NW Cup #2/Gran Prix/ ProGRT

What an AWESOME weekend! I just got back from Port Angeles for the 2nd NW Cup/ProGRT/US Gran  Prix race and it was great!

Last year in Colombia. Rockero and me.

A few weeks ago, Ricardo AKA, Rockero sent me a message on Facebook saying he wanted to come to Port Angeles for the race. Rockero is a really fast rider from Guadalajara Mexico, whom I met when I was down in Colombia last year. We sent a few messages back an forth before getting everything set up for his arrival. I picked him up from SeaTac and sent him to Port Angeles with a few friends so he could practice on Thursday.

This section was originally called Ninja Falls. After Brendan crashed hard here, it was re-named Fairclough Falls. This photo was taken on Friday morning. 450 racers and three more days made this section REALLY gnarly. Watch the day 3 Dunbar video posted below to see this section in action. A few others hit the same tree that claimed Brendan's shoulder.

The course conditions were great, as long as you aren't from California!

Rule #1, Don't hit trees. Rule #1 is not always followed.

I got out of work a little early on Thursday night and caught a late ferry to PA. I arrived at 2am, but after a few hours of sleep, I made the short drive to the hill and set up the pit and did a course walk before practice started. PA normally has great courses, so to say this was the best one, is a major title. The course was "White Knuckle" up top, to the new fresh cut "Chunderdome" for the lower half. It had high speeds, steep chutes, big holes, perfect ruts, and hard jumps. It was perfect! I actually had a hard time not over practicing. It was so much fun to ride the course. The only complaint I heard was "There's to much loam." I think we can live with that...

The take off looking down. The ruts just grew bigger as the weekend went on.

The landing. Note all of the tire marks on the wrong side.

 

Bash guard marks in the landing. Bike suspensions were put to the test this weekend.

Yours truly sending it for the crowd.

The hardest part of the course was near the bottom. There is an old logging road crossing, that could be jumped. You come out of a corner and at the end of the corner is a little jump over the old road bed. The landing is a big hump. In the dry, clearing the gap would be no problem. In the mud, with 450 racers creating ruts, it was near impossible to clear. You didn't have a choice though and had to jump it if you wanted to be fast! Out of the 104 pro men, only 3 cleared the jump to the transition in their qualifiers!

Typical case on the jump.

The day 3 Dunbar video. Watch some of the crashes, wow!

The first time I decided to hit the jump, I was waiting for the track to clear before I dropped in, when Greg Minnaar (#2 in the world) rode by. I figured, "I'll watch him make it look easy." A moment later all I heard was "BAM!" as his rear wheel smashed into the case pad on the landing. It didn't give me a lot of confidence to try it after that! I got over it quickly though and jumped the gap, casing it as well, but it wasn't as bad is it looked. Suspension soaked up most of the hit and you seemed to keep speed pretty well after the jump. It was fun to have something on course that was challenging for the pro field.

Greg Minnaar watching me in practice. I'm assuming he's saying "I hope he didn't see me case that jump" I know Charlie will have some fun with this photo and some caption bubbles later on Team Robot.

Rockero hanging out with the big dogs! Gwin and Neko.

Speaking of the pro field, this was a stacked race! There were so many big names in attendance that it felt like a real World Cup race. Gwin, Minnaar, Bryceland, Atkinson, Strobel, Hannah, Delfs, Fairclough, Leov, Graves, Mullaly, Smith, Riffle, etc. along with all of the fastest Canadians and American national riders too. A top 20 would be a great result for the weekend.  I didn't have any expectations going into the weekend, as it would be the first time I'd see how I compared this year to everyone. My goal was to go have fun and enjoy riding my bike.

I built these wheels on Thursday morning. They survived for 72 hours. PA is fast and rough. I rode the Kenda Nexcavator 2.35 RSR tires all weekend and they worked great! I'm really excited with the new Kenda stuff.

Saturday morning rolled around and I had another few good practice runs. We capped the day off with our seeding runs for Sunday's race. I had a good run. I put in a few pedal strokes, but focused on hitting my lines and staying smooth. I rode most of the track well, but coasted between a few sections. At the end of the day, I ended up in 23rd! I was right in the mix with everyone else and I couldn't have been happier! It's nice to see that my hand didn't slow me down to much and everything is back up to speed.

Lots of big names on this page. 23rd for me.

 Saturday night was a great dinner with the guys from Shimano. They've treated us really well and we can't thank them enough! 

