A comeback tale…Or what could have been a tale of stupidity had the outcome been different.

Before the action I’ve got to give everyone a little back story here so that you can fully appreciate the obsession that Downieville can create and also to know why I’m so happy right now. I mean what else could drive a normally sane person to give up alcohol (no weird vegetarian rules here–ALL ALCOHOL) refined sugar, coffee, and make about one meal a day cottage cheese for seven and a half months–thats 7 1/2 . My co-workers thought I was crazy, my Wife,…well she knows me. I’m doing interval work outs to my Downieville helmet cam footage all winter long. Hello obsession we’ve got to go to work now.

Then Lars, Phil, & I stop by Weir’s pump track on the way back from the Sea Otter this year and inspired by Lars’ truly Jedi ninja warrior pump track skills I go off & break my navicular scafoid (Wrist bone that is the slowest healing bone in the human body–no joke). Doc say’s elbow to knuckles cast 6-12 weeks. I think it’s going to be 6 but yeeha it basically takes the full 12. This whole time the the motivational hamster in my brain is going nutty for some real riding.

Now it’s Thursday before Friday before Downieville XC Saturday & DH Sunday and I finally get my cast off. 2 days before the race I finally get my cast off and look at my arm. Now my arms aren’t much bigger than a dogs legs anyway but the cast arm now looks like it belongs to an albino featherless chicken. Or Mr Burns on a good day “Smithers, squeeze that front brake for me” And inspires exactly that much confidence when I try to grip the bars.

Now it’s Friday and we’ve made it through all the smoke and arrived in D-ville, in all the smoke, and I hitch a ride up to the DH start to get a practice run in (something I will later realize was the stupidest thing I do all weekend unless you count the fact that I raced). At the start line I take a moment to reflect on my Doc’s parting words yesterday “It’s mostly better but if you crash on it you will re-break it…What?…Yes even with the brace”,& then I pedal off onto my first dirt in 3 months. I spend the next 46min in..well pain. Hand pain mostly. I’ve got my sweet CTi Carbon fiber wrist brace to help support my 15% range of motion in my wrist but I totally forgot about the fact that the skin on my hand has gone back to babies butt soft. I end up with a constellation of blisters on my palm and it soon eclipses the pain from my wrist itself.

Now it’s Saturday morning. I spray liquid skin on my palm, Moleskin over that, & athletic tape over that & make my way to the start of the XC race. I figure I can at least race the first uphill section and if I have to pull out somewhere on the DH section then so be it. There are 800 racers this year. New record attendance. After the start gun roughly half those racers blast past me on their way to eventual inevitable grim implosion. I’m pedaling along next to Miles Rockwell, Brian Lopes, & Greg Herbold and Brian says it best “See you guys later”. I smile because I know these people wizzing by in the first mile have no clue what they’re in for. I wait a polite moment & then head off on my own pace and steadily pick people off during the almost hour long climb. Then there’s the descent. All I’ll say about the descent is that it share’s a big part of the DH course and the part it doesn’t share is perhaps even more rough than the DH course itself. I whined like a six year old all the way down, But I didn’t see a single person the whole way down so maybe I didn’t make a sound after all. I caught & passed some more people on the flats & false flats leading back to the finish & eventually ended up in 10th in the XC All mtn Pro class. Stoked about that!! Everything from this point on was gravy or icing. Ross Schnell won the XC in a flat out killin’ it new course record kind of way. Jason Moeschler got 2nd, and Weir got 3rd. I think Lopes was somewhere in the top 20 and Rockwell somewhere in the top 30 but I’m not sure about those.

Now It’s Sunday morning and I get real pro active about those blisters. 3 layers liquid skin, moleskin, duct tape, boot foam to try to space the blistered area off the bar a bit, then another layer of duct tape, followed by an Ibuprofen. Then it’s off to the races as they say. I had the honor of going 3rd off the line based on my 3rd place from last year. Let’s just say the Doc’s words went through my mind a few more times as I sat at the start line. I watched Weir take off, Jason, & then all too soon I was cued up & on the course.

