CrankWorx Colorado
After pulling an all day drive on Tues. we arrived in Winter Park Colorado for the second year of CW. The first race I was to compete in was the Super D on Thur., so I wanted to get a few runs in before the race. The course was very easy as far as technical skills. A le mans style start followed by about 75 meters of uphill. There was one more section of uphill that was probably about 45 - 60 sec long, but in between there was lots of short burst of pedaling. I got to the top of the first climb in about fourth, made some quick inside moves and got to the lead. Ross Schnell was in second when we got to the top of the middle climb and I held him off up that, but at 10,000 ft I was fried when we got to the top of that. He made a move and passed me, but shortly after I passed him back, only then to have him pass me back. After that there were some sections of pedaling and he just gapped me enough that I couldn't pull him back. I was hurting and knew I was going to have to settle for second.
Friday I spent the day filming with Ambrose, working on some projects for some of my sponsors.
Saturday I took off in the morning for Sol Vista where they were having the Colorado State Champioinships. DS practice was from 10:30-12 followed by qualification. The course was cool with a good mixture of corners, speeds, jumps, and terrain. I qualified first by three quarters of second over Chris Herndon in second.
The race was not until later in the day so they could have it under the lights, so there was a lot of down time. They had a pump track set up and hosted a time trial competition on that. It was 3 laps, no pedaling for a time. I ended up winning that and put in 4 laps because nobody told me after the 3rd I was done and I wasn't counting.
The DS race started on time and the competition was fierce. I have to say I was impressed with how some of the juniors were riding, as well as some of the amateurs. I met up with Chris Herndon in the final and we had a good battle. He beat me on the first run by a little, but the second run I was on the better side, so I knew I just had to pin it and get out front. I got a good start and was in the lead when I heard the crowd give that sound as though someone crashed. Chris went down and it was an easy cruise in from there.
Sunday was the DS at CW and the track coudn't have been any different. In Sol Vista I rode my ibis Mojo full suspension bike, getting all 140mm of rear wheel travel every run. In Winter Park I opted for the ibis Tranny hard tail. The course was super smooth, lots of rollers and jumps, and real tight quick turns.
In my semi I went up against Chris Herndon again and I took the win. In the final I went up against Jon Watt, defeating him and taking home my second victory in less 24hrs.
Big thanks to Bob Holme and the everyone involved at CW Colorado for putting on a good event and inviting me out to be apart of it.
Posted by Brian on August 3, 2008 9:15 PM