Long time no post.

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.

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!