I was a bit cautious…3 months prior it was my goal to win the DH…and lining up to the start I no longer had any expectations at all. I kept thinking I would see Jergen Beneke’s ghost catching me–#4 off the line. The slower technical turny bumpy stuff is what bothered my wrist/hand/pain-claw the most & the high speed open stuff was pretty OK. I started seeing dust near the bottom of Butcher & then turning off the bridge & starting the climb I saw someone in a WTB jersey just getting ready to turn the corner. Didn’t see Jason again until the finish. After the climb there’s a super fast section of wide open 40mph stuff with 25-30ft floaters–Fun stuff. And then you pedal, and pedal, little tiny downhill shred’n about here, and pedal, a lil’ bile here, and pedal, and then finally you’re done.

After I caught my breath at the finish line - things were looking pretty good indeed. There was a buzz going on. the gap between Jason Moeschler & myself was very small & no-one as yet knew in whose favor it was. We had both posted times about a minute and a half faster than last year’s times. Weir hadn’t come through yet and he was first off the line. Jergen was well off the pace–A bad mechanical like Weir–we later found out. Rockwell & Lopes came through with good times but not faster. A bunch of others but none closer. Then Ross Schnell…Damn him. Seat set at XC height..XTR Dual control shifters…little blood on him…had to pass 9 racers—–Killed us. about a minute faster. Psst…Let’s not tell him about Gravity Dropper Seatposts..MmmKay? I don’t care though..I am SO Stoked with 3rd! and damn happy with the chance to share the podium with legends like Rockwell & Lopes
When the dust settled the DH ended up;

1 Ross Schnell 44:35

2 Jason Moeschler 45:27

3 Nathan Riddle 45:38

4 Miles Rockwell 47:04

5 Brian Lopes 47:23

In the All mtn overall results I ended up 6th….

A huge thanks out to Simon & Fluidride for all the support to help make it happen. Big thanks also to all the Team Sponsors. Huge Huge thanks to my wife Wendy for carting me to and fro Downieville all weekend. Huge thanks to the people of Downieville for letting us overrun their territory for the better part of a week.

I figure in about another month I’ll start scheming & obsessing over next years Downieville.

What?! you say…Shimano only makes Saint cranks for 83mm BB shell bikes. Well technically you’re right. However I’ve found a way around this weighty dilemma. If, like me, you have a bike with an 83mm BB shell and you refuse to run any other brand of crank–because you know that Shimano’s are simply the best–and you feel for whatever reason that you simply don’t need/deserve the strength and corresponding weight penalty of the indestructable Saints, then I may just have the solution for you!

1st step; Get yourself a set of the Shimano XT M771 or M761 “big gear” cranks. They are different from the regular XT cranks in that they come equipped with a 48/36/26t chainring combo and a slightly longer spindle–thats the important part– to accommodate the extra frame clearance these rings would need. They are available in 165mm, 170mm,175mm,and 180’s too I think. Here’s the tricky part. They’re really hard to find in the States. If you’re a shop rat you may be able to get a set of these cranks through BTI, where I got mine, or S.A.C. (Shimano America Corporation). These cranks were designed as “trekking” or “touring ” cranks and are very popular over in Europe.

Now that you’ve gotten your cranks the modifications begin.

Remove the little black plastic spacer that sits on the bb spindle all the way up against the back side of the drive side crank arm.

If you’re using a chain guide of any kind, or your bike has ISCG tabs (which I’m pretty sure you’ve said yes to at least one of the above if you have a bike with an 83mm shell) Get out the hack saw–This part sucks cause you’re gonna do things that can’t be taken back. Ok deep breath–Exhale. Cut off all 4 of your new granny ring posts as flush as you can against the spider. Don’t of course cut off, or in any way damage, the part of the spider that you will be bolting your middle or big ring to. When cutting off the granny ring posts be careful not to hack into you’re bb spindle–I found that using the little dust boot that goes in between the bb cups worked quite well as a guard. It should be pretty obvious before you tackle this step that you will never again be able to use this crankset as a triple setup or run any chainring on it smaller than 32t.

