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!