A Bikers Eye View: Angel Fire Fun: Turn your headphones down before reading!

I’m stopped here in Peru, Illinois at a Starbucks listening to some Johnny Cash and downloading another audio book to help push me through the rest of the drive to Vermont. I’m driving solo across the country starting in Boulder, Colorado, with my final destination ending 32 hours later in Sugarbush, Vermont. This is the start of a two month long road trip that will expand from Boulder, Colorado, north to Mont Sainte Ann, Quebec, and down to Beech Mountain, North Carolina with many places in between.

Nebraska Rest Stop lodging night 1

Iowa Rest Stop lodging night 2

I'm here or was at least

Sun setting on day 2

It had been a month between my last few races in Port Angeles and Grand Junction to this past weekend in Angel Fire. I spent most of my time relishing spring time in Colorado, celebrating my 25th birthday with my family, riding familiar childhood trails and made a point to explore nearby, yet rarely ridden trails. I broke out the dirt bike for some great trail rides and even found some time to meet with Michael and friends on the Arkansas River near Buena Vista. I live on such a beautiful piece of property and sometimes find myself never leaving, so I’m happy that I got out and about to finally experience some rides that took me 4 years to finally get to, it’s been a long time coming.

Michael and (Sandi) riding West Magnolia

Big salad Birthday meal

Basalt Mountain single track is the best!

Michael and Peter playing around at the play park in Buena Vista

Found myself at a Crawfish boil. That is just 1 pot

Finally did the Glenwood Caverns Fun Park canyon swing. Pretty fun :)

Tanner dropping in! Doing some training with the juniors on the farm

Little Cat - Best barn/trail cat in the world! RIP

Holly and Little Cat enjoying a walk around the farm

Holly is stoked on her POC goodies

Holly is stoked on her new Banshee Amp hard tail

With this out my backdoor, its tough to leave the property!


Built up my Dad a custom Banshee Prime for an early fathers day gift. He was stoked as the video below shows!

Angel Fire is a great place to ride. This was the place where my racing career got its start back in 2004 and I’ve been back at least one time a year since. The Pro GRT label got slapped on the Mountian States Cup Chile Challenge title which attracted many more riders outside of the region that are chasing GRT points. Usually the tracks at Angel Fire are long, rough and full of rocks top to bottom, this year the track took on a completely different look. It was still a lengthy track, probably the longest I’ve ever raced, while also being extremely dry, dusty and blown. The top section was great, loamy, and steep with plenty of off camber. There was lots of line choice and was full on for a few minutes until hitting a wall ride that sent us out to flat fire road sprint. Come finals, I was sporting my Crankbrothers Joplin adjustable seat post, so once I sprinted and got up to speed I could sit and maintain a road cadence pedal till the road finally met back up with the bottom of the World Cup track. This section had been raced every year since I could remember and it was starting to show its years with big holes and gnarly rocks really showing their teeth as the soil erodes away. The final few stretches of track were going to prove extremely tough after 5 minutes of pushing it hard up top and sprinting the middle. It was great to get back on the DH bike and ride some rough terrain in preparation for these years North American World Cup races later this month. I’ve spent so much time on the Banshee Spitfire trail bike and Amp hard tail that it took a few runs to get up to speed again on the Legend.

Dragging the rig up and over Independence Pass on route to Angel Fire, NM

Great spot in the tiny town of Villa Grove, CO

The Banshee Bike fleet

Heading down to New Mexico and through the Peanut Butter Playhouse(space in between states)

Debut of the new pit tent

fire roads are super extreme don;t you know?

Banshee Legend was dialed and the dropper post was on!

This was Pro team riders Teddy Benge’s first Pro race so I tried to get him back up to speed. It was great to ride with a small team this week as I smashed run after run out with Pro riders Jess Pedersen, Lear Miller and Junior Roy Benge. Come race day I felt confident about the track and my bike was feeling great after getting the Manitou Dorado and Cane Creek Double Barrel dialed in for the conditions. I always treat my qualifying runs like race runs and do my best to put down a good time, and I was well on my way until my rear rim found a rock in one of the lower sun blinding tree sections. I got off my line and held it wide open through the golden tunnel of trees and smashed my rim in allowing for the air to escape from my tubeless set up. This set me up for an early race run and the possibility for holding the hot seat for a long time. I set off on my race run holding my lines best I could up top letting it run and once I hit the fire road I already had the rider in front of me in my sights. I pushed hard to catch up to him and had him within earshot before diving back into the woods. I tried extremely hard to make my presence known that I was trailing him and eating his dust. Proper rider etiquette would have him acknowledge I was there and to pull over, this did not happen. I spent the last few minutes blinded behind him, even crashed due to very low visibility and by the end pleaded with him to move over as there were zero opportunities to pass safely. Through the finish line I confronted to rider and curiously asked him if he heard me behind him and to my surprise I was told “I’m blasting music bro, didn’t hear you”. Racing while listening to music is indeed illegal, lots of riders do so still, but most pay attention to the volume so they can hear their bike and surroundings. I then found the governing body’s race official and requested a re-run, but was not granted one. It was an extremely unfortunate end to a promising weekend. I still finished with a top 20 run in 18^th place with that nightmare of a run and know that with a clear course I’d be in it to win it. It was everyone else’s first DH race of the year so they were just getting their race legs underneath them. Jess finished in 17^th, Lear 32^nd and Teddy 36^th overall in a field of 57 total riders. Roy finished 13^th in a very competitive Cat 1 15-18 field of 25 total riders.