Michael Thomas

Trail work in the pouring rain

2011-03-22T21:06:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you just have to buck up and get out there in the absolute worst conditions ever to get things done. This time it was just pissing rain sooooo hard the whole day. We nearly killed my chainsaw, it was sucking up so much water that it would barely run, but we managed, and it was totally worth it.

Opened an old DH trail

2011-02-03T20:20:00.000-08:00

I went in and opened up an old DH trail that I built a few years ago near Blowing Rock (NOT canyons) recently. Its at a compound with 4 other trails as well. The first and last pics are from my trail, and the 2nd pic is from the trail that Mueller built there. I was surprised to find that the trails were in perfect condition since its been under full leaf cover for so long. Straight up rake and ride!

New bits for 2011

2011-02-01T19:51:00.000-08:00

SEI Racing has hooked up with Fox Shox for our official fork sponsor for 2011. I swapped out my white 2010 40 for a black 2011 and I also put a 32 Talas 150-120mm fork on my Shova. Feels like butter

Trying a new angle with the GoProHD

2011-01-26T10:41:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we played around with a follow cam setup with the GoPro. It kinda worked out well, maybe on a track with less tight turns than this it would look better.

Winter Riding

2011-01-24T20:08:00.001-08:00

This picture was taken two weeks ago at the top of Sinkhole.
Now all the trails have melted the snow and are running perfect.
As perfect as January riding in the High Country gets I guess. The
only issues now are the temperatures. If you go for a ride when
its above freezing the trails start to ooze water and the FS roads
get all mushy and super hard to pedal up. Oh well I guess thats
just part of the game, good training eh. hahaha

Learning the trails again

2010-12-05T16:11:00.000-08:00

I think I accidentally deleted my mental trail map of Wilson Creek while I was out in Oregon learning new trails. Its been so awesome riding all the badass trails in Pisgah and bringing it all back together in my head so I can think of different loops to do. Wilson Creek and Pisgah in general have some of the best and most fun trails around.

Been a while

2010-12-05T16:04:00.000-08:00

Its been quite a while since I've done anything with this blog. I have been working at Rocky Knob MTB Park here in Boone as an intern. We are so close to having it finished, but it looks like it might not be feasible to open the park until the weather turns around. The internship is pretty much done now, and I have been offered a job by the trail building company who is doing all the machine work at Rocky Knob. The job is about a 2 month long project working at Brown Mountain OHV over near Morganton. We are going to repair/rebuild 5 of the trails, and all mountain bikers' favorite one, trail #9, is one of those. Its gonna be great to work with one of the best trail building companies in the country and learn a lot more about building trails with machines.

ProDH track videos

2010-08-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

I did a run down the Pro track at Hawksnest a couple days ago with a chest cam. It was angled a little low, but I've got that sorted out now so I should have a better shot soon.

Dirty Bird ProDH Track Preview from Michael Thomas on Vimeo.

This past Sunday Alex Boyd came out to the Bird to shoot some video as well. Here's a nice teaser of the new Pro track...

Dirty Bird DH Pro Track Preview from Alex Boyd on Vimeo.

R.I.P.

2010-07-28T19:02:00.001-07:00

There is one trail that pops up in my mind as the trail that really got me into riding gnarly terrain well. It is also the trail that scared me every time I dropped in. It broke my first bone(s). It also was a playground for learning how to build downhill trails. Some ideas worked, some didn't last more than a couple weeks. One things for sure though, it went through some of the best terrain I have ever seen on a bike. Everywhere I go, I compare trails that I ride to this one. It is still at the top of my list as pretty much the best DH trail I have ever ridden. After riding it for a few days in a row, I would have the most confidence, and ride faster than ever.

In 2008, when the National Collegiate Championships were held at Sugar Mtn, I never practiced the race course during the weekend. It was raining harder than ever all day every day until Sunday when we raced. I had been practicing the track for a while before the race, getting ready. So I knew all the lines on the track. But the only thing that mattered, was that I was going to go ride Canyons the morning of the race, before I went to Sugar to do my race run on Sunday. It had been raining at Canyons too, so I figured that it would be in similar conditions. But the only difference is when Canyons is wet, it is straight up terrifying. I balled it up in one of the steep turns and ate shit, putting a huge gouge in my helmet from my pedal when the bike flipped over me. Rang my bell pretty good too. Thank god I did it there and not at Sugar, because I would have lost the race. The trail is so long that you can have a massive crash, keep riding and by the time you get to the end, everything is back to normal and you are feeling good again.

The trail is "closed" right now because the private land owner at the very top was unhappy of the obvious increase in usage over the past year or so. Seems like everyone else has gotten the word that it's a good trail too. When we went in to get it going again 5 years ago, you could barely even see the trail because the forest was trying to reclaim it. Maybe that will happen again and someone else can go in there in a few years and bring it back again. R.I.P. Canyons

New DH trail

2010-07-27T20:28:00.000-07:00

Well another DH trail has popped up in the High Country, this one is probably the closest one to where I'm living now, and on private land. The guy who lives there used to be one of my neighbors, and rides. Luckily he has a nice mountain in his backyard so the obvious thing to do was start building trails. Went out today for a little session and to shoot some photos. Here's a couple winners...

Snowshoe #2

2010-07-26T18:49:00.001-07:00

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!

Rocky Knob Mountain Bike Park

2010-07-22T11:58:00.000-07:00

Been out hiking all around Rocky Knob Park here in Boone over the past few days. It's pretty amazing just how much rock is on that mountain. The trails that will be built are gonna be so awesome because they will just be rock. Machines are getting dropped off on Monday morning and trail construction begins that day with Woody and the Trail Dynamics crew. I'll be out there mapping out key features on the mountain creating a "bread crumb" map showing all of those features for future trail route ideas. The first trail is the easy loop, or Green route. It is a stacked-loop trail system, where the harder trails are further back in the park to access. There will also be a Blue trail, Black Diamond trails, and even a Red Diamond trail, aka a "super gnar" trail. This place is about to blow up, and I'm so stoked be a part of this right now. Many more updates about this to come...

