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