Mondays' are always rough. Mondays after a weekend of racing are worse. I decided to sleep in Monday morning, much to Rylie's dismay, and take a much needed rest day. With Jesse Ransavage back from school, we decided to hit up Exit 27 on Tuesday morning. 27 is a lot more fun on the Mission, but I needed to get some time in on the big bike before this weekends race, as I haven't ridden it since the US Open.
I never feel cooler than when I'm driving this thing.
The van is still in the shop, so I loaded Rylie and my bike up in Ruth's Beetle and went to the trails. After Jesse got done laughing at my choice of transportation, we headed up for a lap of Washington and Gem State. Washington has had some love lately with a new jump over a mud bog and a few new berms. It was really greasy, and hard to hit anything, but the changes will be good once they settle in. Gem State is unchanged and, like always, is a fun rip with some fun corners and good jumps. I felt like I was riding really slow, but then I realized with all of the vegetation growing right now, it was really hard to see the trail! It felt good to get back on the big bike and I'm excited for this weekend.
New jump over a little muddy bog.
This weekend we are racing at Mt Hood in Oregon. The course there is the hardest course we race in the Northwest. It's long, rough, fast, and technical. It has everything except big jumps. I've come to enjoy Mt Hood, and have had decent results there over the last few seasons. I'm in the hunt for the NW cup overall, so staying strong and consistent in both qualification and the race is going to be important for me. I'm amazed we are able to run the upper section. The ski area has had record snow fall this year. The race organizer, Petr Kakas had to dig through the snow bank to find the trail! It should be wet and wild this weekend. Watch the video below from last year to see the track.
In other local news, local world cup rider Luke Strobel is back from Europe and we decided to go for a ride yesterday morning. Luke has been killing it on the World Cup circuit this season. He's consistently been the fastest American besides Gwin. He was sick and finished a disappointing 50th in South Africa, but has had 2 top 15's in the last 2 races. The next race is at Mt St. Anne in Quebec Canada and he's always done well there, so hopefully he can keep up the pace! We rode some of the bike trails on Tiger Mt and really burned my legs for the next 24 hours. I'm taking today off to rest and recover! I've got another coaching session with Simon tomorrow, then I'm heading to Oregon for the weekend!
Lots of snow still up top. Bring the tear-offs, it's going to be muddy!
I'm working on the super post with the rest of my Mission modifications. Hold tight, it will be up shortly.
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