New internship

2010-07-21T20:21:00.001-07:00

Well I just decided to change up my internship idea a little bit so it would benefit me in the future with MTB LLC. I am now interning at Rocky Knob Park here in Boone. Flagging trails, making trails, mapping trails. I'm going to be working closely with Kristian Jackson (the trail boss) and the guys with Trail Dynamics over the next couple of months. Things are rolling really fast at the park, and I can confidently say it is going to become a major destination very soon. The terrain is soooo rocky and they have a lot of land to work with. Starting tomorrow. Then.....Snowshoe this weekend.

Trail work

2010-07-21T08:07:00.000-07:00

Been doing a good bit of trail work since I got back. A good buddy of mine is developing DH trails at his house really close to me, so I've been spending quite a bit of time over there working. Also, the "proDH" track at the Dirty Bird is just about finished. It's gonna be interesting. Drifty turns, steep chutes, ROCKS, jumps, berms, you name it. The track has it all. Even a little bit of grass thrown in to cover all the basics. Right now we are finishing up a section towards the bottom, where you hit a stepdown out of the woods onto a massive benchcut in the ski slope, to a righthand hip, left berm/right berm combo, then an off-camber traverse over towards where we should have a really big stepdown. There is a wood kicker on the way out, we'll see how that works, if it rides weird we will build it with dirt. After that, you cross another slope towards the old area with the whoops and hit a floaty left hip, followed by a flat right hand turn into the old track just after the whoops. So basically the track is going to open up after all the tight techy stuff and get fast and boosty. Hope y'all like it.

Mountain Trail Builders LLC

2010-07-18T19:09:00.000-07:00

This week Steven and I started our own llc, called Mountain Trail Builders. aka MTB LLC. We have the name registered now and all the paperwork is finished! With Steven's Construction Management degree and my GIS degree,combined with lots of years of building trails we thought we could use both of our skill sets to create a full blown trailbuilding/consulting company. Already have 2 jobs lined up. WORD.

Back to the right coast

2010-07-12T18:54:00.000-07:00

The past 6 weeks of my life have been pretty hectic. I have just recently moved back to North Carolina to embark on an internship creating a new map of Wilson Creek. I absolutely could not find what I needed in Portland as far as getting the internship that I needed and wanted to do for my GIS degree. It was really rough because I moved out there with my girlfriend, who coincidentally is originally from there. Long story short this internship stuff has forced me to make a very very tough decision, which is leave her in Portland to come and take care of this. Anyways, it's been nice being back and seeing everyone. It seems like the racing scene back here is starting to get in the swing of things, which is good. I was fortunate enough to be able to race in some VERY high quality events while out west, and hopefully I can use some of that experience to implement into the Dirty Bird races soon.

There has been way too much stuff going through my head lately that I haven't really been able to even think about racing or riding bikes for a little while. Total scatterbrain. Until now. This past weekend I did a little race at Beech Mtn, which was my first time back on the DH bike in over a month, and first race in 6 weeks. It was awesome being able to bang out runs again. After a few really weird-feeling shakedown runs I was feeling good again and getting some flow back. My race run went as good as I could have expected coming off of a solid downtime off the bike. It was clean and I nailed everything I wanted to in the woods sections, but I just wasn't able to throw together the run I wanted or needed to do. My legs felt like lead, and I even literally forgot to pedal in one section. I ended up in 6th place, which was Ok with me. I needed to have that kind of result to get me motivated to start focusing again and really thinking about racing. Snowshoe in 2 weeks.

Patriot

2010-06-10T13:00:00.001-07:00

Some fresh new patriot edition Scott/Decline Magazine goggles just showed up. Rocking the best colors in the world!

More new trails

2010-06-09T21:06:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been riding some new (to me) trails in the area. The latest spot was just across the Columbia River from Portland near Washougal, WA. It is about a 30 minute drive from my house in Portland, which by West Coast standards is damn close! I wasn't sure what the trail would be like, but I heard that the shuttle turn-around times were very short so you could bang out a lot of runs in an afternoon. Well turns out it is a VERY good trail, right up my alley. Dark, soft dirt, tons of really tight turns, and it was really STEEP. The kind of track that would just rail with a set of spikes on. Lots of jumps thrown in there for fun too. I did one timed run, and it was right at 5 minutes, with relatively no pedaling unless you wanted to go really fast.

There are still about 4 spots that are really close by that I've yet to check out, so hopefully they are just as good as this.

Making some changes

2010-06-04T22:44:00.000-07:00

I'm working on trying to update this blog so it looks a bit better... hopefully you like it so far. wait, who am I kidding... people actually read this thing? ha

Fluidride Cup #1

2010-06-03T22:18:00.003-07:00

This past weekend was the start of the Fluidride Cup series. Heralded as one of the best racing series' in the US, the 2010 Fluidride Cup series saw some major changes over previous years. First of all, they have split with the promotors over at Dry Hill in Port Angeles, WA, who wanted to go for their own series with 4 races being held at Dry Hill this year. Separating on good terms, this allowed the Fluidride series to expand and look to other venues besides Ski Bowl at Mt Hood (which will have 3 races this year for the series). Schweitzer, Idaho and Whistler were soon thrown into the schedule. It was like a dream come true, I have always wanted to race at Scheitzer since watching all of the old racing videos of the Norba races they held there. Oh, and Whistler! Well, what hasn't been said about the place. Its heaven to me. Adding Whistler also turns the Fluidride series into an international affair, and it is pretty much impossible to ever have a bad race at Whistler.

Once I found out what track we would be racing on, I new it was gonna be good. For anyone who has ever been to Whistler before... think about racing down Schleyer to Detroit Rock City. Gnarly with a little bit of freeride thrown in. With the wet conditions, the freeride part would turn out being my worst enemy. I haven't ridden Detroit Rock City before the race, and had heard lots of stories about it, both good and bad. It is a very technical trail to just ride in general, but trying to ride it at race speeds almost turned out to be a bit easier. I think it was because there were so many roots in sections that going faster allowed you to just float on top of the roots and maintain direction a little better.

