Diablo Race #5 (Vernon, NJ)

Nick and I headed to Diablo for the last race of the season this weekend. The weather forecast didn't look good - with rain and snow possible. Despite the cold, we made the best of our time and competed both days in both the Giant Slalom and Downhill races.



We walked the course on Saturday after our Giant Slalom runs to find a very interesting course. The upper section included several tabletop jumps and fast berms. That was followed by two sections of rock gardens that zapped speed and required heavy pedaling. The lower rock garden was steep, slippery, and super-technical. Once out of the upper area, the course ran into the familiar lower shoots seen in three of the previous races. That area seemed like a breeze after navigating the tricky rock gardens above. The race finish was again in the grass field - this time was by far the most slippery that it has been all summer, evidenced by several wash-outs on its off-camber left turn.



It seemed like the key would be constant pedaling through the rock gardens followed by some controlled sliding through rest of the course. The racers had two runs to put together a winning time, which was nice since the chance of slipping off course seemed especially high.

In my first race run, I went slightly off-course on a corner in the lower rock garden. In my second run I corrected that mishap and gained six seconds on my previous time. It was good enough for second that day, second for the DH overall, and even second in the combined (slalom & DH) overall points.



The prize package at Diablo was truly impressive. Each of eight classes was showered with goodies from Jamis, Shimano, JBL Audio, Scott, and Diablo's cash purse. I walked away with a bevy of gear, including a 2010 Dakar Bam 1 frame!

Snowshoe Race #4 (West Virginia)

This has been a great season of racing - with results better than I'd even hoped. I did have one major screw-up at the end of the season, however, when I sold my '09 frame before my new '10 came in - which has still yet to happen. For this race (and next week's final round at Diablo) I was on my friend's Turner. A great bike, just not a familiar setup.



During a practice run, I broke the chainguard on the Turner. This didn't seem to be much of a problem until my race run, when the chain came off and wrapped around my right pedal. Luckily, I had the pedals horizontal when it happened [about halfway down the trail], so I could at least coast over the rest of the course. I even hit the large rock drop, although a couple pedal strokes would have been nice before pitching over the face.



In the lower section of the course, there were a few muddy spots that slowed my momentum, followed by a long straight into the finish line - man, it sure would have been a lot faster with the ability to pedal. I ended up coming in 6th place, which is fine with me given the handicap. My position for the overall series held stable at 3rd, which was a great feeling at the end of my first season. One more race to go and then a long and productive winter of training ahead.

Dude's Day 2009 (Snowshoe, WV)

Okay, so we had some last-minute dropouts, and perhaps the nonstop rain on Saturday wasn't ideal - but we still had one hell of a weekend!



Puck, Jarrod, Joe, and Andy headed for Snowshoe on Thursday and were met by Sergio (who drove from Detroit). On Friday night Joey, Dignon, and I showed up to find the whole bunch of them waste-faced and ready to party. The weekend was looking good!



The next day we watched the rain fall while we finished off the rest of the beer in the cooler. Eventually a few of us decided to get out there despite the weather. Joey, Puck, and Dignon did some four-wheeling in Joey's Jeep while we soaked up the rain and made a few runs on the mountain.



A trip to refill the cooler and a delicious dinner rounded out Saturday's festivities and the promise of less rain had us looking forward to Sunday. When we woke, the view from the porch looked poor, but by the time we'd finished breakfast the rain had stopped and only a thick fog remained. We geared up and headed out into the muddy, wonderful woods. The riding was phenomenal! Slippery and wet, but absolutely fun at the same time. Sunday's riding definitely made up for the constant rain earlier. Even with the inclement weather, hanging out in the condo and just spending time with close friends really made this trip great.

Diablo Race #4 (Vernon, NJ)

Sean and I headed for Diablo Friday night and arrived at the Wawayanda camp site around 3am. In the light rain we quickly set up our tents and headed to sleep. Bright and early the next morning we were woken up by a fellow camper - apparently we had set up our tents in his site and we'd need to move. With just over four hours of sleep, this may have been a blessing in disguise, since I doubt we would have rolled out of our tents any earlier.



After a quick stop at Dunkin Donuts and a second to look over the bikes, we were on the lift and headed to the top of the mountain. We made some warm-up laps first, then headed to the race course to see what we had to look forward to on Sunday. The course was interesting. Some sections that we've seen before, but one new area that looked very challenging. It was a large slab of rock with several exit lines that seemed to offer plenty of room for individual routes. We walked the obstacle and then I hiked back up to give it a try. It wasn't super tricky to navigate, but misplacing a tire meant falling off one of the elevated rocks that made up the "fast line."

The rain continued all day on Saturday, so we came back to Sean's truck often to dry off and rest. The weather report for Sunday was promising, so we decided to leave some of our practice runs for then.

