Hello again there everyone, it’s been quite a while since my last report, due to races of some kind pretty much every weekend, so its time now for an update from the last 4 major races; starting with the 2 World Cups in Canada in Mont Saint Anne and Calgary and the last 2 NORBAs in Idaho, and Snowmass.

It was great to be back at Mt St Anne this year, defnitely one of the most famous World Cup stops on the circuit. This years DH course was similar to the short course from last year, with just a little more length.

The course was basically all tight and extremely technical. The old long wide open course was mostly in the open which meant the course dried out fast from any rain that came through, but this years course being mainly in heavy trees meant any rain that came made the course muddy and didn’t give the course a chance to dry out.

This made the tight rocks and roots very tricky. Practice was decent for me but the track definitely wasn’t my cup of tea, some sections required almost trials skills to get through cleanly, but I was still having good fun.

Rennie & Graves - Idaho

Onto racing and after a smooth qualifying run I put myself in 13th position, I was quite happy with this considering I didn’t feel too great on the track. I went into the final with the attitude of just doing my best and seeing what happened and basically not to do anything too dumb.

I started off smoothly and kept it this way for a majority of the run until towards the bottom where I hit a root and got bucked off the back of my bike, I straddled my rear wheel for a moment then got back on and pedalling, I came down for 18th place in the final, not too happy with this after qualifying better than that, and only being 2 seconds outside the top 10.

In the end Steve peat took the win just ahead of Sam Hill, with Nathan Rennie in 3rd, Peat and Sam’s times were absolutely crazy, and I have no idea how they rode that course that fast, crazy stuff.

The mountaincross course was quite interesting, with instead of being a normal first turn they made a pair of chicanes with 2 different options that split the course in two, you could either go left or right, the only problem though was the right side 2 was definitely faster.

 

Graves

The rest of the course flowed well with one nice double, but it still could have been better as the course didn’t allow for any real passing opportunities.

Qualifying went well for me, I put it in 4th position, and with lane selection being very important I was happy with that. I progressed through a few rounds, but by the time we hit the round of 16 each round was looking more like a final.

My round of 16 consisted of myself, Cedric Gracia , Wade Bootes and Swiss gun, Roger Rinderknecht. I had the lane choice here but my lack of BMX gate practice saw me get beaten out of the start and into the first turn and from there, there was nothing I could do, with Cedric and Wade both being very experienced they left me no opportunity to pass whatsoever.

This gave me a final placing of 13th, in the end no-one could stop World Champ Michael Prokop, he qualified number one and he was just too fast for everyone out of the start and he comfortably took the win.

In the women’s , my team-mate Jill Kintner had an unfortunate crash in qualifying which left her with the worst gates all night long. Luckily, Jill has a gate start that rivals the top men and she could get ahead and into the lead, it worked well for her, but it wasn’t quite enough to get ahead of Sabrina Jonnier, who took the win ahead of jill in 2nd.

Evans & Henry - Idaho

Next race up was the world cup round in Calgary, held at the site of the 1988 winter Olympics, it was quite the venue, the dh course ran next to the bobsled run made famous by the movie “Cool Runnings”, pretty cool stuff I though.

The DH run was on a very small hill, but I thought the course was pretty awesome for the hill they had it on. Quite simple but loads of fun, the only problem was the 100m flat start sprint, with just a few small doubles to break up the pedalling.

I was having lots of fun though and I knew the course was good for me, on Friday afternoon timed practice I went 2nd fastest, and this is always a decent indication of how you are going, but then that afternoon the rain started coming down again, it was still all good though, but I knew this would favour the euros.

Come race day it didn’t look too bad, it was cloudy but no rain, the top seeds went off and had their run, and just as I was going up fro my qualifier the rain began and it really didn’t stop all day.

Rando & Minaar - Idaho

I qualified 13th, but knew the final would be tougher with the rain continuing to fall. As it turned out qualifying badly was the smart move, with many riders who came down early having the fastest times, including a few names I’d never heard of.

About 30 minutes before my run the rain then stopped which made the mud completely clog up and get super sticky, not a good thing, I tried not to worry about it and got on with my run. It all went smoothly but a small bobble within sight of the line cost me a little, I came through 2 seconds down on the leader at the time Michael Pascal from France.