Now use a file and try to file those hacked off granny ring nubs as flush with the rest of the spider as you can. You’ll have to believe me that every mm in this process counts so don’t skimp on this step. Again you can use the same bb cup dust shield as a bb spindle guard so you don’t nick the spindle.

Now that you’ve got everything cut & filed down. It’s time to start assembly. Oh and if at some point in this process you happen to face your bb shell down to say 82mm all the better. No spacers anywhere in the system. BB cups thread into frame– no spacers. No dust shield/spacer between the cups on the inside of the BB shell–It won’t fit (that’s why it doesn’t matter if you narf’d it up with the hack saw or file). I have an E-13 LG-1 chainguide bolted up to my ISCG tabs with no spacers in between the ISCG tabs & the “boomerang”. If you are using an E-13 like me you will have to bolt your single chainring on in the “big ring” position. If you are using a 36t or smaller ring you may have to trim the inner “cage” of the top guide for clearance with the tops of the spider as it revolves.

If you follow all of the above steps you shouldn’t have to take your cranks on and off 20 times like I did in this process. The spacing & spindle/crank overlap worked out perfectly. When all was said & done I ended up knocking about 3/4 lb off my bike, getting a great chainline, and getting better cornering clearance due to the lower Q-factor of this set-up. Saint cranks w/ single ring & BB 1030 grams vs. XT M771 w/ single ring & BB 730 grams. These cranks are listed as 900 grams w/bb but the difference between the 3 rings I pulled off and the single one I put back on was right around 200 grams.

Or you can just wait for the new Saint cranks to come out which are reported to be about 100 grams lighter than previous Saint cranks. My way’s still a couple hundred grams lighter though(give or take). And definitely a little narrower in the ‘ol Q factor. But, arguably not quite as strong and subjectively maybe not as cool looking.

OK so it’s been a while (never heard that here before eh?). I’ve been out with injury for the last 2 months and didn’t figure anyone would be all that excited to hear about my “epic” 35-50 mile road rides I’ve been doing on my 32 pound Super D bike (Hey It’s cushy and better than running) or my exciting trips to the Y to lift weights. Thrill a minute around here. But I wanted to write about this years Mt Ashland Super D.

For those of you unfamiliar with the course I’ll try to lay it out for you. The start is at the Mt Ashland ski lodge at 6500 ft elev. from the start you can see the approximate area in Ashland where the finish is at about 2000 ft elev. Then you dive into a few miles of old road bed turned double track under a canopy of firs. After sprinting off the start & basically tucking & coasting for these first few minutes the joy ride comes to an abrupt end where you make a 180 and start up a 10% grade with about 500ft elev gain over about 3/4 mile. The worst part is after you make that 180 you’ve got a good 45 seconds to watch over your left shoulder to see if the guy who started behind you is making time on you while you’re suffering.

After the climb there is some pristine flowing singletrack for a few miles that eventually dumps you out onto a super fast decomposed granite fire road. A couple miles of drifty corners and it’s back to single track in the form of our local DH race course, followed by some swoopy single track and then a steeper bit of switchback track to the finish line. One thing I think a lot of the racers liked is that there are about 3 places on the 12 mile course where you’ve got a chance of a flat–So if you are cautious there you’ll more than likely get a clean run.

The race basically doubled in size this year to around 130 people which in & of itself is pretty cool. Mark Jordan from Decline Magazine showed up to cover the event & throw down a fast race run for himself of 37:52 to win the Semi-Pro field. Mark Weir of course won the event overall for the 3rd straight year–this time with a smokin’ fast time of 35:22. Here’s a link to the full Results. I spent a good deal of time getting advice about my broken wrist from Eric Carter & Ariel Linsley who have both suffered the same break and recovered from it (slowly but surely). Ariel’s still sporting a trick carbon fiber wrist brace from OTS, and Eric gave me a bunch of cool tips like cold lasers & bone-up. A bunch of the good folks from up the Friends of Capitol Forest crew made the trek down & had a great time. Everyone I talked to loved the event so I’m predicting it overflows 200 racers next year. Not hard when we had perfect weather–I’m talking blue bird skies, easy temps at the top for the start, unlike last year when we had freezing blowing fog at the top with about 150ft visibility. A little dust but not too bad. No snow drifts, no mud, no wind. Dirt was a good mixture between low rolling resistance & descent cornering traction.

