutten who could tell you it wasn't one of the most fun races they'd ever done. I've been racing there for the past five years and last week's installment of the annual event was no let down. Big thanks to the promoters for keeping things so well organized as usual. The weather was the big question mark of the weekend. One minute, the sun would be out, the next it would be foggy, blink your eyes again and it would be pouring. I was surprised at how well the course held together in spite of the changing conditions. The only part of the course that really got sketchy was the upper rock section. The middle section of the course is full of loaming, sweeping turns with a couple of funky rocky right hand turns. There's a short high speed fire road before turning off onto a tight rocky single track that becomes a fast baby-head rock garden just before the finish straight away. After looking at the stacked start list, my goal was to put in a solid mid-pack finish. I met my goal, finishing in 12th place with a time of 3:59. Jeremy and I practiced together all weekend long and were pretty much matching each other pace for pace. He took a hard spill in one of the rock turns and finished with a disappointing time. Had he stayed on, I'm sure he would have finished with a very respectable time judging from the way we were both riding throughout practice. Steven T finished with a 4:07. Dave P. finished with a 4:17. The thing that sketched me out the most was the number of injuries at the top rock garden! That part took its toll on several of our local boys! (Kenan, Greg, Doug, anybody else, Heal up quick!) Other than that, it was another good Massanutten Race in the history books. I'm already looking forward to next year. The US open is coming up next week and Dave, Steven and I will be rep'n the SEI! can't wait!

Good times

As April comes to an end, we've all finally gotten to throw some mud on our new Demo 8 race bikes. These days, it seems like every weekday is a brilliantly sunny day that's just begging us to leave work and hit the hills. As murphy's law would have it, the weekends seem to be when we get all of our rain these days. We've decided to fight the oppression of the foul weather and ride anyway. This past weekend we decided to do some shuttle runs in the rain. This particular location has a couple different options for shuttle runs, one is a little more mellow than the other, so we started with that one just to warm up a bit. It felt like someone was grabbing my bike by the seatpost and pulling me backwards in the pedally section because the ground was so wet. By the time we got to the bottom, we were all ready to go do the steeper, less pedally trail. The mud and water that was spraying all over really made it hard to see so it was kind of point-and-shoot sketchiness. It didn't actually rain at all while we rode, which was nice, but it poured in between runs and soaked everything around. Good times were had by all though, and my bike worked great! It really has a different feel from my last Demo. The change in the suspension rate made an immediately noticeable difference in the way the bike reacted to square edge hits. The reduced weight didn't hurt either! So far, the 08 Demos get an A+.

On another note, before the ride, I got to go check out the property that my two buds Butch and Greg have been given access to build on. The drive up to this place felt like a ride in a time machine into the early 1900's of rural north carolina- This place was in the boonies. When I got there, I parked in this pasture behind this really old barn. I didn't see anybody so I just figured I'd start walking the only way I thought they'd be- up. Only problem was, after I got so far up this dirt road in a pasture, I realized that there were way more than one ways to go up. There were at least 4-5 different ridge lines all around me! Finally I caught up with Greg on the 4-wheeler and he took me to the top. I was amazed at the amount of territory we were looking at! The potential is endless. The terrain is so steep! I'm looking forward to see what this place becomes. It'll be great to have this spot and wolf laurel at our doorsteps for riding DH.

