Mount Snow

Back from Mount Snow, VT. Fresh from the green mountains of vermont. A bit tired and still not fully unpacked from the whirlwind that was the past 2 weeks of racing.

Ej at Crankskins was gracious enough to offer me a couch in exchange for working and helping out at the booth. I certainly hope it was a success for him. It's a great product and I think with some time it will take off.

We arrived Wed Night, set up the booth then hit the course. I laid down 2 laps on the new style course. It was ok, nothing super special. But I preferred the older "original" course. This one just seemed a bit watered down. The climb was just one long climb to the top, and the descent was shortened up and missed out on some of the fun stuff. I rode the course a bit over the next few days and even managed to get in a decent road ride in.

I did end up signing up for a race. I forked over my $75 for the pro Super D. I ended up climbing up to the top of the mountain with Chris and we hit the course, it was a blast and not super technical. So on early sunday am, I got in line for the lift and headed to the top. On my practice run, I was feeling awesome and killing it. Then a few people were standing on the trail in a tight section, I torqued it and broke my chain. Luckily some guy in a Giant Jersey that won the race where you ride up and down the mountain gave me his tools (I didn't have a chain breaker). I fixed the chain and finished my run.

I got in the huge line and got to move to the front as they were waiting for me at the top. On my way up, I chatted it up on the lift with the chick who would go on to win the really hard race where you ride for only 20 minutes. Funny, I didn't even know who she was. As I was the last rider to line up, I had a crappy starting spot. The run sucked and I was pretty much fighting it out for last place. Running, especially with your bike uphill is not fun. Seeing as I was so far back, I basically just sat in and didn't try to kill myself or anyone else by trying to make some crazy passes. On the homestretch, I was fighting for 3rd to last and managed to just stack it around 35mph on a huge waterbar. I landed on my head, and bounced a few times. It was right in front of everyone. It was awesome. I haven't had a crazy crash like that in so long. I wish I woulda crashed a few times in practice, I kinda enjoy being sore from a good crash (I'm a sadist). Anyways after a few people came over to see if I was still alive (or just working on an audition for superman) I got back on and finished up. Dead last! Awesome. Did I mention I did this on a hardtail, while everyone else was pretty much on 5-inch dual squish? I gotta get some street cred for that, right?

I'll have some pictures up later tonight.