Verg rolling up to my house in style. I haven't met all of my neighbors yet, so this was a nice introduction to the neighborhood!

Alex from Modus ordering Thai like a boss. His meal was served in half a pineapple!

Sunday started with everyone only being allowed one practice run. I took a run with Remi Gauvin, who won the first NW cup race. He was riding really well and it was good to know I was on pace with him. The run was going well until I tagged a sharp rock and flatted. I had to walk the rest of the way down the hill and never got a full run in. I sat around most of the day waiting for my race run. I did the usual cheering, taking over the mic while Mike Estes did his run, hanging out with Ruth and Rylie and cleaning my bike. I went up for my race run and did a short warm up before dropping in for my run.

Rockero having some fun in practice. The conditions were a little different than what he's used to in Mexico. Unfortunately, a crash in practice would slow him down in the finals.

 I left the gate and sprinted the first straight really hard.  I turned the first right hand turn into White Knuckle and was going a little to fast and had to lock the brakes up. Shoot, I took a few pedal strokes and was back up to speed. The next corner was the same, come in too hot, lock the brakes late, have no exit speed, sprint to get back up to speed. I had a few little bobbles in my run, but nothing major. I came across the line with the same time as my qualifier, but I had put in twice the effort from having to compensate for my over braking and skidding. I ended up 27th, which was still a great result considering the competition, but it always hurts to know you could do better. I'm not bummed though, I did beat a lot of really fast riders and didn't get junior'ed or chick'ed (beaten by a junior or a girl).

Pro podium. It might as well be a World Cup. Steve Smith taking the win.

Adam has a broken collarbone. It didn't stop him from "cheering"

Charlie put his bike in the stand backwards. I nearly kicked him out of the pit. Forgive him, he's a slow learner.

Brad Delzer had this little custom 20" full suspension bike for his kid. Some day I'll be doing this as well.

Ride of the weekend goes to Kole Wetherell. He practiced Saturday, skipped seeding, and drove 6 HOURS to Clatiskanie Oregon to attend prom on Saturday night!

After not sleeping,  he came back Sunday morning and crushed it in his race run for 4th in Junior X! (Yeah, the photo is from the last race, but it's sweet)

I love having a house, a house means I have a hose. It's so much easier to clean bikes with hose.

We returned home after a quick stop for some food and cleaned the bikes before Rockero had to fly home. Another weekend in the bag and I'm really happy that I'm back to speed and I learned a lot from the race.. I'll shake the cobwebs quickly and be on top of the podium again soon!

-KT

Sea Otter 2012!

The race season has officially started for me! I got home from work on Wednesday and packed my bike and suitcase before finally stumbling into bed at 2am. My alarm woke me up three hours later for my 6:30 flight. I jumped in my van and headed to the airport. I got to the parking lot without a lot of time to spare and while stepping out of the van, I dropped my phone on the ground shattering the scree! This was not a great way to start the weekend, but planes don't wait.  I loaded all of my stuff onto the shuttle bus and sat down. looking at the clock, I noticed I might miss my flight. As soon as the bus started to leave, another car pulled into the lot. We had to stop and wait for them to load. Once we started moving again, another car pulled into the lot. We had to wait for them. We started moving again and ANOTHER car pulled into the lot. After the last family loaded on the bus, we made our way to the terminal. I ran with my bike box and suitcase to the ticket counter. The lady told me I had to be there 35 minutes before my flight. I was there 33 minutes prior to departure. Somehow I missed a flight that hadn't left yet. I'm not sure how that works, but she managed to get me on the next flight two hours later. I entertained myself at the airport for a few hours before flying down to San Jose.

Flying over San Francisco en route to San Jose. Note the Golden Gate Bridge peeking through the clouds.

After landing in San Jose, I met up with Charlie Sponsel. We went to pick up our rental car. In order to keep costs down, I rented the smallest economy car I could rent. We started trying to load the bike boxes into the car before the Enterprise rental lady started laughing. She was really cool and upgraded us to an Optimus Prime minivan at no charge! We got a 4 day mini van rental for $72! As soon as I turned the key, Charlie handed me directions to the nearest In-n-Out burger. A few double double's later and we were heading south to Laguna Seca raceway for the 22nd annual Sea Otter Classic.

Breakfast of champions!