My race run was all but perfect, but felt "fast" to me for the most part considering the really wet conditions. I smashed my left SPD pedal into a rock sprinting out of the start gate, breaking off the clip assembly on one side. I had a 50% chance of clipping back into the good side of the pedal if I ever unclipped for one of the many sketchy spots on track. Luckily I managed to get it right every time. About 1/2 through Schleyer trail is the really burly rock section followed by a simple downhill wooden berm to about 15 feet of a wooden ladder to drop. I nailed the rock section before it and came in a little hot into the (soaking wet) wood features. I grabbed the tiniest bit of back brake on the right-hand wood berm and the rear end swopped out to my right. I got it back and over corrected just a bit and the rear end swopped back the other way, then back again to the right, then I found myself sliding off the end of the drop almost sideways and barely made it onto the wooden lander. Oh, that left foot was unclipped too! By the end of that near catastrophe my heart rate was maxed out and I somehow nailed the rest of the track at a decent pace. As soon as my run was done I was back on the lifts, banging out runs on Dirt Merchant and A-line for the rest of the day. For anyone who hates on people riding those trails so much, I do it because you can't ride trails like that anywhere else, so you gotta get what you can when you can!

Next up is NW Cup #3 and Fluidride Cup #2.

Ashland rules

2010-05-16T10:56:00.003-07:00

This past weekend I traveled down to Ashland, OR with a few other dudes to ride some long all-mountain shuttles. Ashland is basically on the border with northern California and is a very small town with a college and some very big mountains. We left Portland at 5am and arrived in Ashland at 9am at a friend's house to warm up on his backyard pumptrack. After a little session we joined two other people, loaded up the trucks and relocated to another guy's house and another pump track. We picked up our designated shuttle driver(who happens to be the local trail builder there) there and were off to the hills.

The first trail we rode was amazing. It started out with a line of 9 massive jumps- doubles, hips, step downs, and step ups. Ranging from 15 to 30+ feet, they were a blast and we sessioned them for a while. After that we rode down some amazingly fast trails to the bottom. The woods here were much more wide open and the dirt was very hardpack and just shy of dusty, which made for very high speeds going down. We were covering miles of downhill in no time. After that long shuttle we headed across the valley to some less-known trails, and for good reason. These were some of the coolest trails to ride, just very high speed with lots of awesome turns and flowy features. Midway down we sessioned a nice double to an even better hip. These trails felt like a world cup course mixed with a roller coaster ride. Big props to the awesome locals for showing us around and Wes for being the most raunchy trail builder ever. We will be back!

Random

2010-03-15T20:05:00.002-07:00

It really is a small world. Today I was out on a ride and met up with two dudes who somehow managed to get a dream job, building trails for the IMBA, traveling all around the country. They were operating a miniature sized Bobcat excavator to build berms on an area where they were converting an old fire road to a trail. We got to talking and I found out that they had just gotten back from working in NC at Uhwarrie NF building trails. Crazy!! Then, I found out that they have 4 good buddies in Hood River where they live who went to App State! And 10 more down in Bend! So crazy. When I asked them how they managed to have my dream job, they just said "luck". And not to mention, these guys have built one of the sickest trails I've ridden in a long time, anywhere!

2 weeks till the first downhill race...

Its been a while

2010-03-09T13:06:00.002-08:00

Well it has been a while since I've updated this. As you can guess, I've been riding a ton! Lots and lots of dirt jumping and xc riding mainly. Dirt jumping is definitely my weakness, and I've been working hard to build my skills back up. This past weekend I found a new trail system that is being built by the BLM in conjunction with the IMBA. It is located just east of a small mtn town called Sandy in the Cascade range of the Mt Hood National Forest. I now have a lot of respect for what the IMBA does. Somehow they managed to build a 4.5 mile long downhill with 1200' of elevation with continuously high speeds and not really any pedalling. It is almost entirely bench cut, but is littered with sharp rocks and slick roots. The last 1.5 miles flattens out but the speeds stay high because they built an enormous amount of berms and rollers that just flow for days. After you do the full loop you can go back up and loop the lower bermed section over and over again. They are doing a trail work day this weekend to finish off another 8 mile loop at the top that connects in the the trail I just described. It is all I want and need out of a riding area, but it just keeps getting better. They are letting us build jump lines out there too! On BLM land!

The first race of the season is going down in 3 weeks in Port Angeles, WA. Formally part of the Fluidride Cup Series, this place has split off this year to put on their own series, called the NW Cup. It is going to be a good preview of the track to help me get prepared for a very large race in April, the first ProGRT (and 2nd NW Cup). It is the weekend after Sea Otter so I'm expecting some very big hitters to be in attendance. I'm looking forward to getting to the races and meeting a ton of new people and challenging myself on tracks that I don't have memorized.

Winter riding

2010-02-03T17:21:00.003-08:00

Even though it does rain quite often in the PNW in the winter, the riding season really never stops. The ground just soaks up every bit of rain that falls very quickly. I found a couple of new spots this week. One is just east of Portland, near Hood River but just across the Columbia Gorge on the southern border of Washington. It's a trail system called Syncline. Like a lot of local spots around here, it is not public land. People think a little bit differently out here I guess. Its just a huge piece of property that is privately owned and many trails have been built for biking and hiking. And the number one reason why it rocks is it is usually dry all year.

Another place that I have been riding a lot at is called Scappoose. It's the closest legit place to ride at near Portland. Like Syncline, it is privately owned, but publicly available anytime. There are some really awesome shuttles there that I can ride on my DH bike, and tons of miles of trails to shred xc on. It is dense forest and typical PNW terrain with neon green moss everywhere and super flowy trails snaking through the woods. At the top drop off for the DH shuttle, you can see Mt Hood, Mt Saint Helen and Mt Adams all at once.

