Well...
I got a call about 2o'clock Thursday from bentimby asking if I was heading down to Angelfire and if he could snag a ride. Being the cool guy I am, I accepted the offer, lol. So DanD drove him down that night on his way to try and figure out transportation for himself. Well when we pulled Ben (bentimby)'s bike out of DanD's car and stuck the wheels on it didn't take long to realize that there was a pad missing from the rear brake. But of course that wakeup call was a bit late for the piston. And of course being the cheapo I am, I figured that we could superglue it to the piston. With my mad ghettorigging skills we got some krazy glue and glued the pad to the piston. Of course all this hoping that it would hold through the weekend but not really being sure.
Friday was a day of patience waiting for my Dad to get off work to take us down. And of course, testing the brake out a bit to make sure that it was working, lol. We ended up leaving around 3P.M. on route to Angelfire. I-25 was stop and go for the first 3 miles through C-Springs and took us about 20minutes to do. After that it was all good. We hit a bit of heavy rain/wind/light hail on our way down around south Pueblo but left us after a half hour or so. Finally arrived there around 7:45ish and scrambled up the hill to try and register before it closed then checked into a condo from the resort that was a nice loft thing.
Saturday was fun. Got up and had some scrambled eggs and bacon and headed up to the lift around 9:30 to get in line for the DH. All this was after hearing horror stories from Billy (billypatterson) and Todd (snowskilz) about how crazy the course was and how much carnage was coming out of it. I was a bit spooked but was ready for the challenge, haha. Rode up the lift with Ryan (SilentK) and rode a bit of the run with him before he disappeared.
The course is completely different from last year's. It starts off in the same place but quickly turns into the trees on a flat dusty turn, with a few jagged rocks up top. After that is a loose tiny left berm into some open-ness that is part sand, part dirt, and part rock. This open area has a fairly tight flat right turn followed by a nice flat left turn that heads to the trees. Once you approach the trees the trail is blocked by rocks that are unpassable except for a line through the middle that is a bit of a launch ramp/jump that is about a foot and a half tall and isn't rollable. After that you head into a right turn through the trees and into some fun technical rock stuff. This area reminds me most of the fun from last year's DH course, lots of rocks, roots, and trees. There is a large tree trunk laying across the course that you can roll or jump. After that you head into some clustered rocks that people were having line issues with, either go left and stay quick or go straight, think less, and smack your pedals or worse. (I did the latter, haha). Following this there are a few small whoop-de-doo type things (just bumps in the course) and you're off into some open ski run stuff that is fast as hell but extremely bumpy (or atleast on the retarded SPV fork ). After a some open area there is a large sweeping left turn on this stuff (extremely fun) and then you head into the trees once more momentarily with mostly just dusty singletrack, onto a remaining part of last year's course with a chute under a bridge and some tricky rock/root stuff then onto some open ski stuff.. This time you do a few open ski run corners and you're onto a straight away. Then suddenly you brake, turn right and you're at the bridge. The bridge is northshore bridge (wide though) with a 2ftish drop that can be bigger speed dependent landing onto some rough roots and rocks without a real solid line of where to go. Through a few corners and you're at open area again. This time its fairly smooth singletrack for a while and is hella fast, this area is from last year's course as well. Around a steep left corner then you start pedalling fast up to the hip (ski jump in all the net pics) which is extremely fun. It puts you down nicely onto some fast singletrack that quickly turns into brake ruts. You follow this for a good 150yards and jump into the trees about where the climb was last year. This time you bank right through some sandy stuff that eats up all your momentum onto some flat terrain that throws you into a nice sized road gap (which a lot rolled) onto a steep hill with a kickass booter 30-40ft down. Following that, you hold onto the handlebars a while till you go into the trees again. This time almost all easy singletrack (dusty/slick of course) with a few logs strewn across and some tight corners. After that you come into some faster tree stuff and finally you're out. Now you come around a huge corner (all open ski run) and just pedal your ass off until the very end of the course run which is almost to where the team tents are. And its over.
