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National Champs at SolVista Bike Park

Ithnu

Monkey
Jul 16, 2007
961
0
Denver
yeah it looks like it would make the soil a more tackier..how dusty was it out there for the race?
Sand box dude. On the am course what I thought would have been a good place to put my tire apparently was 5" of sand with a rock in there that wanted no business with my tire. OTB, buttock on rocks and bike on me.

I don't mind, it adds some challenge to the race. If everything was super tacky dirt all the time we'd never appreciate it.
 

dhrace507

Monkey
Apr 2, 2004
139
0
Mountains
I'm not writing in on this to prove a point or argue any person's opinion of this **** storm that we helped create by having some jumps on a pro track. I'm going to try and lay out why the course was what it was, from the builder's point of view.

All 6 of us on the crew here were stoked beyond belief to have the chance to make courses for the national championships. We've all raced them before, and to get a chance to make a course for our friends and fellow riders to compete and have fun on is something we've been looking forward to for over a year. It was not something that we took lightly and we never will.

For the question of where to practice for 50 foot gap jumps, we knew there was no place. But, we also knew when we made added features at the right place, with the correct run-in speed in previous courses they worked, and that was for cat 2-Pro last year. So we knew if made right, it would work. Everything was laid out more or less through to the bottom, where our hill is flatter than most. We decided to keep speed high, make the jumps and carry speed to the bottom of the hill instead of traversing the flat that we have. We made a 38 foot double first that was out of a stand of woods, then a slight corner and a very slight hip to the left, so it was not just pedal your ass off straight and hope for the best. That double was our filter feature for the rest of the set because of the few little things that made it more difficult to commit to mentally (but not to ride). Jumps got a little bigger from there on with more landing distance and mellower take offs for the added speed you would have. We tried them the Sunday before the race and they worked perfectly, so we decided they were good and would work well at race speeds for the National Champs.

On the subject of should we have jumps, that weighed very heavily on us. My favorite courses of my whole life have been Idaho's national series course, Vermont's courses and Durango's last national finals course. Most of our crew has the same favorite stuff plus a couple courses here and there... None of those have hardly any jumps, they are all natural terrain, with incredibly difficult corners and rough terrain. So, to make jumps on a course was a departure from what we knew we liked, but not a departure from what we knew we could do. As Buell said before, I've almost been killed before on jumps, so safety was paramount for us in building. We know the risks. We also know that people who don't know anything about downhill are stoked to see stuff like this. We believe this is good for the sport's future. SolVista got attention on three different Denver news channels because of the promise of 50 foot gap jumps, but we also had sections showing novice riders on regular trails. The more people that think it's cool, the more will ride (even at the beginner level). The more people do that, the more reason to have more trail access, more bike parks and more opportunity for fun on our bikes. Yeah, our race will not make that happen on it's own, but we feel making stuff that's hard for racers (like the top of the pro course) and spectators (like the bottom) can be done, and should be.

I think it's somewhat unfortunate the rest of the course hasn't gotten as much attention. It's hard as hell to ride fast. It would be wasted typing to explain the difficulty of the section between the two ten foot doubles that is off camber both directions, rocky, with about three four different line choices (separated by trees which we kept in the course for that reason) depending on what set up or exit speeds you try for. That same description can be said for most of the course. Most every section on the course depended on the section before it, there was no rest hardly anywhere on purpose, so we could get as much difficult terrain in the time and distance we had to work with. It is interesting that nobody has commented on the last tree section. Most riders entered at over 40 mph over roots into a terrifying left/right. Matt Fisher blew up his shoulder, Lisa Myklak smashed a tree, Duncan blew up there and lost most of his speed entering the bottom section in his race run. I'm sure everyone one here that raced the course knows what I'm talking about.

Above all else, we've got one more year for this race, and this is just our opinion of what courses should be. It'll be somewhere else later and whoever builds those courses will have a different opinion of what courses should be, that's why the races change location. Whatever is better/more popular will eventually surface and people can have somewhat reasonable expectations of what to race. The sport is still young and everyone is figuring out what we can ride, our courses were just our take on what's possible.
 