Training Rides

SEI has been busy putting hours in the saddle! Over the course of the winter and spring, we've been able to ride non-stop, putting in several great rides at our favourite trails in Pisgah National Forest, outside of Brevard, NC. It's great having some of the best trails in the world out your back door. Not only do the downhills provide us with the kind of terrain we need to keep our A-Game on year round, but in order to do those downhills, you have to build the fitness to climb them! The Appalachian State contengent of SEI has been hard at work scratching out their own trails into the steep, rugged, rocky, snow-covered wilderness that lies just outside the city limits of Boone NC. Here in Greenville SC, we've been blessed with an incredible network trails that actually lie within the city limits at Paris Mountain State park. Several miles of brand new trails have been added within the last 6 months and they are sweet! After a ride we all did a few days ago, we got to thinking about the ridiculus amount of decending we did in one cross country ride and how awesome it is to have that to ride year round. Hopefully, being able to ride consistantly with each other and push each other during every ride is going to pay off this season! Speaking for the South Carolina dwellers, every ride we've done lately has felt like a ride on a high-speed freight train with no brakes. Not only have I been hitting the XC trails hard, I've also been spending a good bit of time on the local pump track. It seems like a great way to work out and it gives me a little more time on a bike and is a lot more fun that going to a gym. Six or seven fast laps around that track is enough to make me want to puke. (Maybe that's bad?) As May is approaching, my training rides are feeling better and better. I was worried earlier in the year as I was going through the "I hate bikes phase" but I'm pretty sure I'm over that by now. I've been thrashing on the hardtail, but we've all got our new DH bikes built up and ready to race!

Why even bother with little races?

Why even bother? You have to stay up late the night before cleaning your bike from yesterday's muddy ride. You have to dig out all of your gear, make sure you have a clean change of underwear, make sure you don't have any missing gloves and that your socks match. Then you have to wake up at the butt crack of dawn, stumble out the door, walk out into the early morning drizzle, all the while grousing about what a disgusting time you are going to have as you pedal across that 100 yard flat-uphill section that's going to be full of peanut butter mud. The thought of that cold wet spray from your caked-up tires catching you in the shorts and up the back of your jersey is already beginning to make you feel nauseous. To top it all off, the highly competent college-aged race promoters haven't so much as posted a start time for the downhill. The only information you are getting is coming from some patchy internet forum chatter where the supposed promoter who hides behind an unrecognizable internet handle is indicating that the race may not even happen if its raining too hard.
A few of us found ourselves in this very predicament this past weekend for the ETSU Downhill race in Johnson City. I was watching the dismal weekend forcast on the weather channel, hoping for the best but expecting the worst. There was no posted start time, and there was a rumor floating around that the race may start as early as 11:00 and as late as 5:00 if it happened at all. The deck was stacked against me and I was leaning ever closer to folding my deck and staying home. At about 11:00 pm on friday night, Jeremy called to ask me if I was going. Upon hearing the tone in his voice, it became obvious that he was having the same misgivings about going to the race that I was. We both got to thinking though- Why not go? What is the alternative? Unless we go race, we aren't going to go ride in the rain, who would? We realized that we'd probably get stuck sitting on our butts, feeling imprisoned by the rainfall and going stir crazy, driving our wives mad. Besides, it was a 10 dollar entry fee and non-NORBA. So that did it. Deal us in, We were going.
Don't get me wrong, it still wasn't easy. I still had to do the late night stuffle-shuffle. The early mornging despondancy hit me just as hard as ever but by the time I'd arrived and done my first muddy practice run, I was in the game. Sure it was a little disorganized, sure we had paper plates for race numbers, and yes it was really muddy and sketchy-sloppy. On a brighter note, the rain gave us a window for the entire time we rode! I ended up getting second place and Jeremy finished just behind me in 2nd. (Young pinner Ethan Quell took the win by 8 seconds on the minute and a half course) Because of the chilled-out atmosphere and low attendance, the promoters encouraged racers to take as many runs as they wanted, providing us with the chance to get in several timed runs so that we could really gauge our effort. It proved to be a great training experience to set us up for some of the bigger races this year. Would I have gotten to enjoy any of that if I had stayed in bed? As I look back over my racing experience, I realized that I've woken up early to go to a lot of races that I really didn't want to waste my time on, but I've never left any race wishing that I hadn't gone. No matter whether it's a great course on a perfect day or a crappy course on a rainy day, its always a race, and that's what's cool about it. It's just one more chance to line up and diversify my racing portfolio if nothing else. I give two big thumbs up to the ETSU guys and it's these kinds of races that keep the true racers coming back! I had a great time and big props to the small venue promoters who keep it real even though they never get the love for it!