(Sat'd con'td) Made in a nice 3 runs on Saturday and was pretty sufice with that despite how much my hands hurt from the runs. Then proceded to chill with the team which ended up landing me with sunburns galore but was fun anyways. After that we went and watched the Mountain Cross finals (rooting for all the local folk). Disappointedly Ross Milan was out with a fractured leg. During practice some (excuse the language) stupidass b1tch ran across the course right as a racer was going (dwj/Doug) which caused him to try and avoid her and crashing huge off of a double which resulted in a bent frame and a completely totalled bike. The ho didn't even appologize or anything although I heard some folks giving her a hard time so that's good. The racing was incredible. The highlight was in JuniorSport (i think) when a kid was in the middle of casing one of the last doubles and a rider from MojoWheels was jumping the double and RODE ON this kid's back/bike and kept going. It was incredible!!!! Didn't really see who won but it was amazing seeing people airout on the last several doubles and seeing a few close calls on them as well. Afterwards I was extremely hungry so bummed some cash off my dad and went to the Mexican place at the base. Since I was by myself I gotta hangout at the bar, lol. Enjoyed some amazing chips/salsa and some beef enchiladas. Ended up talking to a guy who was racing Expert DH and was in his mid50s!! That's incredible, he said he was from Boulder and had a Mojo jersey on (maybe someone here knows him?) I heard someone call him Dave earlier so I guess that's him haha. Finally went to the condo and watched some Earthed.
Sunday was both awesome and no good. Woke up and had some scrambled eggs and bacon again then proceded to head up to the base to get a quick practice run in and look at start times. Start times was the beginning of the trouble, with me posted as Jr.Beginner. So after the practice run I went to the timing tent and had that changed to Jr.Sport but was told to have the same start time, okay I thought atleast I won't get passed. . Anyways, come time for me to start everything starts off good. I'm riding a bit sketch but at the moment it holds up. Turn a corner and my foot slips but I recover quickly and keep pedalling. Through the first tech section at the end of it I catch up with the first rider from Beginner and pass him on the open run. Awesomeness, I've never passed anybody before and I'm feeling pretty good. Come into the next section and I pick a few bad lines but keep going. Now its off to the bridge drop. The drop itself went well but as soon as I get off the wooden landing I go over the bars and get tangled up in the bike (thank you full face). It takes me a longass time to get up it seems like, and I realize that the bars are twisted a lot. So I stand in front of the bike and twist them back to about middle and hop on. This next bit is a bit slow as I try and get into the "flow" from that crash, lol. The open speed section goes incredible and is the best I've ever run it, around the corner to the straightaway-to-hip and I see another Beginner. I yell rider-up about 50yards from the jump but he persists and doesn't move until we're ON the lip. So that makes me brake and pretty much just roll off of it. I'm a bit steamed now but pedal on down the hill and come up to the roadgap area. Soon as I come close to the roadgap I see another Beginner. I yell riderup, he ends up moving to the side on the booter after the gap. Wasn't too thrilled but I wasn't really caring by that point, so I sped off now glad that I was almost through. Went into the last tree areas, picked a few bad lines and lost a foot once or twice. Now onto the last bit of the course, and right as I get out of the trees I approach a Beginner. I yell rider up but he holds course. I try to pedal and go around him but there's not enough room. Finally it opens to the finish and I can pedal but its already too late. All in all it wasn't "that" bad of a run considering the circumstances but I"m disappointed in how I rode. I got a 7:35 which was pretty damn low or well...on the low end of the pack. Unfortunately it landed me with 28/32 but that didn't surprise me. Oh well, I'll redeem myself at Crested Butte. RockPounderRacing kicked ass and it was fun hanging out and meeting a few folks.
(most of the following people are from mtbr)
I ended up meeting ynotgobig (Palmer) who was there with Cactus Bikes, as well as my homeboy Will (sherpa) and Jesse(biker3). Met up with Corbin (ironhorse01 or something) and Justin (no sn), of course the e-cyclist crew Jason (asxrider###), Joey (DHer16), Danny (DanD), Spencer (Wheelieman), Brady (Ironhorse12), Keaton (mtbkid), and a few other people. Then talked with Alex and Seth from BCD for a bit, completely cool guys and seem to be extremely fast on those hot carbon bikes. Then met Evan (FullTrucker) sporting his crutches at the announcers booth and he was quite the cool guy, hopefully I can go riding with him once he's off his crutches.
The end. (Surprisingly the superglued pad/piston worked well and didn't break. )
Also, anybody wanna trade me a Boxxer (preferrably Team/WC) for my Slider+ and maybe a bit of cash?