I was happy with my run but couldn’t get that small mistake out of my head. I ended up 14th after all was said and done, which was solid but I felt a little ripped off by the conditions as I’m sure the whole top 20 qualifiers did.

David Vasquez from Spain took the win ahead of Brazilian team-mate Markolf Bertchtold with Steve Peat in 3rd, Michael Pascal 4th and Colin Bailey in 5th, it was pretty weird to see 4 team Maxxis riders out of 5 on the podium.

The mountain cross was held a couple days earlier on Friday afternoon before the rain came. The course was pretty sweet, nice berms, super fun sections and some good sized jumps and fast the whole way.

Graves & Joel Panozzo - Snowmass

I was really enjoying this course, I qualified 8th which I was happy with once again, but pretty much the same thing as the weekend before happened, I got through the first couple of rounds but by the round of 16 I came up against Eric Carter and his teammate Brian Schmith, as well as Kyle Strait.

I made a solid start but was in the middle of the mongoose duo and they pulled a little team tactics on me and squeezed me out, 3rd in that round gave me a final place of 10th.

Once again though in the final, Prokop had the best start and rode off with the win and also wrapped up the World Cup overall title.

In the women’s Jill Kintner had qualified 1st and took the lead from the start but one of the best passing moves I’ve ever seen from Sabrina jonnier, got the better of Jill and she had to settle for 2nd once again. But still another solid world cup podium for Yeti.

After the 2 Canadian World Cups I went back to my base in Nathrop Colorado, we did some of the Mountain States Cup series races which were a load of fun, some solid racing and a couple of wins boosted my confidence, I felt ready for the next couple of NORBAs.

Schweitzer mountain was the scene for the NORBA in Idaho and we were greeted by hot conditions and a super dusty DH run. For those who don’t know about Idaho, it is easily the roughest arm pumping torture test of the season, with non-stop microwave sized rocks from top to bottom.

Carter, Rennie & Milan - Idaho 4x

Leading up to the race I knew I’dhave to get stronger so I went and did loads of runs at keystone, where there is a 14 minute top to bottom DH run, after doing some solid session here of non stop runs, I did get stronger but also picked up a nice case of tendonitis in my middle finger.

Most of my DH practice on the super rough technical course was a waste of time, and I could only hang on about 70% with my right arm due to my finger, I tried not to worry about it though.

After a super steady qualifier trying to save my finger I put myself in 15th, and knew I would be ok for the final. After some pain killers were taken my hand was almost pain free for the final, my run went really well and I knew I was taking major time off my qualifier, then about 6 corners from the finish I thought I was home free and decided to just pin it all the way to the line.

Out of nowhere I was all slow motion up in the air just looking down at the ground, ragdolling, not too cool at all, I couldn’t believe it. I totally winded myself and had to take off my helmet and goggles to get the dirt out, as I couldn’t see a thing. I got going to the finish, with a result not really worth mentioning.

World DH Champ Greg Min-gnar rode an awesome run and took yet another NORBA win, his 3rd in a row, followed by Nathan Rennie in 2nd and Sam Hill in 3rd, Joel Panozzo turned his form around with a super strong 4th and Dustin Adams rounded out the top 5 .

Hill & Minaar - Calgary

Mountain cross definitely went a lot better for me, I was one of the first down for qualifying and then sat and watched almost every rider go through, I really thought I’d pulled the number one qualifier, after Carter, Schmith, Mike King, and Brian lopes all failed to go faster. But I’d forgotten about Rennie, the sneaky bugger came and snuck under my time by a bees dick but I was still happy with 2nd.

Racing went very well, I won every early round, and as it worked out I was in the semi finals with my team mate Ross Milan. We knew this was a good situation to be in, and with Brian Schmith in between us we knew he couldn’t squeeze out both of us.

Ross and myself both had great starts and were first and 2nd into the first turn and looking good to progress through to the final but instead of covering my line on the first berm I stayed lower so I didn’t ball up Ross and came unclipped from my pedal, allowing everyone to pass me.

It wasn’t all bad news though as Ross went through to the final and I still had a shot at the last spot on the podium, which I took by winning the consolation round. Ross took 4th in the final, behind Eric Carter, Nathan Rennie and Rich Houseman.

Once again in the women’s Jill Kintner dominated, easily qualifying 1st and was never threatened throughout racing, her win here also wrapped up the NORBA title for Jill.

