It's been a while since I posted up anything on the old blog but I figured that the season is almost upon us again so it might be time to catch up! This off season has been busy both on and off the bike. The big news is Dave's new kid, Tyler Michael Perez! A 10 pounder! Congrats Dave and Tami!
In bike related news, SEI has been having a great off season. A big welcome back to Charlie Mooney! Charlie Raced for SEI during 2006 before taking some time off to do the school thing. Charlie's a super cool dude and a smooth rider too!
Some changes to our Sponsorship this season include a switch from our longtime friends at Michelin tires to Maxxis Tires. We're looking forward to running their stuff this season!
Jeremy, Dave, and I have been enjoying our winter. Obviously, Dave's been on a little bit of a riding hiatus with the kid and all that goes along with that. Jeremy and I have been trying to stay on the bikes. I took some time off of cross country riding and actually got to spend some quality time on my DH bike. I got to check out a lot of new DH trails during the early part of the winter. I've also spent some time on the snowboard and I've spent the last few weeks getting back on the trail bike and working on the fitness. I posted a clip from a DH trail that we've been riding a lot.
The Boone Crew is probably completely snowbound right now, but Mike Thomas and Steven Trottier have been killing it at their local trails. Jeremy and I got a chance to ride some of their handywork a little while back and it was steep! Check out Motomike's site for an update to what's going on over there. (
http://www.motomike138.blogspot.com/)
Jeremy and I did the Icycle Nighttime Downhill race about a month ago, and again, it was a really fun event. Conditions were great this year. The course was a little different though. Traditionally, Fontana's DH course is really fast at the top, and then flattens out for the last 2/3rds. This year, they cut out all of the pedalling, leaving a really fast, but short course that ended with a technical turny section at the bottom. It made for exciting racing and the times were tight which meant that one mistake would be all it would take to take you out of the game. Jeremy had a pretty good run and pulled a 6th place finish with a time of 1:33.17. I pulled into 10th place with a 1:33.83. Do the math on that. There were actually six riders who rode 1:33 point something. Funny story though- As I started out of the gate, my first thought was "man, it seems a lot darker now than it did during my last nightime practice run! I made a couple of screw ups but nothing too major. When I got to the bottom, I checked my lights and realized that I only had by back-up light on during my race run! Idiot. I posted some pics of this year's event. It was cool to get to hang out with my sister and Nate W. for the weekend.