Thursday was really low key. We arrived at the pits and after saying "hello" to everyone, rode over to the Dual Slalom track for a course preview. The course was the same as last year, but neither Charlie or I had ever raced Slalom at Sea Otter. The course looked really fun, but we would have to wait until Saturday to ride it. Our bikes needed some love, so we dropped them off at Shimano for some maintenance and went to walk the DH course. Nothing had changed there either, so we went back to the hotel and out to dinner with the Diamondback crew before calling it an early night and getting some much needed rest.

Looking over the venue.

Looking up the Dual Slalom course.

This bloke was around. It's always good to see the big Kiwi, even if he does talk funny and runs his brakes backwards.

Friday started early with an 8am DH practice. Charlie and I snagged a few runs on the course, which was awesome! It was my first time riding a DH bike since I broke my hand and I couldn't have had a bigger smile on my face. I was really having fun on all of the jumps and just enjoying riding bikes. I felt a little out of shape, but I was happy that my hand seemed to be holding up just fine. 

Fox Racing had this Baja truck on display. I poked around for a while...

Charlie was a little blown away at the size of the shocks.

Just for a size comparison.

I've seen airplanes with less switches and gauges. It still had power windows and power locks though!

Friday afternoon was spent talking to all of our sponsors. We had some great meetings and I'm really excited for some of the projects we'll be working on in the future. All of the companies had their 2012-2013 product on display and we had a chance to see numerous old friends. I had such a good time riding in the morning, that we decided to go try and grab some DH photos that evening with some better light.

Kevmo, Charlie, and I hiked the DH course and had a little photo shoot on some of the features in the golden light. The shots were cool and we knew we needed to do this again. I knew I had to race slalom the next day, but I didn't care,  I was having too much fun on my DH bike! I was having so much fun, that I skipped the premier of the Strength in Numbers movie to keep shooting photos. We both rode until it was dark and didn't regret missing the movie at all.

Video still of team Diamondback ripping it up!

Video still of me at the lower step up.

Saturday was slalom day! I grabbed my Dreamliner and headed over to the slalom course with Charlie. The course was a lot harder than it looked at first. It had a lot of tricky things that didn't line up quite right. I actually started to get in my own head. I felt like I was riding horribly and felt really slow. It wasn't until after practice that I remembered that, 1.) I'm not a slalom specialist. 2.) I've been sitting on the couch injured for the last 2 months, 3.) These are the best riders in the world.and 4.) This is the first time I've ridden this course. Both of my qualifying runs had mistakes in the them which cost me a lot of time and I knew I didn't qualify. It wasn't the end of the world though and I still had fun and can't wait to go back next year.

From VitalMTB's dual slalom bikes slideshow.

I also was able to finally meet Kyle from Chris King. Chris King is a component company that makes some of the most amazing hubs in the world. Since we are running Chris King hubs, Kyle introduced us to one of the companies they recommend for rims, Enve Composites. Being an Engineer, I drool over well made carbon fiber. Enve makes some of the nicest, lightest, and stiffest wheels on the market. Joe from Enve was great and let me demo a carbon DH wheelset! I've never been more excited to install anything on my bike. I was so excited to go ride that I figured I would just go do another photo shoot during DH practice that night just to try them out.

My bike > Your bike.

I managed to get a hold of Justin Olsen and we went back to the same location to shoot a few more photos while Kevmo grabbed some video. While riding, I ran into Kevin Littlefield and he joined Charlie and me. We shot the hip and the step up again and both Justin and Kevmo grabbed some AMAZING shots. There are a few that hopefully will be used for some ads, so you'll have to wait to see the good ones!

Kevmo capturing Justin shooting photos of me!

Sunday was the big show. I grabbed my bike and headed up for practice. My first run was with Steve Smith, and was great to ride with someone that I know is fast. It helped showing me where to maintain my speed and where I could go even faster. The next run I did was following Bryn Atkinson. Bryn is also crazy fast and did really well in the DH last year. I got to the bottom and felt great and was excited for my race run. I met up with Charlie and headed up to the hill.

I got into the gate, and as soon as the final beep sounded, I took off sprinting! I came out of the gate sprinting as hard as I could. I hopped over the first little step down, and went to take another pedal stroke before the first right hand corner and before I knew it, I was upside down in the air. I started sprinting too early and between my bike being compressed and the hill side being a little off camber, I had hit the ground with my pedal and tomahawked off into the bushes.  I sat up instantly and did a quick check to make sure nothing was broken. My helmet was smashed up, but it did its job. I rode down the course and got on the shuttle truck. On the way up to the top, I started feeling really woozy. I went and sat down in the pits. I felt like crap for most of the day being pretty concussed, but after some food and water and a few hours, I started feeling a lot better. If I can find any photos or video of the crash, I'll post it up. There were a bunch of people watching, so hopefully someone has a shot of it.