Pee En Dub

2010-01-17T16:25:00.002-08:00

Life in Oregon has been great so far. I don't have to pump my own gas (still getting used to that), pay sales tax (which is AWESOME!!!) and I get to ride some world class trails every day. The riding here is different in that the dirt doesn't really get too affected by lots of rain. It gets wet for sure, and sometimes a bit muddy in spots, but for the most part the dirt stays hard but it just absorbs water like a sponge and the conditions are more than steller for riding.

Yesterday I went down to Falls City and checked out Black Rock. I've been hearing a lot about this place, and even seen it in some major bike videos, so I had to check it out. When I arrived there, I knew it was going to be cool, but I had no idea just how massive of a place this is! And free!!!!! To put it in perspective, I'd have to say that there are more trails here than most bike parks at the resorts I've ridden, and the quality of trails and features are some of the best I've ever ridden. There is even a dedicated race track. But the best part of Black Rock is the seemingly endless amount of man-made features to ride, jump, and drop off of. And BIG ones too!!! Everything is marked so well, and the small army of local trail builders do a great job of keeping things fresh. On the way up you cross under at least 5 different big road gaps over the shuttle road. It had everything that I would possibly want in a bike park, and then a lot more.

Huge props to the builders!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScY1r27xcR8

The Legend

2009-12-23T20:48:00.004-08:00

Fluidride 2010

2009-12-22T20:08:00.002-08:00

The 2010 dates for the Fluidride Cup have been announced. I never thought I would get to race at Schweitzer Mtn, Idaho. Always thought it was one badass looking track in the videos. The new Enduro DH series sounds really cool too, with practice on Friday and racing on Saturday and Sunday. Maybe two different tracks per weekend? RAD

Fluidride 2010

Bubba Stewart

2009-12-20T07:56:00.003-08:00

EPIC video from Bubba's compound in Florida. He will always be on another level, and I can see why now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BL-Tfyxc-_E

peace!

Update

2009-12-10T14:42:00.002-08:00

Here's a short edit I made for fun from a day riding slalom. Trilliam, I mean Carlos, was dressed to impress for some reason... One exam left and I'm done with college and packing up for Oregonia.

Ironically, I just found out that Porland is about to blow up on the DH scene. Tilamook National Forest is planning to install a series of Downhill Bike Specific trails, beginning construction in Spring 2010. 2230' of elevation to use. Sounds good to me.

Peace out!

2009-11-28T17:54:00.002-08:00

I have 2 weeks left in Boone, then I begin packing in Greensboro and will be driving out to Portland, Oregon the day after Christmas to pursue my future. I have always wanted to live in the PNW, and I got a chance to do so, so why not? I can't wait to be racing the Fluidride Cup series, and meet the hundreds of people that race in it. Almost more importantly, I'm going to get the opportunity to get in to endurance gravity racing. Oregon is at the forefront of these massive downhill races, ranging from 6 miles to 12 miles in length, and with minimal climbing. One of them, the Hood River 6 mile downhill race, has 4ooo feet of drop, with just a couple hundred feet of climbing! Sounds right up my alley. I also just got word that Bend, OR is about to install an indoor bike park, similar to Ray's, but not in Ohio!

I'm gonna miss all the good times that the south has to offer, but I'm sure I'll still find some fun out there somewhere, lol. The Dirty Bird is going to be kicking ass next year, and I hope that 2010 is a breakthrough year for southern DH racing.

mike

Northstar

2009-10-17T08:19:00.002-07:00

I've been here at Northstar Resort at Lake Tahoe, CA for a few days now for the collegiate natty champs. Its a massive resort that embraces mountain bike riding, so its nothing but fun times here. Too many trails to ride while we are here. You have to take a gondola from the village to the main riding area, where you have a choice of two other lifts to ride up to access many other trails.

The downhill track is really sick. Tons of rocks, not too many roots, and endless twisty turns mixed with crazy high speeds. The rocks here are cool because you can hit them at any angle and not get kicked around because there is endless traction everywhere. I've been just bombing through rock gardens not really having a prepared line and getting through just fine. That wouldn't happen on the east coast.

Racing mountaincross today, then getting up early Sunday morning for Downhill qualifying and racing shortly after that. So far I've had a blast, I'm gonna miss collegiate racing since it really stretches out the racing season and gives me a great opportunity to get out of Boone when the weather isn't it's best.

Collegiate National Championships on the horizon

2009-10-08T20:26:00.002-07:00

Next week I'm leaving for Northstar Resort at Lake Tahoe, California for the 2009 Collegiate National Championships. I love collegiate racing, and this year we have seen much bigger crowds than ever, even bigger than most of the public races I've been doing. I'll be trying my best to defend my title in the downhill race, and try not to get too banged up in my first ever mountaincross race. Should be very interesting, I'll have 3-4 days to get used to the terrain before the race runs, so hopefully everything goes well! I also hope that there isn't too much snow on the ground. It should be really fun and I've been looking forward to this particular race for a long time now.

Collegiate Racing Rules

2009-09-21T10:32:00.002-07:00

This past weekend App State teamed up with Lees-McCrae to host a dual conference race. Saturday's dual slalom race saw 130 racers and all-out racing from 4 till dark. The Men's A class had like 56 people trying to qualify for the top 32. So sick! My slalom bike was missing a chainguide so I raced my downhill bike and somehow made it all the way through to a 3rd place, and achieved complete exhaustion! Still recovering from that, but so stoked to see so many people my age out there racing and kickin ass..

The Dirty Bird is ready for you

2009-08-21T07:07:00.002-07:00

Tomorrow kicks off the first ever Dirty Bird Downhill race at Hawksnest (and defnitely not the last!) and we are finally ready to go. The track is weed eated, raked, and taped. Some work has been done to make sure the that it is running good all weekend long and I can't wait to ride it after the race, hopefully it will get really rough. We are prepared to handle up to 180 racers, and from what we have been hearing, we might get close to maxing it out! We can only hope... see ya tomorrow!

Lance is the man

2009-08-14T10:02:00.002-07:00

Lance Armstrong won the Colorado Pro XC championship last weekend at Snowmass, and is about to tackle the Leadville 100 tomorrow, trying to set a new course record on the way. He's still the MAN!

http://www.velonews.com/article/96488/

Respect the SKINSUIT!!!