I got a call about 2o'clock Thursday from bentimby asking if I was heading down to Angelfire and if he could snag a ride. Being the cool guy I am, I accepted the offer, lol. So DanD drove him down that night on his way to try and figure out transportation for himself. Well when we pulled Ben (bentimby)'s bike out of DanD's car and stuck the wheels on it didn't take long to realize that there was a pad missing from the rear brake. But of course that wakeup call was a bit late for the piston. And of course being the cheapo I am, I figured that we could superglue it to the piston. With my mad ghettorigging skills we got some krazy glue and glued the pad to the piston. Of course all this hoping that it would hold through the weekend but not really being sure.
Friday was a day of patience waiting for my Dad to get off work to take us down. And of course, testing the brake out a bit to make sure that it was working, lol. We ended up leaving around 3P.M. on route to Angelfire. I-25 was stop and go for the first 3 miles through C-Springs and took us about 20minutes to do. After that it was all good. We hit a bit of heavy rain/wind/light hail on our way down around south Pueblo but left us after a half hour or so. Finally arrived there around 7:45ish and scrambled up the hill to try and register before it closed then checked into a condo from the resort that was a nice loft thing.
Saturday was fun. Got up and had some scrambled eggs and bacon and headed up to the lift around 9:30 to get in line for the DH. All this was after hearing horror stories from Billy (billypatterson) and Todd (snowskilz) about how crazy the course was and how much carnage was coming out of it. I was a bit spooked but was ready for the challenge, haha. Rode up the lift with Ryan (SilentK) and rode a bit of the run with him before he disappeared.
The course is completely different from last year's. It starts off in the same place but quickly turns into the trees on a flat dusty turn, with a few jagged rocks up top. After that is a loose tiny left berm into some open-ness that is part sand, part dirt, and part rock. This open area has a fairly tight flat right turn followed by a nice flat left turn that heads to the trees. Once you approach the trees the trail is blocked by rocks that are unpassable except for a line through the middle that is a bit of a launch ramp/jump that is about a foot and a half tall and isn't rollable. After that you head into a right turn through the trees and into some fun technical rock stuff. This area reminds me most of the fun from last year's DH course, lots of rocks, roots, and trees. There is a large tree trunk laying across the course that you can roll or jump. After that you head into some clustered rocks that people were having line issues with, either go left and stay quick or go straight, think less, and smack your pedals or worse. (I did the latter, haha). Following this there are a few small whoop-de-doo type things (just bumps in the course) and you're off into some open ski run stuff that is fast as hell but extremely bumpy (or atleast on the retarded SPV fork ). After a some open area there is a large sweeping left turn on this stuff (extremely fun) and then you head into the trees once more momentarily with mostly just dusty singletrack, onto a remaining part of last year's course with a chute under a bridge and some tricky rock/root stuff then onto some open ski stuff.. This time you do a few open ski run corners and you're onto a straight away. Then suddenly you brake, turn right and you're at the bridge. The bridge is northshore bridge (wide though) with a 2ftish drop that can be bigger speed dependent landing onto some rough roots and rocks without a real solid line of where to go. Through a few corners and you're at open area again. This time its fairly smooth singletrack for a while and is hella fast, this area is from last year's course as well. Around a steep left corner then you start pedalling fast up to the hip (ski jump in all the net pics) which is extremely fun. It puts you down nicely onto some fast singletrack that quickly turns into brake ruts. You follow this for a good 150yards and jump into the trees about where the climb was last year. This time you bank right through some sandy stuff that eats up all your momentum onto some flat terrain that throws you into a nice sized road gap (which a lot rolled) onto a steep hill with a kickass booter 30-40ft down. Following that, you hold onto the handlebars a while till you go into the trees again. This time almost all easy singletrack (dusty/slick of course) with a few logs strewn across and some tight corners. After that you come into some faster tree stuff and finally you're out. Now you come around a huge corner (all open ski run) and just pedal your ass off until the very end of the course run which is almost to where the team tents are. And its over.
