Well I had an awesome weekend with riding on both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday included 2 runs on Cypress, Sunday was my first experience on Garbanzo.
First run at Cypress was Sexboy followed by Family Guy. Crashed pretty good off a rock roll pretty early on on Sex Boy. It started well, then put my front wheel off the little ramp at the bottom sending me straight to the ground. Hard. I've got one of my finer bruises on my right hip. No blood, no damage, no problem. A little further down I screwed up another skinny and somehow managed to go over the bars again. Bike catapulted me slo-mo style onto the skinny and kept tumbling. I managed to latch onto one of the rungs of the ladder and sorta dangled there. Apart from the crashing part, it was pretty ninja-esque. I discovered my rear derailleur had hooked itself into spokes and that took some prying and rearranging. I still had my middle three gears working so there was no problem.
Family guy was fun as always.
Our second run took us down 5th Horseman. This being my second attempt, I was still pretty intimidated. My first attempt had involved a lot of walking. I actually managed most it this time around. Awesome. That run is SO steep, and SO gnarly. I have to credit my new brakes. I'm getting great control out my Juicy 5s. They let you stay right on the threshold. I didn't crash at all. That is until the easy flat, fast meandering bit at the bottom through the grassy forest. I went a little off the trail, hit a sizable rock at speed and went for another tumble. What a stupid way to end a kickass run.
I was SHATTERED that night. Completely exhausted.
Sunday:
Started with some slow warmups on Karate Monkey to Aline. Then we checked out all of Aline. What a blast. It definitely took me a while to shake off the fear of speed, but I started clearing the tabletops where it counted. It's nuts how whimpy the drops at Whistler start looking when you've been riding around the shore a lot. There's nothing to hit! Most of the time...
Then we went to the top of Garbanzo and checked out Freight Train, to Original Sin, to Goats Gully, to In Deep, to D1, then mixed it up from there with Upper Joyride, Clown Shoes and Schleyer. Fan-frickin-tastic.
The long woodwork section on In Deep is awesome, I came so close to biting it at speed toward the bottom every time, but always cleaned it. My luck just might be turning into skill...
My fav. part was probably the steep rock rolls which I think were on No Joke. So steep, so long.
Goats Gully is super gnarly with rocks abound, but somehow I was managing it all. On the sharp switchbacks it seems as though I was trackstanding forever trying to line myself up just right.
Oh man, too many awesome moments to remember, and likely boring to read.
All I didn't hit was the step up onto the trailer (forget where that was) and the big drop on Clown Shoes. It looked like it was in perfect shape and the guys I was with pulled it off no sweat, but I was tired and didn't want to push my luck too far.
All in all, awesome. Not a single pic, but I guess that's a good sign.
First run at Cypress was Sexboy followed by Family Guy. Crashed pretty good off a rock roll pretty early on on Sex Boy. It started well, then put my front wheel off the little ramp at the bottom sending me straight to the ground. Hard. I've got one of my finer bruises on my right hip. No blood, no damage, no problem. A little further down I screwed up another skinny and somehow managed to go over the bars again. Bike catapulted me slo-mo style onto the skinny and kept tumbling. I managed to latch onto one of the rungs of the ladder and sorta dangled there. Apart from the crashing part, it was pretty ninja-esque. I discovered my rear derailleur had hooked itself into spokes and that took some prying and rearranging. I still had my middle three gears working so there was no problem.
Family guy was fun as always.
Our second run took us down 5th Horseman. This being my second attempt, I was still pretty intimidated. My first attempt had involved a lot of walking. I actually managed most it this time around. Awesome. That run is SO steep, and SO gnarly. I have to credit my new brakes. I'm getting great control out my Juicy 5s. They let you stay right on the threshold. I didn't crash at all. That is until the easy flat, fast meandering bit at the bottom through the grassy forest. I went a little off the trail, hit a sizable rock at speed and went for another tumble. What a stupid way to end a kickass run.
I was SHATTERED that night. Completely exhausted.
Sunday:
Started with some slow warmups on Karate Monkey to Aline. Then we checked out all of Aline. What a blast. It definitely took me a while to shake off the fear of speed, but I started clearing the tabletops where it counted. It's nuts how whimpy the drops at Whistler start looking when you've been riding around the shore a lot. There's nothing to hit! Most of the time...
Then we went to the top of Garbanzo and checked out Freight Train, to Original Sin, to Goats Gully, to In Deep, to D1, then mixed it up from there with Upper Joyride, Clown Shoes and Schleyer. Fan-frickin-tastic.
The long woodwork section on In Deep is awesome, I came so close to biting it at speed toward the bottom every time, but always cleaned it. My luck just might be turning into skill...
My fav. part was probably the steep rock rolls which I think were on No Joke. So steep, so long.
Goats Gully is super gnarly with rocks abound, but somehow I was managing it all. On the sharp switchbacks it seems as though I was trackstanding forever trying to line myself up just right.
Oh man, too many awesome moments to remember, and likely boring to read.
All I didn't hit was the step up onto the trailer (forget where that was) and the big drop on Clown Shoes. It looked like it was in perfect shape and the guys I was with pulled it off no sweat, but I was tired and didn't want to push my luck too far.
All in all, awesome. Not a single pic, but I guess that's a good sign.
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