2009-08-11T16:36:00.001-07:00

been a while

2009-08-10T14:24:00.002-07:00

Been some time since I've updated this, lots of stuff going on these days...

First of all and most importantly, the Dirty Bird DH race is going off in less than two weeks!!! Get hype and stock up on plenty of PBR at the gas station at the bottom of the mountain...12 packs for $5.87 out the door. Wyatt just hooked us up with 16 fresh Specialized Clutch DH tires to hand out. Thats about $1000 worth of tires!

I got to race in a skinsuit this weekend at the Beech race, and I honestly have to say I loved it. When you wear a skinsuit, you know you have to go fast or you risk looking like a douche bag. The skinsuit makes you pin it!

More Dirty Bird news to come as we get it. Oh, got two 26' uhaul trucks lined up for the shuttle. Should be a pretty solid setup, having them staggered out so one goes to the top while the other is loading up with people. We hope that will help reduce congestion on the race track since there isn't much room for passing or anything...

Good Times

2009-07-19T18:22:00.002-07:00

BMX bikes are way too much fun to ride once you figure it out. I've been spending a ton of time on a 24" cruiser riding bmx tracks, slalom tracks, and pump tracks and its really quickly changed the way I see things on the trails. Every little transition gets pumped and I've found myself having to pedal a lot less because of it. I'm really glad that I'm getting a hardtail for slalom now that I've learned to ride a bmx bike. The slalom track out at LMC is still in great shape, minus a bit of grass, but that doesn't matter much.

Today we went a rode slalom for a couple hours then went over to Sugar Mtn to ride some DH. The trail was in the best shape I've ever seen it, totally dry but plenty of traction everywhere. It was my first time on the DH sled after having Lasik done and I couldn't be happier. No more contact issues. Got to tune in the new Double Barrel too which turned out really well. Its such a good shock that I just forgot about it every run because it was so flawless. Looking forward to Snowshoe next weekend, got my fitness up a bit more now so hopefully I can hang! We shall see...

Dirty Bird Bro Ride

2009-06-15T08:46:00.002-07:00

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

2009-06-10T21:04:00.002-07:00

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

2009-06-09T20:04:00.003-07:00

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!

Night Train video

2009-05-31T21:59:00.000-07:00

Red Bull Night Shift 2.0 from Remedy Films on Vimeo.

US Open

2009-05-25T20:21:00.002-07:00

This past weekend was the 2009 US Open of Mountain Biking at Diablo Freeride Park in New Jersey. Diablo is one of the coolest places to ride a bike at, they have the fastest lift I've ever been on and more trails that I could handle. Its so fast that you are still breathing hard from the last run when you get back to the top! You can easily do 20-30 runs a day no problem. Luckily its also in a good part of Jersey; nice countryside and they even had 30 racks of PBR for 16 bucks!

This year the race was bigger than ever too. They added a really cool new race format that replaced last year's dual slalom. It was a 2 run format race on a slalom-type trail, but it was more of a mini DH flow trail that was perfectly smooth with tons of massive berms and a few jumps. Brendan Fairclough took the win in front of a huge raging drunk crowd. Morewood's Geritt Beytagh held it down for 4th place in front of many heavy hitters. I hope to see more races like this, they ran qualifers to get the pros down to the top 20 before doing the 2 race runs. It made for some quick, exciting racing!

I screwed up pretty badly in my DH qualifying run by just simply not riding hard enough. I missed the cut by less than 1/2 a second in 63rd spot. I was just trying to save my energy as much as possible and wasn't concerned with trying to lay down a blazing fast qualifying time. Next year I'll definitely not do that again! But it was actually nice to be able to rip up the mountain after that without worrying about killing my energy for the race.

The Diablo trail crew has been working really hard putting in some awesome new progressive features on the mountain. I think my favorite was a short trail that split off of upper Dominion that was a massive drop step down into what I could only describe as a boner jump. It was this massive pipe sticking out of the ground at about a 45* angle with planks on it that you just launched off of at full speed. So much fun! I can't wait to get back up there as soon as possible and see what else they have in store for us.

Next up is Wisp in two weeks, then Snowshoe and the first Beech race.

Massanutten and more

2009-05-13T15:26:00.003-07:00

The season is officially under way with the Massanutten Yee-Haw DH race all wrapped up for 2009. The weather, for the most part, was decent as it didn't rain during practice or the race. It poured rain pretty hard Friday night for about an hour before it stopped, but it didn't really affect the track too much. There were over 200 racers this year and it was awesome to see so many people getting stoked on racing. I think I saw about 75 Sam Hills and about the same amount of Demos out there.

Been riding a ton lately and am getting some good form together for the US Open in less than 2 weeks. I hear there are going to be some turbo pinners there again this year, so I better be on top of my game all weekend or else I might not even qualify!

The trails are getting super green and lush and it hasn't rained in like 2 days, yay!

The Dirty Bird

2009-05-01T18:54:00.002-07:00

The official word is finally out of the bag now about the race that is going down this fall. We've been working hard to get the track finished up before we made the final announcement so that we could provide footage of the track. Its gonna be a lot rougher by fall as we continue to break it in before the race. We've been throwing around the idea of having an open test day on the track with donations being made to help fuel the Pro purse. Its just an idea now, but I hope we can do it to get more people stoked on the race before it actually goes down. Its not the longest track, but I think its gonna be hard to memorize all of the tricky turns in just a day and a half.

