US Open Saturday

It's close to the bottom, but it's still the first page.

Saturday morning was a little rough. I stayed out later than I should have, especially without any sleep the night before. I woke up and instantly remembered how every morning felt when I lived in Whistler. Fortunately for me, there was a good little breakfast sandwich shop at the base of the hill and that got me started on my morning. I did a few practice runs and was finally feeling decent on the track. I went and had another sandwich from the same shop while I waited for my qualifying run. This was the first race I've done that had actual qualifying. Most races only have seeding, which doesn't matter for anything, unless you're going for series overall points or trying to strategize against Mother Nature. This race cut to the top 50 riders. It didn't matter where I finished, as long as I was in the top 50. There were 108 Pro men, so it wasn’t going to be an easy task.

One of the amateur riders through the main rock garden.

All runs start the same. You’re in the start gate, listen for the beeps, GO! I started my run pretty conservatively. I shifted into a high gear across the ski run and forgot to up shift before the first rock garden. I popped out of the rock garden into an awkward slightly uphill off camber section but I was in too hard of a gear to pedal. I managed to creep over the top of that section and drop into the main rock garden. I had been doing a line on the riders’ right that wasn't being used as much. I liked the exit speed and the safety of the line. The rest of my run was smooth and safe until the last tree section. I came into the section and made the left corner into the rock chute. I didn’t lean far enough and my right shoulder tagged the tree. I ended up getting squirrely and hit the tree in the middle of the line. I pushed off and sprinted down the rest of the trail through the finish line. I crossed the line and didn’t even look back. I didn’t want to know if I hadn’t made it. Jackie Harmony congratulated me though and said I was good. I turned around and found I had come though the line in 31^st place. There were less than 19 riders to go, so I was in! I ended up qualifying in 34^th place. I was really surprised I qualified, but excited.

First turn of the course. Credit: Ian Hylands

Charlie and I decided to celebrate by seeing what else the mountain had to offer. We took a quick lap down the A-line style jump trail. It was really fun, so we decided to give it another go. We met up with Tyler Immer and Richie Rude from Yeti for our next lap. I offered to go last and just enjoyed watching all three of them boost, whip, and scrub, their way down the trail. It wasn’t quite as good as A-line, but I was impressed. The trails at Diablo were really fun and I can’t wait to head back next year.

Kelly keeping up with the racers in the slalom finals.

After watching the slalom finals, Porter decided we should all go out for Sushi for dinner. I hadn’t had any Sushi in a while so I was game. We went to this little restaurant in Vernon and gorged ourselves on the food. $65 dollars apiece later, we were stuffed and headed back to the hotel for a swim and then to bed for the race the next day.