Dirty Bird Bro Ride

Yesterday we invited a few fellow riders out to Hawksnest for a day of riding to continue to break in the track. I think there were 7-8 of us and we probably did about 10 runs each! All before noon too... Chris brought out his Freelap timing system and we all did some timed runs. We don't have the finishing grass turns marked off yet, but from the start to the last chute out of the woods it is around the mid 1:30s. Its crazy to think that it goes by that fast because there is so much going on on the track! Feels much longer. The track is looking so good right now and the roots just keep popping up like crazy. I think everyone crashed yesterday at least once.

Just a reminder, the track at Hawksnest is officially CLOSED to the public, however if you contact us we can arrange to ride there with you. You will be run off the property by the employees if caught poaching the trail!

Wisp GES #2

I went to the Wisp Gravity East Series race this past weekend. This race is really cool because it is a two run format, one run on Saturday and then another run on Sunday on a different track. I rolled up with Pete Mills from Asheville and Ethan Quehl. We woke up Friday to pissing rain and decided to wait it out at least until the rain stopped to start practicing. By about mid afternoon the rain had stopped and we headed on up to find the tracks in decent condition. The middle rock section of the first track was slick as could be but if you stayed on the line it was fine. It wasn't supposed to rain any more so I knew the tracks would get really good. Unfortunately I got a head cold on the Thursday before the race weekend, and it really messed me up. I wasn't able to breathe very well and suffered pretty hard in my race runs, but I made the best of the weekend. I felt like the congestion really messed up my balance or something because I was just "off" all weekend. I couldn't find that flow at all but managed to stay off the ground for one of the runs. I had fun and learned a couple things again so all is well.

Wisp is a really cool resort. They have a whitewater center at the top of the mountain and also a mountain coaster that you can ride which winds down the mountain. We did a mountain coaster run on Saturday and it was really crazy! If you stay off the brakes it feels like you are going to be ripped off the rails!

Next up is the first Snowshoe race then I get my eyeballs fixed so I'll be out for a few weeks.

Minor setback with major results

I've finally been cleared for lazer eye surgery. My eyes are really screwed up and I've been forced to wear contacts that are not very well suited for the things I do. Every time I've gone on an XC ride my contacts have messed up(moved, gotten blurry, or just fallen out). I've done very few downhill runs where my contacts haven't bothered me in some way and have finished more than a handful of race runs with one eye closed. If you can't see the trail its hard to make yourself go fast! Lasik eye surgery is the solution and I'll be getting it done this summer. Shouldn't miss too many races, but I'll probably have to sit July out from racing all together. I'm gonna wait until after the first Snowshoe race and the first race at Beech the following weekend, then go for it. I can't wait! Who knows what it'll be like to see the trail!