Anyways, check the vid.

http://www.vimeo.com/4415654

Red Bull Night Shift

2009-04-21T09:16:00.003-07:00

The race was a lot of fun. It was kind of a jam format, where we had 2 hours at night to put down a fast time. I had a blast riding all day and shredding the Windrock trails while they were in prime condition. When night fell, we started doing race runs around 9:00pm. My first run was nice and conservative, figuring out how fast I could push it in the dark and what all I could see. I had a nice crash in that run where I blew a turn and fell down a bank a little bit. On my second run they strapped a helmet cam to my head, so I had another cruiser run so as to not ruin the camera. It was a really smooth run and I was ready to pin the next one. For my third race run, I had planned out that it would be the run that I would go all out on. I've been noticing that 3rd runs are almost always the fastest over the years. So I went for it. It was perfect, everything came together and I was on a smokin time! Then right before the finish, in a section called the "ghetto, I was taking a line that sort of straightens out two turns a little bit and got into some loose dirt and lost the front end, smashing my face and chest into a very large and sharp boulder on the right of the trail. Somehow I didn't get a concussion, but was a little dazed after that. I gathered myself and continued to ride out with my light not even working. I was very lucky in that crash. My back is a bit tweaked and I've got a cracked rib, but I'm glad thats all thats messed up. Went from full race speed to zero in a split second on my head. Luckily its a rib that is pretty high up on my chest so its not affecting my breathing as much as a lower one would. I'm gonna try to stay as active as possible over the next few weeks so I'll be ready to race again.

3 weeks until Massanutten, see you all there!

Bringin It Back!!!

2009-03-30T10:11:00.002-07:00

The cat is almost all the way out of the bag now, with the announcement of the Beech Mountain Triple Crown series. Beech Mountain is the HIGHEST ski resort in eastern North America and also the highest town in the Eastern US. It also has a high speed detachable quad lift! I walked the entire mountain with Ryan Taylor this past weekend and it blew me away by the terrain they have. Ryan is spearheading this and busting his ass right now to get everything worked out, and we're meeting up this week to break ground on an all-new track that will account for the progression that race tracks have had over the years. Huge rocks, big jumps, high speed! Southeast downhill racing is back! Keep an eye out for another announcement soon about even more good stuff happening in the area...

Back on the downhill bike

2009-03-23T08:56:00.003-07:00

Its been a long winter aboard my xc bike. I dusted off the downhill bike last week. Spring time is shredding season and the weather is perfect.

New bike

2009-03-14T16:07:00.003-07:00

I picked up a new Specialized Epic a week ago to replace my old Enduro SL. I got it so I can hammer a lot harder on rides, the Enduro was just a little too much travel for me and it soaked up way too much energy when I really laid into it on climbs. I also did it so I could sell my Enduro to a friend from school to get another shredder out there on the trails.

Looking to hit up some of the early spring classic XC races, starting with the Knobscorcher at Tsali in early April... Its gonna hurt bad, its 36 miles long!

weight watchers

2009-03-05T20:12:00.002-08:00

I've gained 8 pounds over the past 6 weeks from lifting. My weight has changed for as long as I can remember until now. Makes me wonder why I still strive to make my bike lighter.

got crash?

2009-02-09T14:45:00.005-08:00

This is for the haters that say I don't ever crash!

This one was in my race run at the 2007 US National Champs at Mount Snow, VT. My gloves fell off the lift on the way up to do my run. I could have really used those in this crash. I ended up getting a nice concussion, massive bruises on the palms of my hands and waddled to the nearest hay bale to collect myself. Not fun!

This was a really, REALLY wild crash. It was my first time down a certain trail in Pisgah. After a pretty high speed section, the trail just dips straight down into a blind rocky creek crossing. I was going so fast that I couldn't even brake because the trail just went from pretty mellow grade to really steep and I just floated down into the creek, breaking my fork apart. I didn't even realize that it was broken for about a minute because I hit so hard that I was sure I had broken some bones. Luckily only the fork broke.

Nothing too special about this pic, other than it was the first crash pic I've ever gotten. From Greenville, SC

Training update

2009-01-27T15:26:00.003-08:00

Its amazing how much change you can get in just a few weeks of serious training. I've been in the gym 4 days a week for 3-4 hours at a time for the past 4 weeks so far. Its been awesome as I can physically see changes in my fitness and strength as I get better. Trail rides are easier, I can go harder and longer and still have gas left in the tank. Everything from riding downhill to climbing, I can tell a great difference. The best part is that there is still about 3.5 months until the racing season starts, so I've still got plenty of time to get a ways into my personnal "next level" of fitness.

Cross training has been a lot of fun too. Almost all my friends rock climb, so I've been going to the indoor rock wall (same building as the gym!) and building up my grip and forearm strength. Running, in my opinion, is one of the ultimate cardiovascular fitnesses as you can never coast or take a break. Plus, its opened up another opportunity to do intervals in a different way than on the bike. Its just getting through the first week or two of pain when you first start running that sucks, then you get over that and rarely get cramps and then it actually gets pretty fun. Especially on trails.

Luckily for some really odd reason the forest has been dry every time I've gone in the past month to ride. Its a bit sandy and rocky so I guess it just drains super well. Its cold as can be outside, but I'll take a nice ride any day no matter the weather.

cheers

Some random clips from late last summer

2009-01-16T15:38:00.002-08:00

I kinda forgot about this, but I shot these clips late summer '08 while I still had a busted hand. Testing out some trails we had just built at the time.

Training has commenced and is going very well so far. Intervals are brutal, but the benefits far overshadow the pain. Got a new dual slalom bike in the works, a Morewood Enza that will be all murdered out with green I9s...pics when its all done...

Wow

2008-12-24T21:14:00.002-08:00

I absolutely suck at riding skateparks, but would love to try to ride this one in China...

December

2008-12-15T21:01:00.002-08:00

Its snowed over 10 times now and the riding is getting really gnarly. On Saturday Steven, Mueller, Ryan Taylor and I did some DH runs nearby and the trails were running really well since the leaves got blown off trail earlier last week. And we've found some new trails in town to loop from the doorstep so all is well. Headed to Brown Mtn tomorrow to slash #9. You people better be riding!!

Change of Pace

2008-11-25T11:30:00.002-08:00

We've been getting snowed on for about a week now and I'm kind of happy about it regardless of the lack of riding it brings. Snowboarding makes for a very nice change of pace for me in the winter because it still forces me to push myself and I get to have a lot of fun doing it! Pretty much everyone I know snowboards so its a good chance to get out and shred with my friends who don't own bikes. I'm learning how to jump now and have hit a few rails and boxes already but there is so much room for progression in snowboarding that its an endless journey of getting better and better.

