Race Report: Port Angeles - Mud, furry logs and more

Trying to hold on towards the bottom of my race run. Wilz makes me look good!

It was typical April weather in the Pacific Northwest, cool, damp and rainy. Perfect riding conditions up on Dry Hill as the track absorbs most of the moisture and provides that incredible black dirt everyone loves. A large contingency of international, Canadian and most of the top national riders were in attendance. Three of our juniors made the journey out as well as the Trident Canadian teams juniors, lots of energy was flowing through our pit this past weekend.
        A strong flat peddle out of the gate and within s few seconds the track pointed straight down the fall line, the section is called White Knuckles. The speeds start to slow as the track enters the thick forest while slithering through tight single track turns. About half way down the track builders cut a new section that sent riders plummeting down two steep and bumpy chutes. The second one would later be called Fairclough falls after claiming him in qualifying. Once past the steeps a step down jump was created and free quesadillas were being given out there all day. I opted for an inside sneak line that was much more efficient. A few more tacky berms and a sprint to the finish line and its over.
         The weekends practice went really well as I was feeling very quick on track. It took a few runs to really get used to the greasy surface, but once I started to trust to dirts traction I had the Legend leaning hard into the turns and blasting out of them. When I wasn't practicing on the hill, Michael and I were on our Spitfires riding and filming various other trails and having a blast. We were even able to squeeze in some time before qualifying to shoot with professional photographer Andrew Wilz.

Just a blur in the background as Wilz works his magic with the furry stumps

        I was really looking forward to qualifying as it would be the first time all year I would be able to compare myself with the best. My goal was to have a smooth run and not push too hard to see where my energy levels were at the bottom. I started towards the end and by the time I was out of the gate the light was starting to dim. I was on a great run but then found myself on the ground after over committing into a turn. I qualified a respectable 45th place out of 96 with that crash knowing with a clean run I would be top 10.
       Sunday morning practice rolled around early and I decided to spent my time walking the track and watching lines. Rain fell overnight and I wanted to check out the track surface and the condition everything was in after the thrashing it took the previous day. There was a lot of time to kill as my start time wasn't until 3pm. I did my warm up and found myself sprinting hard out of the gate, I was hungry for a great result. I was on another great run until I made a line choice error that nearly sent me off the track, instead it robbed all of my speed and was very unnerving. I never recovered from that mistake and piloted cautiously across the line and into 33rd out of 96 overall.
      The weekend was great and I was able to ride a lot. With it still being early in the year I'm excited to polish my skills and build upon what needs a little work. The conditions were very similar to what I'll be seeing later this year on the east coast for the World Cups and Nationals. It was awesome to get up to speed again, however it was not the end result that I was looking for. Ride On!

Slug crossing! "In the PNW, sometimes you just have to ride the wood" Michael says