Not racing sucks. But I did get some good pics of the race action. last half mile.

By Chad Robert Snyder for the Mail Tribune
May 01, 2008

It’s the moment when all his preparation and conditioning will be put to the test. Feet resting upon pedals, mind focused on the task at hand, Nathan Riddle will await the second when the digital clock ticks down to his time to shine.

At one-minute intervals, entrants in Sunday’s Spring Thaw Downhill Race will launch themselves onto the treacherous downhill course. Having spent months memorizing the rocky, winding, single-track trail and forging a strategy for navigating it as smoothly as possible, Riddle will have just a handful of minutes to blaze through the 1.7-mile course at speeds approaching 50 mph in the hope of repeating as champion of the event.

Speaking to the demands of the course, which features jumps, mounds and extremely fast pedaling sections, Riddle almost sounds exasperated by the challenge.

“It’s an extreme act of condensing concentration, hopefully into a 4- to 5-minute Zen-like state,” says Riddle.

This is no activity for those who lack focus, Riddle says. Race day demands complete attention from the riders.

“It’s also an all-day process, to keep yourself focused for the race,” he says.

In Riddle’s case, the focus and preparation have paid off in years past. Last year he completed the course in an astonishing 4 minutes 19.3 seconds, breaking the record set in 2006 by Henry O’Donnell of Downieville, Calif., by just .75 seconds. Riddle took second that year, with a time of 4 minutes, 23 seconds.

Despite the fact that the downhill course is perhaps the most dynamic and exciting event of the 17th annual Spring Thaw Mountain Bike Festival, it is by no means the only reason for excitement.

Nearly 600 racers are expected to participate in this year’s series of races. The events kick off Friday at the Creekside Pizza Bistro with registration from 5 to 7 p.m., followed by a screening of a mountain bike film entitled “Seasons,” which showcases local riders.

The races begin Saturday at 9 a.m., including a 10-mile beginner’s race and a 23-mile expert race, both cross-country affairs that head up into the Ashland watershed. The races carry a total cash purse of $1,150, which is split between the top five overall men and women.

Additional awards go to the top three in all other classes, with a prize raffle for all riders that includes a custom frame from DeSalvo Custom Cycles valued at $1,300. The downhill race features an $800 cash purse split between the top five men and women.

Setting up the courses has been a challenge this year, because nature’s spring thaw is not yet fully upon us. The 23-mile expert race usually is a counter clock-wise loop around the Ashland watershed, but this year the residual snow may not allow access to the upper roads. There is a contingency plan, however.

“In the event the road is impassable, we’ll send riders clockwise and they’ll turn around at four corners and we’ll have them complete two laps instead of one,” says Eric Teel, a board member of the Southern Oregon Mountain Bike Association, which organizes the weekend festival.

On Saturday, pedalers under the age of 12 will embark on a kids’ race in Lithia Park at 1 p.m. The littler ones are encouraged to ride whatever they feel comfortable with, including tricycles or bikes with training wheels. Everyone who competes will receive a prize. Registration for the kids’ race begins at 11:30 a.m. in the park.

Saturday night, again at the Creekside Bistro, cyclists will unwind at the “Biker’s Bash,” which offers riders an opportunity to hang out in a non-competitive environment and watch mountain biking movies together.

Sunday morning at 10:30 the downhill race kicks off at the top of Mount Ashland’s Catwalk Trail. Spectators usually cluster around the top 100 yards of the race course because — in terms of dynamic course features — “that’s where all the goodies are,” Riddle says.

To help them navigate the treacherous descent, downhill mountain bike racers depend on specially designed equipment that not only helps them achive speed, but finish safely. The bikes are built with heavy frames to survive the impact of 40-foot jumps and 10-foot drops. The wheels have thick steel rims, and the wide tires are covered with fat lugs to provide maximum traction. Front and rear shock absorbers can have as much as 10 inches of up-and-down travel. Disc brakes give riders the ability to stop quickly or feather the brakes independently.

