Well hello there rocks! I haven't ridden proper east coast rock gardens since November 2009. No joke. Good thing the race track at this past weekend's Snowshoe race was full of them. I had a blast getting back used to actually riding rock gardens. This may sound weird, but I never really rode any sort of rocks while I was out west. Yes, Whistler had rocks, but those were all massive slabs, and nothing like east coast rocks. I'm proud to say that I missed them! Saturday's practice started out pretty harsh, having crashed 3 times in my first 3 runs. The first crash was a high speed washout in the left-hand turn after the "wild zone"... ouch. Second crash was on the next run, just a few turns down the track. Lost my front end on a straight-away between turns and flipped OTB. Third was a really awesome OTB in a sharp right turn before I even got to the rock sections. Glad I got that over with, because I started to feel slightly better every run after that and actually quit crashing.
My race run went decently well, save for one solid mistake. I hit the whole top of the track really well and was feeling smooth. Definitely not on pace with the "Birdman" Ethan this weekend, but it seemed nobody else was either. He totally checked out on the entire field at this race. I really wanted to have a clean, crash-free run, and I did. However, in the very last rock section, where I could almost smell the finish line, I made a dumb mistake and got off line, coming to a dead stop in the beginning of said rock section. Having to poke my way through the rest of it with no speed or momentum was a pain in the ass. Like I said though, I definitely was no where near on pace with Ethan anyways, so no big deal there. This season I'm gonna try and claw my way back into the race shape I was in last year. Oregon was way too much fun and all of the freeriding I did didn't seem to help. Maybe if we race on downhill moto tracks with FMX style kickers I could do better. haha. It's all good though, I have one of the best race tracks just minutes from my front door now, and a dedicated shuttle driver to help get my mojo back. See y'all at Beech! Oh, I heard whispers of a new track there too, stoked!
1 comment:
Last time we raced through the last section of Hare Ball I did the exact same thing you did. Its all too easy to make it all the way down the mountain and get past Roberto's rock and "forget" about how hard that last section can be after 3 and half minutes of abuse. I made sure I checked up and took my time in there this race.
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