(Sat'd con'td) Made in a nice 3 runs on Saturday and was pretty sufice with that despite how much my hands hurt from the runs. Then proceded to chill with the team which ended up landing me with sunburns galore but was fun anyways. After that we went and watched the Mountain Cross finals (rooting for all the local folk). Disappointedly Ross Milan was out with a fractured leg. During practice some (excuse the language) stupidass b1tch ran across the course right as a racer was going (dwj/Doug) which caused him to try and avoid her and crashing huge off of a double which resulted in a bent frame and a completely totalled bike. The ho didn't even appologize or anything although I heard some folks giving her a hard time so that's good. The racing was incredible. The highlight was in JuniorSport (i think) when a kid was in the middle of casing one of the last doubles and a rider from MojoWheels was jumping the double and RODE ON this kid's back/bike and kept going. It was incredible!!!! Didn't really see who won but it was amazing seeing people airout on the last several doubles and seeing a few close calls on them as well. Afterwards I was extremely hungry so bummed some cash off my dad and went to the Mexican place at the base. Since I was by myself I gotta hangout at the bar, lol. Enjoyed some amazing chips/salsa and some beef enchiladas. Ended up talking to a guy who was racing Expert DH and was in his mid50s!! That's incredible, he said he was from Boulder and had a Mojo jersey on (maybe someone here knows him?) I heard someone call him Dave earlier so I guess that's him haha. Finally went to the condo and watched some Earthed.
Sunday was both awesome and no good. Woke up and had some scrambled eggs and bacon again then proceded to head up to the base to get a quick practice run in and look at start times. Start times was the beginning of the trouble, with me posted as Jr.Beginner. So after the practice run I went to the timing tent and had that changed to Jr.Sport but was told to have the same start time, okay I thought atleast I won't get passed. . Anyways, come time for me to start everything starts off good. I'm riding a bit sketch but at the moment it holds up. Turn a corner and my foot slips but I recover quickly and keep pedalling. Through the first tech section at the end of it I catch up with the first rider from Beginner and pass him on the open run. Awesomeness, I've never passed anybody before and I'm feeling pretty good. Come into the next section and I pick a few bad lines but keep going. Now its off to the bridge drop. The drop itself went well but as soon as I get off the wooden landing I go over the bars and get tangled up in the bike (thank you full face). It takes me a longass time to get up it seems like, and I realize that the bars are twisted a lot. So I stand in front of the bike and twist them back to about middle and hop on. This next bit is a bit slow as I try and get into the "flow" from that crash, lol. The open speed section goes incredible and is the best I've ever run it, around the corner to the straightaway-to-hip and I see another Beginner. I yell rider-up about 50yards from the jump but he persists and doesn't move until we're ON the lip. So that makes me brake and pretty much just roll off of it. I'm a bit steamed now but pedal on down the hill and come up to the roadgap area. Soon as I come close to the roadgap I see another Beginner. I yell riderup, he ends up moving to the side on the booter after the gap. Wasn't too thrilled but I wasn't really caring by that point, so I sped off now glad that I was almost through. Went into the last tree areas, picked a few bad lines and lost a foot once or twice. Now onto the last bit of the course, and right as I get out of the trees I approach a Beginner. I yell rider up but he holds course. I try to pedal and go around him but there's not enough room. Finally it opens to the finish and I can pedal but its already too late. All in all it wasn't "that" bad of a run considering the circumstances but I"m disappointed in how I rode. I got a 7:35 which was pretty damn low or well...on the low end of the pack. Unfortunately it landed me with 28/32 but that didn't surprise me. Oh well, I'll redeem myself at Crested Butte. RockPounderRacing kicked ass and it was fun hanging out and meeting a few folks.
(most of the following people are from mtbr)
I ended up meeting ynotgobig (Palmer) who was there with Cactus Bikes, as well as my homeboy Will (sherpa) and Jesse(biker3). Met up with Corbin (ironhorse01 or something) and Justin (no sn), of course the e-cyclist crew Jason (asxrider###), Joey (DHer16), Danny (DanD), Spencer (Wheelieman), Brady (Ironhorse12), Keaton (mtbkid), and a few other people. Then talked with Alex and Seth from BCD for a bit, completely cool guys and seem to be extremely fast on those hot carbon bikes. Then met Evan (FullTrucker) sporting his crutches at the announcers booth and he was quite the cool guy, hopefully I can go riding with him once he's off his crutches.
The end. (Surprisingly the superglued pad/piston worked well and didn't break. )
Also, anybody wanna trade me a Boxxer (preferrably Team/WC) for my Slider+ and maybe a bit of cash?
