Last weekend was the finals of the Fontana Winter Series presented by Shimano.  I was pretty stoked to race this one, as I had missed Round 4 while attending my boss's wedding on Catalina Island.  The whole crew was on hand including the official THR motorhome, and our trusty mechanic Joe "The Show" from BikeCo!



Saturday was a perfect day for riding, with little wind, and plenty of sunshine.  My 303 felt really good on the course, and I’ve recently been trying out the flat pedals.  The more I ride them, the more fun I have!  It just takes a little pressure off of me, and allows me to be a little more aggressive in the corners.  Plus my feet don't get as sore walking up the dang hill!  4X was late afternoon, and after 3 runs on the DH I did a few practice runs on the 4X course.  Nothing had changed except a few hundred more rocks laying on the course, but that's nothing new!  (Note to Donny.....Rhino....chain link fence behind it.....all good!)  There were 4 gates of pros, which was by far the biggest field we've had to date.  The format was to race 2 heats with low points moving on to Semis.  I ended up winning my first heat, and getting 3rd in the 2nd heat, which advanced me to the Semi final.  In the Semi I had my old pals Brian Schmith, and Dale Holmes along with a youngster Blake Carney.  I chose lane 4 because I knew I'd get squeezed in the first turn by either Dale or Brian.  I pulled a pretty sneaky move in the first turn going from 4th to 2nd!  I held that position to the line and advanced to the Final.  The final was pretty uneventful for me, as I didn't really have much left in the tank.  I tried making a few moves that didn't stick, and ended up in 4th.  Congrats to Dale for the win and EC for taking the overall.



Sunday we were greeted with some heavy winds, similar to the first round where gusts were upwards of 50 mph!  I took 2 practice runs and felt like I was pretty dialed for the final.  After some last minute prepping from Joe, the 303 was race ready!  I decided at the top of the hill that I wasn't going to hold back on the top section of the course, and I was going to try and pin it from top to bottom and see how I'd hold up on the WALL.  By the time I reached the wall, there was a pretty nasty head wind that put the burn on my legs!  I tried to power through it, but it was only good enough for 9th on the day.  That's been where I've been finishing lately, so I wasn't too surprised.  I was stoked that I pushed as hard as I did though, as it really gave me a gauge on where my fitness is at.  The National is in 3 weeks, and hopefully I can come up with some good results for the hometown crowd! 

See you there! 

Check out the Photo from Daniel Pena!  Thanks!