Got the last race of the year coming up this weekend and the weather is looking pretty good for it so it should be a good time. It sounds like it will be a really chill race with some kegs there so its gotta be fun.

peace!

App State National Champions!

2008-10-27T12:37:00.002-07:00

This past weekend was the 2008 Collegiate National Championships and App State saw our first ever stars and stripes jerseys come home. My teammate Rebecca dominated her XC race Dukes of Hazzard style, when she was still changing into her clothes and the gun shot for her class to take off! She started with about a 2 minute disadvantage and completely destroyed the field as she picked off rider after rider. That was the first stars n bars jersey. The next day was the DH race and after seriously heavy rain had force USAC to cancel the previous day's qualifying runs and practice on the morning of, I found myself getting ready to race a track that I had no practice on in it's current conditions. It was crazy! The track was like ice and to touch the brakes meant your face would probably touch the ground! Somehow I got down the track smoothly and hammered out one of my best runs ever for an 11 second victory! The 2nd Stars n Bars jersey. I think it was that 2.8 Michelin up front monster trucking over everything that helped the most. My teammate Steven Trottier held down 2nd place with a comfortable 7 seconds between him and 3rd place. The combined efforts of the 8 men and 3 women on our team totalled up to making us the Division II National Champions!!! This is the only national championship win for App State besides Football, and everyone is blown away, even us! We had no idea coming into it that we would have a chance at winning, and had the lead from the very first race! Now I get to relax for a while and start having some serious fun and get into trailbuilding mode for winter...

2 weeks

2008-10-12T20:28:00.002-07:00

Collegiate National Championships are two weeks away now. The slalom track at LMC is completely new and pretty much the raddest track I've ever ridden. It's about 40 seconds long and only has one real jump on it. What matters are the turns, and there are a ton them. Its gonna be really cool to race on. I rode Sugar in the rain this week which brought back so many memories of racing there. The only thing that wasn't the same was that there wasn't any mud on the rocks so we could pretty much ride the track like it was dry. So much fun! Looking to get out there this week to clean up and rake some sections before the race. Get stoked!

Change of seasons

2008-09-28T15:18:00.002-07:00

Collegiate season is rolling on and I have two races left on the plate: Conference Championships and Collegiate National Championships. Luckily both of which are going to be local races so its gonna be nice and affordable. ASU is hosting our first conference championship race this year in a couple weeks, so that will be fun. Then two weeks after that is the one race that means a lot to me and eluded me last year: the collegiate national champs. Last year I had a bad weekend of many crashes and just overall not feeling 100% racing-wise. This year I'm focusing much more time and energy into preparing for it and hopefully I'll have something to show for it this time around.

On another note, trail building season is about to kick into high gear and we have some big plans for this winter. We've already started on a much needed reroute around a section of trail that got way too blown out after all the heavy rains. It should be pretty long and have TONS of tight turns and jumps in a very thick Rhododendron forest.. hard to build but epic to ride!

Collegiate Season

2008-09-16T20:17:00.002-07:00

Collegiate season started 2 weeks ago with App putting on the first race of the ACC Conference series. I had a pretty good weekend, sweeping both DH and DS for the weekend, with Steven and Mueller rounding out the top 3 both times for a nice App State podium domination. This past weekend we all went down to Brevard to poach the SEC series for some better competition and racing on much harder tracks. The DH track was a mirror image of the trails we've been slaying around Boone, so it felt almost at home. I had a really embarrassing crash right off the start in a flat turn in front of EVERYONE in my race run, but still managed to hold onto a 2nd place finish behind Lees McCrae's Aaron Bradford. Awesome track with super steep sections into perfectly placed pocket berms that you could rail. Slalom came around and I have to say it was by far the best slalom track I think I've ever ridden. Not too long, but very technical and called for all skills to be ridden fast. I qualified 1st, but was unable to race because they didn't want racers from other conferences to eliminated the riders in that conference because of points. Kinda sucked but it they were right it wouldn't be fare. Oh well, we just went and shredded the pump track for a while and watched some really good racing.

I guess I'm heading down to Paris Mountain this weekend to race so maybe another update after that. According to some people its god's gift to mountain bike racing, so we'll see...

Snowshoe race #3

2008-09-02T08:53:00.003-07:00

I left home for Snowshoe Thursday afternoon in the rain and it didn't stop the whole way to Snowshoe. Late Thursday afternoon the trail crew at Snowshoe decided that they needed to change the track so it would hold up to the wet weather that was expected. Luckily the rain held off pretty well and didn't come back until a short shower Saturday afternoon. Practice went well with the occational crash every now and then. Come Sunday it was time to race, and I wasn't really sure how I would do. This would be my first race of the year and I had no expectations coming into it, I just wanted a nice clean run. Since I had no points from previous races, I was the first Elite guy down the track. Soon as they said GO, everything came together and I felt as if I had been racing all summer long. It was awesome, I just tore out of the gate with what seemed like endless energy on a track lined with people scattered all over watching. My run came together pretty well with just a small bobble, brushing against a tree with my left shoulder. When I got to the bottom everyone was yelling and I couldn't have been happier to be back in the game again, it felt awesome seeing everyone. I ended up the day with a 5th place, my best placing so far at Snowshoe. I had fun all weekend just cruising run after run with friends. Collegiate season starts this weekend, more updates to come...

Morewood please

2008-08-20T16:19:00.003-07:00

Had the maiden voyage of my new Morewood Izimu at Sugar Mountain today. Got in 3 runs and it rocked my world. I've never ridden a bike that handles like this, and in a good way. It just floats down the trail and pops off the ground whenever I want, when it was really hard to get my old Demo 8 off the ground at all. The 3rd run was the first time I've ever gotten below 4 minutes time, and it could get so much faster now with this bike...it just wants to go fast.

Anyways, couple pics off mueller's camera showing a new rock section we constructed this past spring...