My helmet after the crash. Luckily Kali was around and I was able to get another one. Thanks guys, this thing saved my brain for sure!

This is the inside of a Kali helmet. the conical dense foam helps distribute the impact over a larger area, allowing the helmet to be lighter.

A cross sectional view of the foam in the helmet.

After hitting my head like that, and having a really early flight, Charlie and I decided to skip the big after party and head up to San Jose for the night. Charlie had a bunch of homework to catch up on, and I was lucky enough to spend some time with some family. My cousin Christy got married on Saturday about an hour away, and a bunch of my family was still in the area. I drove up and had dinner with then and capped off a great weekend. I hadn't seen them in years and I had a great night catching up with them. I've got another cousin who just got engaged, and hopefully I can make it out for her wedding as I really want to see my family more often. I had a great time and I'm so glad I was able to see them!

I have an amazing extended family. Thank you guys so much for the night!

I flew home this morning and still need to unpack and get ready for next weekend. The ProGRT at Port Angeles is starting on Thursday! I can't wait to race on Washington soil, and I've got a number 1 plate to defend as well! More updates soon!

Mt Rainier, a few minutes before landing at SeaTac. It's always good to be home.

 -KT

NW Cup #1

America photobomb for the win! Yours truly repping it for the stars and stripes!

 I went to the first NW cup in Port Angeles to add torture to being out of commission. I had just gotten my cast off, but still couldn't ride. The plan was pretty much the same as Beacon, go there, help Charlie, cheer and enjoy.

Port Angeles has their street names dialed!

Charlie came out on Friday and helped me build Ruth's new DH bike before leaving for the peninsula. A short ferry ride later and we were back in PA. It always feels good to be in Port Angeles for a race weekend. The town is very welcoming, and it's cool seeing every car in town have downhill bikes hanging off the back!

Ruthie enjoying her new bike! She was enjoying the bike all weekend long! She had a pretty loud cheering section too!

 I spent most of Saturday doing course hikes and just watching everyone else practice. I figured I might as well try to learn as much as possible about my competition while I wasn't riding. It was interesting to see different practicing styles and who was  looking fast in practice and how that translated into the final results.

Speaking of people who looked fast in practice, Anthony looked pinned all weekend and proved it on Sunday by winning Cat I men. Nice job Anf!

Guse came out of the woodwork and proved he is still fast! 3rd on the day in Cat I men.

He actually had some chainguide issues, so we had to do some redneck engineering to fix it. First, heat up a long screwdriver.

Step 2. Stick burning hot screwdriver through plastic chainguide, making a hole to zip tie it together! (Yes, it worked perfectly!)

Saturday night was spent with some Thai food and then the TV version of Pirates of the Caribbean at our deluxe Super 8 accommodations. 

The normal emcee and all around good guy, Mike Estes sitting with NW photographer Carl Warren. It's always a good time when these guys are around!

Sunday morning came fast as always. I spent the day on the microphone substituting for Mike Estes while he was riding and then helped out Lars try to organize split times. This was the first time they've ever had split times at PA and it was great to see how riders were doing midway down the track. It kept the announcing exciting at the bottom. It was a crude system, but it worked well.

Charlie had a good qualifying run and ended up 5th and shaved a few more seconds off in the finals, but finished 8th. He was disappointed, but that was still a really good result with the amount of people that were attending. The real bummer was that only 3 of the top 10 were Americans!

Charlie putting on a good face and adding another cup to his collection.

Pro men's podium. Can you spot the American?

As of right now, I am back riding. My hand feels weak, but seems to work alright. My back is still a little sore as some of the stitches popped out, so now I just have an open wound, but that shouldn't effect my riding too much this weekend. My DH bike is already in California and I just put my slalom bike together. I fly down to San Jose in the morning and will meet up with Charlie for the drive to Monterey and the Sea Otter Classic. I am actually really excited for this weekend as it will be the first time I've ridden a DH bike in nearly 2 months!

The Sea Otter set up. A bunch of fancy new parts!

I'll have some more updates when I get back!

-KT