On the way back to our campsite, Sean and I noticed a drive-in theater playing Inglorious Basterds. After drying most of our damp gear over the campfire, we returned to the drive-in to catch a flick.



The next day was a vast improvement on Saturday's weather. The sun came out and dried the course to an ideally grippy consistency. We took a few practice runs and then headed to the top for our individual starts. The course felt great - fast as hell. I did get a bit greedy though, coming into the rock slab way too fast I slid to the side of the course and had to walk around the slab since I'd blown past my entry point. Even with that mistake I snuck by with a second place finish.



Sean had a rough time in that section too. He cleared the slab, but his front wheel became stuck in the following rock garden. It ejected him immediately and he landed hard on his shoulder, elbow, and thigh. At first he tried to hop back on the bike to ride out, but he could barely lift his bike with the bruised shoulder, so he was forced to walk out off course and down the remainder of the mountain.

Despite our falls, the weekend was still a blast overall. There's just one more race left for the Diablo Gravity Series, then it's time to prepare for an even bigger season in 2010.

Snowshoe Race #3 (West Virginia)

After my last race ended in disaster, I decided to focus on overcoming my wreck and learning from my mistakes. It turned out to work wonderfully and couldn't have been a more fitting way to cap off a great weekend.

Along for this trip were Rachel, Puck, Joey, my brother Dave, my Mom Carol, and her husband John. We lucked out big time this weekend too, as we were able to stay in a friend's condo instead of roughing it again at our usual campsite. The condo was so close to the trails that we were able to ride/walk everywhere we needed to go. The weather was cool and comfortable, with only a few short rainstorms amidst the
otherwise clear and sunny skies.



On Saturday we took several runs on the race course to get a feel for the terrain. The course was somewhat of a combination of the first two, including two of the road gaps and a new section that featured two large tabletop jumps. The technical area this time was found on "lower quickdraw." This section offers multiple choices of lines, so finding the fastest route was key. It's a challenging run, with sharp turns within the maze of rocks and roots. Even after emerging from "lower quickdraw" the course offered one last taste of technical riding in "lower hairball." This section was part of the previous racecourse, which I stumbled through rather embarrassingly last time. The final stretch of the course was the same as last race, including the rock jump that threw me face-first to the ground. I decided to take it slow over the rock and work on building my confidence in increments.

That night we went out for pizza in the village and played a game of spades at the condo before retiring for the night. Early the next morning, Rachel and I walked the course before the lift opened. It was helpful to take time to look at the lines and assess the best way through. At the final rock, I carefully studied the approach. The line is barely wider that a tire and the small rocks cause your bike to jerk side-to-side at speed, so coming into that area prepared is very important. After the course walk, we rode the lift back to the top and walked back to the condo to join the rest of our group for breakfast.

Pro practice had begun by the time we emerged from the apartment so Puck, Joey, and I headed to the Basin side to get a few runs in before the race. Puck left after one run to compete in the intro category. It was his first race at Snowshoe, and he finished in 2nd place! A great victory for the Get Loose Crew indeed.



Joey and I took a couple more runs, but unfortunately he suffered a flat and I had to split to get to the staging area of my race. My run went well, with only a couple minor slips and one complete stop when I reached another rider in "lower hairball." The crowning victory for me, however, was at the finish line rock. I approached the jump with my eyes focused intently on the run-in. As soon as I left the ground I could feel that it was smooth, and I landed comfortably in the lower section of the landing. Since I'd passed a rider on the trail, we had to wait until the end of my class to find the official time. It turned out to be 5:12, good enough for first place in amateur.




After the race, the three of us took two more runs on the mountain and then headed back to pack up our stuff and drive back to Richmond. On the shuttle ride back to the top of the mountain, we rode with the 1st and 3rd place riders of the pro class. The margin between 1st and 2nd was the closest I've seen this year, with Chris Herndon being beaten by only three tenths of a second. The winner casually joked that it must have been because of the skin-suit he wore during the race. I've got a feeling he'll be sporting it next time too.

Diablo Race #3 (Vernon, NJ)

For this race, Puck and I decided to leave town on Thursday night in his truck since most Richmonders were staying in town for Best Friends Day and we'd be the only two making the drive to New Jersey. That gave us an extra day to ride and time to stop by his Dad's house in Hightstown, NJ.

Diablo runs their lift until 7pm in the midweek, so we casually headed to the park on Friday and began to take some runs. Unfortunately, a storm rolled in after only two runs. As soon as thunder was audible, they shut down the lift. To make matters worse, we learned that Diablo offers no sort of rain-check for instances like this one. We waited out the storm in the parking lot and met a rider from Brazil named Sergio. Even after the rain had stopped, the lift remained static, so we headed to the campsite and called it a day.