Back in the saddle

2008-08-17T19:14:00.002-07:00

Just got back from 3 days of rippin fun at Snowshoe this weekend. It felt like I was right back where I left off in April right off the bat somehow and I can't complain. Just took a few runs to get some confidence back up and it was on. Absolutely epic conditions all weekend...it rained for a while early Friday and then the skies opened up and it was clear, sunny and mid 70s for the rest of the time. Perfect! I got in 30 runs total and am definitely feeling it now. The next race up there is in 2 weeks and I got word that its gonna be a tough track so I'm hoping to do good, we'll see! I'm just happy to be back on a DH bike again.

First Ride Back

2008-08-01T19:02:00.003-07:00

This morning I got the Ok from the doctor to finally start riding my bike again. Its been just over 6 weeks since the latest surgery and the X-rays look good! So I rushed back home, threw the gear in the car and took off after a short bite to eat. Did a nice 18 miler to get the cobwebs out after 4.5 months off the bikes completely. It felt good, I've managed to keep my fitness semi-conditioned through running, hiking, and the gym and just basically staying active the whole time. Part of the ride included a newly finished trail in Greensboro called the Wild Turkey trail. Its an out-and-back trail that is 5 miles one way with so many berms, rollers, and sweet turns that I couldn't keep track! So fun! Looking back I think it was good to have such a long time forced off the bikes when I wanted to ride so bad, because I don't think I'll be getting burned out for a while now, I just want to ride all day every day now. Stoked!

Its ON!!!

2008-07-30T19:13:00.002-07:00

I'm healing up well still and am hoping to get back riding in the next couple of weeks. I can pretty much do everything with the finger now, just have a pretty big lose of motion in it (just enough to grip the bars though). I'm just waiting for the word that it won't break easily again so I can start riding.

Anyways, went out digging today and shot some short vid clips after finishing this trail. Its wide and fast and has long corners on it.

Progress continues

2008-06-26T15:40:00.002-07:00

I had my 2 week post op check up from the 2nd surgery today and the finger looks good. I'm in a cast for 12 more days then the PT starts up again to get some range of motion back. The doctor was really stressing how hard its gonna be to get it back to normal after 3 back to back traumas, so its gonna take quite a while. I had the cast off today for about an hour at the doctor office and I've got basically NO movement in it at all! Been running and riding my trainer a lot to keep the fitness up so when I can actually ride again there won't be too many excuses, just RIDE.

Ouch

2008-06-07T20:18:00.002-07:00

Well my summer is officially over with for now. My finger has twisted in the screws and I'm heading back under the knife Monday morning to get the screws pulled out and some plates and more screws put in. I think this should have been done in the first place. So now I'm 7 weeks into this broken pinkie ordeal, and am looking at at LEAST another 7 weeks after Monday to get back to somewhat normal. The big problem now is that my finger has been through so much trauma that it might take much longer to heal that normal. Now all the physical therapy that I've been through is down the drain and we're back to ground level again, for the 3rd time! The tendons aren't gonna be happy either, as they will need to be split yet again, for this surgery. See ya around mid August, hopefully.

Maybe one day my blog will actually be about racing, like it was intended to be, but until then, shred it out there and don't ever break a finger!

Surgery

2008-05-14T20:49:00.002-07:00

I finally had surgery today to screw the broken bone fragments in my pinkie together again. It went pretty flawlessly and today marks the beginning of my official recovery from the break, which was over 4 weeks ago. I'll now be missing the US Open and the GEC race at Wisp and I'd hate to say, but might also have to opt out of the first Snowshoe race. Gotta keep positive though, and I'm looking forward to the second half of the season with 2 more Snowshoe races, random local races along the east coast, and Crankworx in August, plus the entire Collegiate race season in the fall. My DH bike hasn't seen dirt in two months, so I hope it's not too mad at me! Enjoy the races and keep the rubber side down!

mike

Bummer

2008-05-07T18:47:00.002-07:00

Well I've had to call off my plans to race at Massanutten this weekend due to my finger still not healing right. Its been three weeks now and its just not healing at all. I've been to 3 different doctors so far and had numerous X-rays taken already... I had no idea that a little finger would be such a pain. I'm going in to see a hand specialist tomorrow and should hopefully be good to go before the US Open. Missing Massanutten is the hardest thing right now...its what has motivated me all winter to train and its a serious blow to miss it, but I've gotta move on now and I guess its the US Open thats next on the slate. Good luck to all that are racing this weekend and have fun in the rain!

The name of the day is "turns"!

2008-04-30T09:10:00.007-07:00

Yesterday we made it out to one of our spots to build some turns as a reroute around a sketchy stepdown that just wasn't right for the spot. So instead of just one jump, we now have a solid 5 really sketchy turns in place. I'm still busted up but Mueller gave it a try and crashed 3 of the 4 attempts. Mission accomplished! Just what we were looking for, some really tough turns that you never know what'll happen when you try to ride it.

Local Trails Video

2008-04-27T19:34:00.003-07:00

Mueller and I have been busting out butts all winter long building trails that we can push ourselves and train on. This particular location is quite unique. It is owned by a good friend of ours who was generous enough to let us run wild in the mountains behind his house near Blowing Rock, NC. When we decided that we were going to build trails there, we chose to each build our own trails by ourselves so that in the end we would have multiple runs that were very diverse so we could get elements of everything that we would encounter on a race course. So far, we've got 5 fully pinned runs that are nothing alike and have absolutely no pedaling at all! I shot this video about a month ago of Mueller on the trail that he built. Enjoy! Many more to come as we find time to shoot more videos...

Welcome!

2008-04-27T19:15:00.003-07:00

Hi all, I'm new to the website stuff, so bare with me as I get this site rolling. I'll be updating this regularly as I find cool things to write about. Right now I'm hanging out with some broken bones, so not much riding has been happening in the past couple weeks, although I've been able to ride on the road, but thats no too fun. Massanutten is going down in two weeks, and I should be very close to 100% healed up by then and ready to rip one of my favorite race tracks around. See you all there!