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| 2nd place!!! |
I finally
felt compelled to raise my fists in celebration after I crossed the finish
line. I didn’t come across the line in first, so why celebrate as I did
especially in this society where if your not first your last? It has been a
while since I put together a run that I was truly happy with and proud to call
my own. Even if I ended up in 15th place, I would have been pleased
with my performance.
I picked my
brother and teammate Michael up at the Hartford
airport on Tuesday afternoon and we quickly departed northbound to Highland Mountain
Bike Park
in Northfield, New Hampshire. Last year was the first time
I got the chance to experience this place, and it sure didn’t disappoint. I was
excited to get back up there to do some midweek shredding and to get Michael
back on the bike as he had been in the Grand Canyon
kayaking some serious white water. I was sure he would get back up to speed in
no time and after one day of riding he was starting to feel like his old self
again. I’ve always been impressed with Highland MTB
Park, they do so much
with what they have to work with and they have everything here from full on
downhill, flow trails, dirt jumps, cross country to a legit slope style course.
For a few extra bucks I got an experience of a lifetime by back flipping my DH
bike 50 feet into their 50X50 AYR Bag, it was so much fun I had to do it a half
dozen more times, probably the highlight of the trip so far. With so much to do
here, it was tough to concentrate on racing as I had been so focused the last
few weeks at the World Cups, so I didn’t fight the urge. I rode everything all
day trying to have as much fun as physically possible.
The
downhill track was the same one as we had raced last year, but the trail crew
put some major work into it by smoothening out some rough technical sections
and creating some serious flow. Out of the gate it was a sprint after a fruit
bowl drop in to a table top and roll. After putting the pedal down hard for a
few seconds the track diverted left into a tight tree section full of roots and
technical chutes. Not much line choice was required on this track but if you
made a mistake it would be very costly as momentum is your best friend. There
are so many little things that make this track so much fun and if you can get
the flow right you’ll be rewarded. After a high speed decent off of a bridge it
is back into the trees and into a new cut loamy serpentine single track
section. Over the course of the weekend this section would burn in and reveal
its hidden rock slabs and diagonal roots. After navigating this new section it
spit you back out onto the original track and the flow returned with some
developed hard packed bermed turns and rhythm sections. A hard sprint into the
last bit of the track sent you flying through the last few trees, up and over
rock roll in chutes, big berms, and double jumps. This section is so solid and
fast that you could commit one hundred percent and trust the track to point you
in the right direction all the way down to the finish arena.
The weather
was incredible this past weekend. Unlike last year where it was a muddy mess, a
bright blue sky was a welcomed sight. I for the most part didn’t mind the
sweltering humid heat. Michael and I had a good few runs in the morning
practice session and were ready for seeding. Micheal in his first recorded
timed run since April put together a solid time and into 22nd place
primed to up the ante on the final run. In his final run he improved upon his
time and moved up five spots to a very respectable 17th place overall.
With some more time on the bike in the next two weeks he will be ready for
National Championships. I had been so relaxed all weekend and felt like playing
a little hackie sack before dropping in. This little warm up seemed to pay off
as I finished in 2nd place, but I still had plenty of work to do to
get that top spot. The competition for the top spot was very high, many of the
top US
contenders and some international athletes were out here competing for the top
spot and the $1500 grand prize. I was excited on my seeding run result, but I
knew that it was just one run and one that many just use as a warm up to their
final run. As always, there seems to be about a 5 hour break in-between runs
and instead of trying to conserve energy and to stay out of the sun like so
many other I grabbed my Banshee Amp dirt jumper and rode the trails. I ended up
even riding the cross country trails on my single speed focusing on finding the
smooth line and having fun getting bounced around all over the place. Took one
more run down the mountain to feel the flow and warm up a bit, even though I
felt more than warmed up. This may have been the reason that I went into a
really loose turn blowing myself up, smashing my ankle hard, getting dirt
everywhere and tweaking my bike a bit. I dusted myself off quickly and thought
it wasn’t the worst thing that I just got that out of the way. I spent a while
up at the start before dropping in, and once I did it was over almost before it
started. This track was short, half that of most tracks so the racing was
extremely tight. I put together a great run, didn’t ride out of my comfort zone
and felt I could have gone faster. I missed a few peddle strokes and that was
about it, might have cost me the win but I wasn’t too concerned about that. My
goal was to ride well and when I came down in 2nd place I was so
pleased with myself. It had been a long time coming and to do it against some
top notch competition was a plus. Justin Leov was the only rider standing
between me and the top spot. He has been such a fixture in the World Cup and
North American downhill scene that I was happy to be standing next to him in
the top spot as I have always looked up to him. 1 second was the difference on
the day, but I felt as though I had won because I had more fun than anyone this
past weekend, and that was what I’m most happy about.
Ride On!
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