Been back east for the past 2 weeks doing a few races, visiting some family & friends, and checkin out the big city.
I first went to Blue Mountain in Penn for a Super D race. The course was pretty good for what they have to work with there. 2 climbs, one was about 30 sec and one was about 10 seconds, the rest of the course was a good mix of rocky single track, some jump sections, some flow through the forest and a sprint to the line on a fire road. It was le mans style start. I was on my bike 3rd, but quickly moved the front and never looked back. It was a local race, so no big names but never the less a fun event. Some big rains the night before made for some greasy parts, but the Kenda tires were working along with my Marzocchi suspension. I took the win by 25 seconds over second.
From there we drove to Jersey to my uncles house. Showered up and went the Subway series at the Mets Stadium. Oakley's sports marketing guy for baseball, Gary, hooked us up with some sick vip seats right behind home plate. One of the benefits of being in the Oakley family. Thanks Gary.
Monday Joe and I rode across the George Washington bridge into NY and down a nice bike path that follows the Hudson all the way into Manhattan. We had fun dicing it up with the city traffic on our way to Central Park. From there we headed over to Sids bike shop, a ibis dealer and sweet ass shop, before heading back to Jersey. It was a full day in the city that would have probably taken two days in a car.
Tues we took a drive to another part of NY to visit my energy bar sponsor Raw Revolution. We got the tour of the factory, how the bars are made, and tasted some new flavors that are just now coming out. Always nice to have a few more options of flavors.
Wed we drove to Jeff Lenosky's house and went for a XC ride with him. His first official ride after getting the go ahead from his dr. that his leg is good to go after breaking it 12 weeks ago. The ride was fun and definitely a lot different than what we are use too. We were pretty much in the trees for the entire ride, pretty much the complete opposite of our xc riding.
Thur. it was out to Diablo Park for the US open. Day one of practice was under way. Qualifying was Fride and I tied for 3rd and was looking forward to a better result on Saturdays race, but when the rain started to fall just 15 min before the race started I knew it would be a crap shoot. Riders were going down left and right. I played it cautious through the turns I saw riders crashing in, made it through those, but then slid out in one of the faster turns near the bottom. Got some road rash and was happy to have my Lopes/TLD knee pads on as they got worked, but was OK. Run two I kept it on two wheels, but never really had a good flow going and ended up 8th, exactly 1 sec off 3rd, so the times were pretty tight. Oh well, that's racing.
Home now for a day and then it's off to Costa Rica for the launch of Oakley in the country. Should be fun, hooking up with some locals and Manny Prado for some rides over there.
Will check in with another blog when I am back next week, but you can always get the brief updates by following my twitter.
Thanks for visiting,
Brian Lopes