Clemson Downhill

A Big thanks to the Clemson Freeride Club for putting on their third race. Again, they proved the old equation of good course + good atmosphere = good time. I can't believe how much work went into the course from top to bottom. Considering the downpour that came down the day before the race, the course drained exptremely well. Despite a peanut-buttery practice session in the morning, the course got nice and tacky by the afternoon for our second runs. Although Clemson has little change in elevation, the course design makes the best use of what the Geography of the South Carolina foothills has to offer. The Clemson crew threw a little suprise in the mix by adding a HUGE finish line jump at the bottom that turned out to be really fun to hit! The course was best fit to short travel bikes. I actually raced my hardtail.

Congrats to Jeremy for pulling a 4th place finish! I came in seventh place, Dave got 16th, and Steven got 17th. It's looking like this season is shaping up to be a blast! We're all ready for the season to get rolling and its shaping up to be a good one so far! Below are some shots from the race.

The crew! Olivia, Matt, Jeremy, Steve

Steven-off the wall

Clemson DH course is shaping up for March 8 race!

It's less than a month away from the March 8th DH race in Clemson SC. I always love this race as it's kind of a hometrack for me. Having been a part of the crew that put on the original Clemson DH races back in the early 2000's, I have a special place in my heart for racing here! The guys with the Clemson freeride club have done a spot-on job of designing the track for this year's race and I had the chance to preview it yesterday. The top half of the course is the same as last year- several nice table top jumps, some good high speed berms, and one long pedally section (it wouldn't be the southeast without at least one pedal section!) A new section has been added after the wall ride. Instead of squiggling around the trees after the wall, it now goes behind the wall with a series of three fast 180 degree berms with jumps in between them. Then it hits a tight, flat left hander, leading into a brand new long high-speed, tight off-camber section with a ton of diagonal running roots. It looks like its going to finish down the railroad-tie stairs in front of the picnic pavillion at the bottom of the run. It should be really fun, and I can't wait to race it! Another big thanks to the Clemson crew for all of the hard work and thought they've put into this thing!

Another Icycle in the record books

Another well deserved thanks to J&W events and everybody who helped bring the Icycle around again this year! This proves to be a favourite every year, and this year was no exception. Icycle racers appreciate the unique flair that this event offers, such as its icy winter time scheduling and the one and only night-time downhill race. The crown jewel of this race is its positive, laid back atmosphere. It's hard to find a race with the same kind of vibe these days!

Jeremy and I bucked up and raced the big-bike XC class. You have to have a minimum bike weight of 35 lbs, 12 inches or more of suspension travel, and flat pedals. Big thanks to Chris Herndon for letting me borrow his Specialized SX trail for the event! I knew I had big shoes to fill when I realized that this was the only bike there that had ever been raced at a world championship! It wasn't all fun and games though- he left me with his 38t single ring and a road cassette! Although we will both feel like crap for the next 5-7 days and we've both sworn never to race cross country again for the rest of our lives or next icycle, which ever comes first, we had a great time. I got second place, and jeremy pulled across the finish not far behind me in 4th. (I almost took myself out during the lemans start when I slipped in the mud while running to my bike!)

After the XC, we headed over to the DH course, the top of which is really high-speed and exposed on one side, the bottom half of which is really pedally and flat. The downhill race had record attendence in the pro/ex class and the competition was stiff! It was Dave's first Icycle experience. I started out my practice by getting rag-dolled on the first fast section of the course. I rung my bell pretty good and knocked the wind out of myself. That shook me up pretty good and rather than feeling dominant in practice, I spent the rest of practice trying to regain my confidence. Both of us had way too much fun practicing and were pretty well spent by race time. I got 8th and I think Jeremy and Dave ended up in 11th and 14th respectively. We all had a great time and it set a great tone for the upcoming season!

New Bikes for SEI!

Here's a shot of the '08 Specialized Demo 8 that SEI will be sporting the season! I just ordered mine today!