IH8Rice

I'm Mr. Negative! I Fail!
Aug 2, 2008
24,524
494
Im over here now
thanks for not calling it a track :D

like mentioned earlier, the people who are complaining about the jumps, probably wouldnt hit em. the rest of the course looked fantastic and fun as sh!t. i know i wouldnt hit the jumps personally, but im also not complaining about em
 
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MattPatt

Monkey
Apr 3, 2008
111
0
A, A
Hey all the photogs out there. Looking for pics of me and the Gooseman racing in Cat 1 DH. Plates 1376 & 1377, bright orange bikes and helmets, can't miss 'em :eek:

Thanks in advance!
 

doc gravity

Monkey
Oct 25, 2004
152
0
highlands ranch, CO
Hey all the photogs out there. Looking for pics of me and the Gooseman racing in Cat 1 DH. Plates 1376 & 1377, bright orange bikes and helmets, can't miss 'em :eek:

Thanks in advance!
Just wondering, if I'm remembering correctly, you were at least a peripheral part of the discussion regarding the cat 1-2-3 course. Was it fun? and challenging? Hope you guys enjoyed your trip.
Scott
 

drkenan

anti-dentite
Oct 1, 2006
3,441
1
west asheville
dhrace507 - You guys did an absolutely amazing job. We appreciate the effort that you put into our sport and I'm sure it will pay off. All of the haters can eat a d!ck. It doesn't matter what they think - you guys rock and that's all there is to know. :thumb:
 

SeaPig

Monkey
Sep 20, 2005
624
0
Seattle
Above all else, we've got one more year for this race, and this is just our opinion of what courses should be. It'll be somewhere else later and whoever builds those courses will have a different opinion of what courses should be, that's why the races change location. Whatever is better/more popular will eventually surface and people can have somewhat reasonable expectations of what to race. The sport is still young and everyone is figuring out what we can ride, our courses were just our take on what's possible.
I appreciated racing (4th 40-44) your Cat 1 course and shooting your Pro course. I wouldn't worry to much about the rest of us. Keep the course running well, and maybe had some change for next year, but above all you made a great course.

Check out my stories, Photos and video on the event. It backs up what I am saying here. The good riders not only sent the jump, but they made it look good. And the exit speeds were sick. Nice Job!

Everyone else, stop complaining. I had never raced anything like this course and that was a part of the fun.

Ride On!
 

Cheese

Chimp
Mar 26, 2007
6
0
I am very impressed with that the Sol Vista trail crew has created in Granby, CO.

When I heard that the Cat 1-3 courses would be the same I was a bit hesitant to make a 1,300 mile one way trip out from Bellingham, WA. I spoke with a buddy in Steamboat who assured me it was legit and we just wanted to get out of town and experience something new, so we made the quick jaunt.

I do a bit of building out this way and while vastly different from my home turf it was great to have a drastic change. Upon arrival I couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised. Rocks, big jumps, high speeds, sand boxes, flat corners ect. Only thing missing was some large, wet, tangled root sections. The amateur course was excellent.

While riding up the chair I was asked by a spectator what I thought about the pro jumps, I responded with "In my opinion if you're not comfortable jumping those jumps you shouldn't be racing pro." After watching the weekend events that comment still stands.

All the haters either weren't there, didn't ride, or just like to stir the pot. If y'all want something different come race the Ardumm Challenge next year. No high speed jumps or fast ski run turns, just steep, rocky, rooty, wet terrain the Northwest is know for.

Again, Props to the course builders at Sol Vista. You guys are making a Mountain out of a Molehill and that deserves tons of respect. You sure got mine. See you next year.

