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| The boys at Beech Mountain built a phenomenal dual course and I couldn't resist the urge to SHRED!!! Photos: Steve Kaufman |
After sampling some of the best all mountain riding Asheville had
to offer Michael and I made ours he two hour trip up north the Beech
Mountain for the MTB Gravity National Championships. This is the 2nd
year this race has been held here but it was a first for us in terms of
new racing venue. This course was going to be short but packed in a
little bit of everything. It took a few runs to find the flow and lines,
but by the end of Thursday we were getting the slick upper woods,
middle rock garden and big jumps dialed in. We made a quick trip to pick
up Team Junior 15-16 Roy Benge and machanic John Hartmann at the
Charlotte airport early Friday and pinned it back up to the mountain in
time to get some l practice runs. Immediately fallowing practice
was qualifying for Michael and I in the Dual Slalom.
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| After a poor qualification, I had to turn up the heat early in the round of 8 |
We were both stoked
to have dual back and jumped at the opportunity to race. Being on
longer travel bikes on such a smooth track with tight radius turns put
us in a bit of a disadvantage over those who rode hard tails. Michael
would qualify 10th and I ended up 6th. Immediately fallowing qualifying,
John began dismantling the single speed setup on my Banshee Amp
Hard-tail swapping drivetrain and tires making it race ready. The next
day was downhill qualifying. It had rained off and on throughout the
night leaving the track a little greasy but come the afternoon most of
the course was perfect. Michael has been battling an injury and his goal
was to keep it upright as he finished 50th looking forward to a
stronger finish on race day. I didn't have a good idea how I stacked up
on this track so I rode loose fallowing the main lines and getting
drifty towards the bottom finishing in 6th place. Pretty happy
considering I had to take my feet off a few times.
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| Every time I race dual Cody and I always find a way to race each other, definitely creating a friendly rivalry against the fast young gun! |
Later that day we
switched bikes and headed back up the hill for the dual main event. A
beer festival was going on in the base and many patrons found there way
up the hill to spectate which made this event really fun to participate
in. The crowd was loud, my bike was feeling great and I was having fun.
Michael gave it his all but could not make up a first run deficit and
was ousted in the 1st round. I cruised in the 1st round finding my flow
and then turned up the heat advancing to the round of 4 where I was
narrowly defeated by .07 overall by number two seed Blake Carney. Cody
Kelly and I put on a good show for the crowd as I took the heat and
bronze medal. I was jazzed on the whole experience, I usually always
have a great time racing dual and this was no exception. The support
from the fans and my teammates really helped me push back up the hill as
many times as I did. Rain fallowed that night and foggy morning
conditions greeted us for morning practice. I was smoked from the night
before and decided to session 1 run and to take a good look at the
course trying to figure out line and tire choice. Racing began late in
the morning and Roy was the first one of us down the track. He put
together a decent run but was hampered by a few mistakes. Not what he
was looking for, but it was a great experience and will help him in the
future. After many hours of waiting Michael and I were making our way up
the hill. The sun had been out and baked the track surface making for a
quick track in the open sections, but in the trees word was it was
still very greasy and slow in spots. Michael set out to improve greatly
on his qualifying time, but was derailed mid run by a get off and
hammered it across the line for a 39th place overall. Due to re-runs I
was held up at the start for a half hour longer than anticipated. Trying
to keep occupied I visualized the track, stayed warm and even played
some rock hackie sac. Once on the track I got a hair off line and
overlooked it into the first woods and over the bars, game over. I tried
to give the crowd a show after dusting myself off and readjusting my
brake levers but nearly ended up on the ground again through the rock
garden. I put it onto auto pilot and rode to ride another day finishing
47th overall.
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| Preparing to launch the triple out of the woods. The course at Beech Mountain had a good mixture of everything and I especially enjoyed all of the jumps! |
It's been a long trip out east and I'm excited to head
home. We'll switch it up next weekend as we pull out the Banshee
Spitfires for the Colorado Freeride Fest, Trestle Enduro stage race at
Winter Park. Thank you to all of our sponsors for supporting our
journey.
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| Pushing the small bike to the limits and a 3rd place podium position |
Ride On!