All the beefed-up features produce a bike that’s much heavier than the typical cross-country racer. A fully equipped downhill racing bike weighs in well over 35 pounds — almost twice as heavy as ordinary mountain bikes.

Given the hazards, all riders wear helmets and safety equipment. Many compete in body armor — hard plastic shin and arm guards, chest protectors with joints that let them flex and twist to keep their balance at speed.

The Spring Thaw has a unique charm and a “festival-like atmosphere,” Riddle says. Riders of all disciplines, vendors, families and spectators all come together to enjoy the activities. There’ll be food provided for the participants, booths and a plethora of activities for all ages.

“It’s a celebration of cycling,” said Race Director Mary Warner. “It’s also a laid-back, fun way to spend the afternoon in Ashland.”

Remember that last post where I mentioned going OTB at Weir’s pump track?  Well I finally went in to get it X-ray’d a week later cause it kept bugging me and it turns out I fractured my Navicular Scafoid.  Sweet.  Turns out it’s the slowest healing bone in the body—No kidding. SWWWEEET!  So broke a bone about the size of a dime in my wrist.  Have a cast from my knuckles to elbow.  Will have it for six to twelve weeks.  It must weigh 5 pounds.  OK gotta go–can’t hold arm up to type anymore.

This years Sea Otter Classic went (for me) a lot like the last one. 38th in the DH (35th last year) and just missed qualifying for slalom by a hair again. Shoot. Nothing exciting there. I left thinking I should have raced a semi slick on the back(Like my other teammate Phil Weiring), maybe on the front too. Every year I am amazed again and again by just how tight the margins can be there. Literally every pedal stroke counts for a couple places. Hell every half pedal stroke!

I finished with a 2:20:0 in 38th place. 39th finished with a 2:20:0somethingmorethanme, and 40th was a 2:20:0somethingmorethanhim. All in all there were 11 guys who finished in between 2:20 and 2:21. So it’s not a crazy idea that a semi slick might have made up 15 places. Note to self—Actually remember this before next years otter. The skinsuit may be necessary.  I’ll second guess myself next year too in case you were wondering.

Got some great helmet cam footage of the Sea Otter DH course too.  I’m the cam and Lars is the rider.

All in all I’d say the highlight of the trip was my teammate Lars Sternberg qualifying 3rd in the Slalom and then going on to place 9th. Pretty freaking impressive when you think about the fact that the level of competition at the Otter is basically World Cup contenders.

The other highlight (and lowlight) of the weekend was a stop at Mark Weir’s pump track on the way back on Sunday. Highlight because well it’s Mark Weir’s pump track and it’s the baddest pump track in the know universe. At least in my know universe. Highlight because I witnessed Lars manual the entire back row of 30 yards of doubles & bumps. It was a ninja maneuver that sent Mark off to get his video camera and made me want to quit riding bikes. But instead I went one more lap, went over the bars, landed into the face of the next jump, and messed up my wrist. Don’t know how bad yet, but tomorrow I’m going in for an X-Ray to find out. LOWLIGHT. Can ride a road bike if I don’t stand up to pedal. And I can ride a mtn bike too–Across town–If I don’t stand up.

Well Thanks to my immune system taking a digger after the last week of racing & working & generally burning the candle at both ends I finally have a chance to sit down and capture my thoughts about last weekends race. And the sum of my thoughts are that whoever has been saying that bicycle racing is on it’s way out is way wrong. Last weekend played host to the first of the Fluidride Cup races this year up in Port Angeles WA and there were around 250 racers competing in everything from Dual Slalom to DH. And everyone seemed so stoked to be there. And that’s without there even being a whole lot of sunlight to be had. Of course it was mostly Pacific Northwesterners who, out of necessity, have come to view anything that is not actually raining on you as a form of sunshine.