The next morning was damp, but the sky looked promising, so we got an early start and began the day by walking the course to check out this month's race run. Surprisingly enough, the course was much simpler than the last one. The bottom half was almost identical to their first course and it seemed to be the shortest run they've had in a race thus far.



I spent most of the day making runs on the course, but took a few with Puck and Sergio to break up the monotony. We even found a few trails that we'd never seen before at Diablo - helping the park's reputation in our minds after being smashed by the overwhelming acreage of Snowshoe.



The ground was perfect - grippy and soft, without even a hint of dust which usually plagues the park. The temperature was much better also after the previous night's rain. Around 4pm, we were exhausted, so we headed back to the campsite with a quick stop at a local pizza joint.

The rain returned that night, so we each retired to our tents a bit early. The next morning was clear and within a few hours the sun was shining brightly above. Again the ground felt wonderful, so the rain wasn't really too much of a downer. We were able to hang out all of our wet gear while we rode, which was toasty dry by the end of the afternoon.

I took a couple of runs on the course to make sure it felt roughly the same as the previous day, and then returned to the parking lot to relax and mentally prepare for the race. At 1:29 I left the top of the mountain and crossed the finish line a mere 2 minutes, 26 seconds later. It wasn't a perfect run, but overall I felt confident about my performance. I was the first rider in my category, so I was able to wait at the bottom for the two main opponents to cross. Dennis Yuroshek and his teammate, PJ Mihalick (2wheelfreaks) were my most formidable opponents, but I snuck away with the win 5 seconds ahead of them. The best thing about the finish was that all three of us on the podium were riding the same bike - the '09 Giant Glory DH. I'll be selling my frame at the end of the season too, in case anyone's interested.



After the race, we said goodbye to Sergio and headed for Puck's Dad's house for a cookout, then back to Richmond for a quick rest before the next race - SNOWSHOE!

Snowshoe Race #2 (West Virginia)

After a great practice weekend, I figured this weekend's race would be almost a breeze, even at the pro/elite level. The only areas that I wasn't allowed to ride prior to race weekend were the two lower road gaps and the "wild zone," a rock garden that ended with a rather magnificent rock drop to steep chute.

On Saturday I took a few practice runs and felt fine on those areas. I knew I'd be a bit slower over the large gap than the rest of the pro field, but figured I could live with that. The rock garden in the lower half of the course was tricky, but not unnavigable. Saturday afternoon, however, everything changed. The rain began in the late afternoon and continued until Sunday morning. Half of our group left after Saturday since the rain showed no signs of letting up and had already soaked through their tent back at the campsite. The rest of us rode out the storm and woke on Sunday morning to a damp, but sunny day.

Immediately the difference in the course was obvious. Areas that were simple before became all-new challenges and the rock garden was especially tough to navigate, since keeping your line was such a battle. After a couple practice runs, though, I felt comfortable and adjusted to the conditions.



The race run was a bit different. The course had been torn up so badly by the race traffic that the lower half was almost unrecognizable. There was a stream running down the trail just below the "wild zone" and the "hairball" rock garden was more slippery than ever. My run was going fine until just before "hairball" when my rear tire slid out. I paused, ran up the muddy run-in a few feet, and tried to restart the section, which began with a jump off of the first rock. With no time to compose myself and neither pedals clicked in, I didn't last long before going over the bars. Again I tried to relax and restart, but doing so in the middle of a rock garden is extremely tough. A few more falls and one very long breath later, I was over "Roberta's Rock" and almost through "Lower Hairball" when my tires slid out again on the wet rock and ejected me once more.

After so many spills, I figured that my chances of posting a good time were lost, so I decided to take the rest of the course easy and simply go as fast or slow as I felt comfortable. By this time I was near the bottom of the course and through the most challenging sections, so I decided to stay off the brakes and enjoy the speed. There was only one more obstacle in my way, a high-speed, low-elevation, rock drop that lands on the downside of a series of tree roots. It's something that I took slow last race, but had mastered during last week's practice. I felt no fear of the jump, so I decided to hit it hard and fast - big mistake! As soon as my bike left the ground, I could feel that the rear wheel had bounced too hard, and was going to throw me off the front of the bike. I landed face-first on the ground, cutting up the entire left side of my body. Luckily, I had no broken bones and my full-face helmet did its job wonderfully. The race run, however, was a complete bust and I'll be off the bike for at least two weeks.



I suppose even wrecks can serve as valuable learning experiences and this one wont soon be forgotten. It was a bummer, but could have been much worse, so I feel lucky coming out of it relatively uninjured. Even with that outcome, it's still nothing to ruin the weekend. Hell, to top it off, we snapped the best group photo I've ever seen on the drive back to Richmond.