The 4th and final race to talk about was the latest NORBA from Snowmass in Colorado, just outside the famous ski resort of Aspen.

It felt somewhat weird just turning up the day before DH practice started as its only about 2 hrs drive from Nathrop.

Minaar & Rennie - Snowmass

The DH course was extremely fast and rough, with nowhere to rest. I really like this track, good fun from top to bottom. Practice was going really well and I was feeling confident, and after stuffing up my last 3 big DH races I was out for a good one.

I was happy after qualifying 3rd, I felt really good for the final and had loads of energy, I was convinced it was going to be my day. My run once again went really well for most of the course until I though I was once again home free with all the tricky parts behind me.

I had a lapse in concentration and had to brake hard to avoid a tree in a place that was vital to maintain speed. I knew the times were going to be tight but was even more surprised just how tight it was, despite my errors I was surprised that I was only just hanging onto the top 10 with still 2 riders to come. In the end Nathan Rennie took his 2nd career NORBA dh win, with Joel Panozzo backing up once again with 2nd place, Dustin Adams in 3rd and Bryn Atkinson with his 3rd NORBA podium of the season in 4th and John Kirkaldie in 5th, I took a very disappointing 11th. My races just haven’t been working out for me the way I want them to.

The Mountain Cross was going well for me again though, I qualified in 3rd place, and felt really good for the finals, I had probably the easier side of the draw and knew this was my best opportunity yet for a mountain cross final.

In the round of 16 I once again came up against team mate Ross Milan and Brian Schmith. In a bit of a de ja vu from Idaho we got of to a similar start, me taking the lead with Ross in 2nd, and we were both looking like going through to the finals, I had a comfortable lead built up then out of nowhere I put it down all by myself in the 2nd last turn. I felt like such a gumby, how embarrassing, and that was it, I was out.

The final consisted of Brian lopes, Eric Carter, Rich Houseman, and Brian Schmith, from the start Carter took the lead followed by Lopes and Schmith, with houseman making a mistake on the 2nd turn and dropped to 4th, and that’s the way they finished.

Hucking Hill - Idaho

With the season almost done its getting close to home time, I’m still yet to have a result I’m really happy with, but with still one more NORBA to go at my favourite of them all at Durango, and the world champs, and the world cup finals its still not too late to get some solid results, I definitely can’t wait for them.

For a few random notes I have only a few interesting things to talk about, firstly is the much anticipated all new totally different new Yeti DH rig, while I cant say anything about it as its still pretty hush hush, I can say one word…WOW! This thing is crazy and will no doubt be getting a lot of attention and yes, it rides unbelievably well. I couldn’t stop smiling on my first test and despite being told by the guys at Yeti not to take it too hard, I found myself going flat out by run 2, the thing just wants to be ridden hard. Sorry guys.

Some more exciting news is filming wunderkind Clay “video boy” Porter’s upcoming release for the 2004 season called “Synopsis - The 3rd Spectacle” this guy has gone up another 3 steps in his production even from the 2nd Spectacle and after seeing the first few sections of the video it will be a definite hit and a must have for sure for any race fans.

Graves

And finally, it’s official; the 2 most inseparable riders on the pro circuit have announced their engagement! This would be none other than my team mate and 4X ace Jill Kintner and her Aussie pinner boyfriend Bryn Atkinson, 2 very good friends of mine. I’ll be the first to say congratulations and well done, kids coming late 2006!*

Ok well, I hope this satisfies you punks out there and the next person that tells me I’ve been lazy and haven’t done enough reports…well…Ill have to agree with you. But you have one now, so no more complaints!

As always a big huge thanks go out to my sponsors Yeti cycles who have been the most awesome group of guys this year, and especially Keith Darner and his wife Taf for putting up with me this season, what champs!!

Matty Marteeeeeen at Oakley Australia, Mike Redding at Troy Lee Designs, all the gang at Fox Racing Shox, the legends at SRAM and Mark Weir at WTB. All have been so awesome this year, and I just hope I can bring some good results in the races to come, thanks a bunch guys.

Until next time, pin it and have fun!

 

* Some, or all of this paragraph may actually be a lie. 

Thanks heaps to Spomer for giving us a crapload of sick pics!!

 

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Stains west side massive

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