It was a long haul up there. It was a long weekend in general. I left work Friday at about 3:30 pm got to Port Angeles, which is about as close as you can get to Canada without being strip searched eh, a little after midnight. Got up pretty early Saturday & did a couple practice runs on the DH course before breaking out the Slalom bike and practicing the slalom course before qualifying to race slalom. Then going back up for a couple more DH practise runs before coming back to race the Slalom at 4pm.

It was a blast..It’d been a while since I’d raced slalom, a year actually since last Sea Otter, which I didn’t even get to race since I didn’t qualify. So was I even racing? Anyway It was a blast going head to head on a course that I found pretty challenging and really fun. The middle section had some berms that were so tight it was like you couldn’t even carve them. You sort of had to hit them & then “bunnyhop/transfer” to the next and then the next. Ricochet I think is the right word for it. It’s the kind of course that you could have in your back yard & probably never get tired of. I’ll have to ask the winner Lars Sternberg in a year to see if he’s gotten tired of it yet.

Sunday. The DH course made me jealous. Jealous that I don’t have anything like it around my house. Jealous that I couldn’t go as fast as my competition on it. I got killed. Destroyed. Left wondering about my own skills as a rider. I want to go back. I want to master those corners & drops. I want redemption. I want one of those in my backyard.

And then I tucked my tail in for the long drive home, prepared to spend the next 9 1/2 hours bitterly reflecting on my own poor results. Much to my own surprise I only spent about an hour being self absorbed & bummed and then I spent the rest of the time thinking about how much fun I had. How quick the shuttle ran. Some people talked about getting 10 or more practice runs in! How many people spent how many hours for the love of the sport and how much that showed in all the little things that make up a race weekend. How many people lined the Slalom course just to watch! There were so many I felt like I was at a National or something. Anyway it just felt good to see that many people coming out to race and to watch the racers.

Cheers,

Nathan

If you ever have the chance to drive 800 miles round trip to a F.O.C.F race DO IT.

The Friends Of Capitol Forest crew take loving care of their riding area in Capitol Forest Washington and put on a great race putting 100% of the profits back into the forest, building and maintaining the trails. Two races actually. An XC race on Saturday and a Super D race on Sunday. I didn’t get there in time to race in the XC which I will admit I wasn’t exactly heartbroken about as I did get there in time to see the racers roll through onto their second lap. That was when I knew it was going to be one of those epic PNW race weekends. The kind where you spend 2 days covered in mud, cold, greasy, unable to ever get really clean, eating cold sandwiches from the cooler camped out in the back of the van, and totally immersed in the race mentality.

Saturday looked promising like maybe the weather prophet was wrong, but still the ground was totally saturated, red clay based gummo grease trail..don’t get me wrong..this was honest racin’ mud. About noon Simon & Tom rolled up & we made our way up to the top of the Super D course for a couple practice runs. It was sort of snowing at the top. You know that point where the weather can’t decide if it wants to snow or rain on you? So it kind of does both. My experience is that it doesn’t get much colder than that snow/rain mixture.

Got a couple practice runs in. Fell down once in front of Simon in this cool section of the course thats about 4 years regrown from an old clear cut. It was like a mud slip ‘n slide single track. Tom was kind enough to shuttle us all weekend and lone me a windbreaker–I don’t know how after years of racing I still manage to show up to races not fully prepared. But I do.

The race went off without a hitch. Eerily smooth actually. I don’t remember once wondering if the race would start on time or any number of other little things that can go wrong. It was a two run format with the ability to ditch your worst run. I think just about everybody’s first runs were their best (except for Simon who somehow managed to get faster on a course that definitely got slower). As it turned out Team Fluidride ended up taking home 1st (me) & 4th place (Simon) for the day. Not a bad way to start out the race season I’d say.

Thanks to F.O.C.F for putting on a great race and thanks to Simon & Tom for providing & driving our own personal shuttle. I’m definitely planning to go back for their next race in September–check it out at http://www.capitolforest.com/races2008.html

Cheers,

Nathan

Oh yes unfortunately I’ll be burning a lot o’ Cheney-juice this year getting to all the races I’ve got planned. But I only feel partially terrible about it since I’ve only filled my tank up about three, maybe four, times since starting my new job in October. It’s literally a 3-4 minute coast downhill by bicycle to work in the morning. I’m actually being lazy by “riding” to work as it takes longer to drive there.