Cheers,
Colin
 
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davetrump

Turbo Monkey
Jul 29, 2003
1,270
0
Dave why come you didnt start?
torn groin muscle from the week prior racing (crashing i should say) up at mont st anne... did a few runs in sol vista the first day and it was not gonna happen... ended up making it worse in the process and it got super swollen and black/blue.... soooo awesome

so i played super fan for my buddies all weekend. but it was a sick TRACK and i got to catch up with some people i only see once or twice a year, so i still had a god time
 

IH8Rice

I'm Mr. Negative! I Fail!
Aug 2, 2008
24,524
494
Im over here now
torn groin muscle from the week prior racing (crashing i should say) up at mont st anne... did a few runs in sol vista the first day and it was not gonna happen... ended up making it worse in the process and it got super swollen and black/blue.... soooo awesome

so i played super fan for my buddies all weekend. but it was a sick TRACK and i got to catch up with some people i only see once or twice a year, so i still had a god time
swollen black and blue groin?? damn bad visual

ive torn my groin before....its not any fvcking fun at all
 

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,031
5,921
borcester rhymes
Yeah it looked the cam'ed rider nearly flat bottomed those two...rad. That footage doesn't make them look very big, either. Good stuff.
 
thats sweet, and shows how rocky and blown out the woods were

did something get screwed up when it was compressed on vimeo? because looking at the time at the bottom it says that run would have beaten gwin's time, haha
I remember when we watched that earlier and they ran like a 2:29 on Vimeo there it show's them running a 2:13, must get changed a bit when compressed.
 

MattPatt

Monkey
Apr 3, 2008
111
0
A, A
Just wondering, if I'm remembering correctly, you were at least a peripheral part of the discussion regarding the cat 1-2-3 course. Was it fun? and challenging? Hope you guys enjoyed your trip.
Scott
The course was awesome fun! Totally a legit Cat 1 course, sh1t, it had me guessing all the way up to the final day when I had to man up and hit all the big moves. Massive thumbs up :thumb: !!
 

TheInedibleHulk

Turbo Monkey
May 26, 2004
1,886
0
Colorado
Do you personally teach a course on how to do 50-foot gapped jumps in 3 days? I would like to sign up. I'm usually a smartass, but I was being sincere on that one; I would love to learn to do gaps that big! Now are we ready for my smartass comment? I always try to include one... I didn't realize a muddy trail and an enormous no-room-for-error jump are comparable.
None of this, however, is really the point of my original message, which is resorts need to step up and match the progression of the sport.
Biggest flaw in that argument is that doing these jumps doesnt require any different skills than doing a smaller jump. In fact, you dont really need much skill at all beyond knowing how to be in control of your bike generally and not do anything stupid. Most of the guys that got psyched out on the jumps and really had to sack up to do them were kicking themselves afterward for not just doing it earlier. In fact I would say these jumps are technically easier than most bike park jumps, which are generally undersized and mis-shapen.

And for Butch's argument about the danger level, sure the consequences are potentially high if you really f up. That fact is though, this section is very straightforward. The entry speed is such that if you just rode off the first lip, closed your eyes and let go of your bike, your body would still easily clear the gap. All three landings are huge and mellow. Even if you nose cased and catapulted, the worst case scenario is you would hit the flat ground. This could be bad for sure, but anyone dropping into this section should have the good sense to know when to bail in such situations. The proof is in the facts of the race, 130 people on course for four days, and the injuries sustained in the jump section amounted to two sprained ankles and a bruised hip. The rest of the course claimed far more.
 

46chief

Monkey
Jun 12, 2007
296
0
Is there a posting of full results, I can't seem to sift through 25 pages with the workload I have. was wondering If local GE hero, Neco Mulally raced and how well he placed.
 

MasterofGroms

Monkey
Dec 4, 2008
137
0
NorthEastern US
Is there a posting of full results, I can't seem to sift through 25 pages with the workload I have. was wondering If local GE hero, Neco Mulally raced and how well he placed.
Neko had to make a decision as to which race was the most important to him, the GES race at Attitash racing in the Pro Class or the US National Champs racing the 15-16 year olds.
He and his team decided that the GES series would provide him with the best overall experience with regards to development and also, he needs to have 8 GES races to qualify to win the Series.
With his crazy schedule he needed that race to get his 8.
He's thinking he's got a shot a winning the GES series.
So, if it works out, winning the GES in Pro Class trumps winning the 15/16 open class at National Champs. At least as far as Team America is concerned.
Thanks for asking about him. :thumb: