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