Like I said “It’s a big race season approaching”and I’ve set myself some pretty big goals for it. If I hit half of them I’ll be pretty happy, and if I hit just the big one I’ll be really really happy. Sacrifices have been made though. I haven’t had a beer (or any alcohol) since new years day–this ones the easiest to give up. Coffee? No thanks I’ll take just a little black tea please. Sweets, God I missed you bad for about the first week but now that it’s been a couple months I’m doing better. And then theres the not eating after about 7-ish at night–This ones been pretty tough too. Remember the movie Gremlins? Oh almost forgot, then there’s also the just not eating very much thing. Throw in a bunch of apples, mangos, & almonds and you’ve got yourself the Mark-Weir-hating-your-life-diet.

The result is that I’m down about twelve pounds from my last year’s race weight. We’ll see if it works. Today I just started toying with the idea of only having all those dietary goodies after winning a race. Which is a lenient downgrade from my original idea of not having any of these goodies until after July.

Below is my proposed 2008 race schedule (every time I type the word schedule I have to think about the way the English pronounce it in order to spell it correctly);

2008 race schedule

Capitol Forest WA, Super D & XC
March 15-16th

NSMB 1
March 27 – March 31, 2008 Fontana NationalSouthridge Park XC/DH/ST/4X/Super D

NSMB 2
April 2 – April 7, 2008 NOVA NationalMcDowell Mountain Regional Park
Fountain Hills, ArizonaXC/ST/Super D

Fluidride Cup #1: April 4-6 2008 Port Angeles

Sea Otter Classic
April 15th-21th

Spring Thaw
May 3-4

Fluidride Cup #2: May 9-11 2008 Mt Hood

NSMB 3
May 17 – May 18, 2008 Santa Ynez National presented by Platinum PerformanceTed Chamberlin RanchLos Olivos, California
XC/DH/DS/ST/Super D

Fluidride Cup #3: June 6-8 2008 Port Angeles

June 14th-15ish
Mt Ashland Super D

Return on the JedI DH race
Grants Pass OR
June 28th

NSMB 4
June 25 – June 30, 2008 Deer Valley National Park City, Utah
XC/DH/DS/ST/Super D

Downieville Classic!
July 9– July 14, 2008

Crankworx
Aug 9-17th Whistler BC

Fluidride Cup #5: August 22-24 2008 Port Angeles
NSMB 6 Final

August 27 – September 1, 2008 National Mountain Bike Series FinalsTamarack Resort
Tamarack, Idaho
XC/DH/4Xor DS/ST/Super D

Sept 13-14th
Scotty Graham Memorial DH Mt HOOD

Fluidride Cup #6 (Finals): September 26-28 2008 Mt Hood

Well the weather’s been so nasty lately– I’m talking 8-10 inches of snow in town NASTY– that I really haven’t been able to get any good dirt-under-knobs riding in for a while. Can’t even get any snow-under-knobs saddle time in either. So being the endorphin needing person I am I’ve set up my very own hamster wheel in the upstairs bedroom. Now lets face it–You gotta be pretty hard up to enjoy (enjoy that’s crazy..tolerate) the hamster wheels.

10 minutes on it feels like an hour, an hour feels like all day, you know–If you don’t know then good for you. So in a stroke of desperation turned genius or something I started watching my Downieville helmet cam footage while on the trainer. Sprinting off the start line, sprinting every time I’m on the virtual flats, sprinting on the big climb, and sprinting for the finish line. And you know what… the time actually passes. It doesn’t fly by mind you but it does actually pass. The video works so well I find myself actually leaning a bit into the corners, not a good thing to do on the trainer. I’ve dubbed this pass time “Downie-vals”

This first shot is outside my work, down by the Ashland bike hostel, after the big dump

And this second shot is my view from the helm of the U.S. HAmsterwheel

I really hope next time I’ll have more to share than this….but for now the snow’s still falling and the Hamster wheel is gently calling my name, it sounds a lot like when you have a family of rodents living IN your walls.