The world cup in St. Anne has always been one of the most fun races to ride at. Every year they time the world cup around Canada’s national holiday. So there are always huge crowds, lots of parties, and an overall fun atmosphere. Unfortunately, my results this year would be ones I’d like to forget!
We arrived late Monday night after a short drive from Vermont. We had plenty of time to rest and hang out, because practice didn’t start till Thursday. The weather was supposed to be rainy for a couple days, and then get better for the weekend. True to form, it poured for 2 days, with some pretty heavy storms rolling through. Wednesday we all walked the DH course, and it looked like it was going to be super fast, and maybe not as rough as it’s been in the past. They also cut out a few tree sections, so the course would end up being a bit shorter. The technical bits were lots easier, and they even brought a tractor up and added berms in a few sections.
Thursday was DH and 4X practice. I always like world cup DH practice because for the most part, the fast lines are burned in after only a few runs. The course was so fast! I was battling a bit of arm pump early on, so I made some adjustments to my Fox 40’s that helped. It started to rain pretty heavily towards the middle of the day, so they decided to cancel 4X practice. The 4X was really similar to other courses they’ve had there. They tried to put in this super big double, but it was basically impossible to hit with the speed you had going into it.
Friday we had DH practice again, and 4X qualifying. Even though it poured all day on Thursday the DH course wasn’t as muddy as we expected. We put the mud spikes on, and they worked well. But, the course was drying fast and we knew that we’d probably go back to dry tires by race day. I only ended up doing 3 runs that day, because I felt like I needed to save some energy for 4X qualy’s. The DH was close to 5 minutes long, and it was definitely taking its toll on me! For the 4X, I decided to run my full suspension bike. The course was pretty fast, and really rocky. I just felt more comfortable on the suspension bike. Practice went pretty well for me, and I felt like if I had a clean run I’d be in the top 10. In my qualifying run I had a pretty decent run, and ended up in 6th. I was pretty stoked on that qualifier because I was really not sure how I’d stack up against the World Cup competition. It seems like there’s a lot of unfamiliar faces now racing the 4X?
Saturday was a big race day! We had DH finals in the afternoon, and 4X finals that evening. I knew it was going to be a pretty tiring day. The weather turned out to be absolutely perfect, and both courses were dry as a bone. I only did one practice run in the morning, and it felt like I was on pace and ready to go for the semi-final. In the semi, I pinned it out of the gate and had a pretty solid run. I ran a 5:10 which was only 10-15 seconds off the pace of the top 5. That’s pretty good for me, and I felt like I could crack the top 20 for the final. My final run, I thought I killed it! I had a relatively mistake free run, hit all my lines, but only took off 2 seconds from my semi final time! I was bummed. Sometimes it’s like that I guess? I ended up in 41st place.
4X started only 1 hour after our DH final. They ended up changing the course up a bit by moving a few of the flags. After practicing some new lines I was ready to go for the finals. In the first heat I had John Kirkcaldie, and James Schwanke. They ended up qualifying 64 riders, but since there were only 47 that showed up most of the first rounds only had 3 riders. I got the holeshot in my first round and cruised to an easy victory. In the 2nd round I had Kirkcaldie, Guido Tchugg, and Will Longden. I had lane choice, and I chose the inside lane. Right out of the gate my left foot came unclipped from my pedal. That allowed all 3 guys to beat me to the first turn. I tried making a move on the outside of them going into the 2nd turn, but I ended up going out into the soft stuff and I just basically had to follow them all the way to the line. Out in the 2nd round! I was pretty disappointed, I really felt like I had a chance at making the final that night.
So now I’m on the plane home headed back to So Cal. I can’t wait to eat some real Mexican food! I’m back to the 9-5 at SponsorHouse on Tuesday. When I reflect on these last 3 weeks, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I got my 2nd ever victory at a Norba National, and I’m leading 4X/Dual Slalom points for the Norba Series. Not bad for a part timer! Next race is Deer Valley in 2 weeks. See ya there.

Big House

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Finish Line
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We arrived early Tuesday morning in Mt. Snow, after a 16 hr. drive from North Carolina. It was a pretty long trip in the ol’ Yeti rig, and we were pretty stoked to get in and relax at our condo. After a few hours of sleep, we decided to drop the trailer in the pits. For the first time ever Factory YETI was set up before anyone else! Maybe it’s because we’re under new management, I don’t know? Ha ha.
Wednesday we pretty much just chilled out at the condo, and got all our stuff ready for Thursday’s practice. Thursday we had DH practice all day and some slalom practice later in the afternoon. The DH course was bit different than in years past. The infamous “yardsale” rock garden was no longer in it, and there were a few new sections. It definitely still had all the speed, all the square edge rocks, and all the mud-bogs! I’ve always liked Mt. Snow’s course, so I was pretty stoked to race. After a few runs, it was pretty evident that we were going to go through some wheels! I beat my rims up pretty bad and we were bending the sidewalls back with wrenches all day. I felt pretty fast though, and I set a goal of being in the top 10 for the weekend in DH. The slalom course was a little different than we’ve ever seen. They were going to try a new format where it starts like normal slalom, then combines into 1 course racing head to head, then filtered back into slalom at the end. Sort of like the Jeep series racing. It wasn’t working out so well though, and after practice was over they decided to go back to full slalom from top to bottom.
Friday we had DH practice again and slalom qualifying in the afternoon. The DH course was getting rougher by the run, and it was definitely getting hard on the hands to hold on. I went up a spring rate in my Forks and it helped tons! I only did 3 runs on Friday, because I wanted to save some energy for slalom qualifying. For slalom I ended up running high roller maxxis 2.35’s front and rear, because some of the turns were pretty slick with some muddy sections. I was struggling a little with some of the top turns in practice, but I felt really fast from the middle down. In the qualifier, my first run was really good and I knew I had a good shot at qualifying in the top 5. My second run was pretty mediocre but I still ended up 3rd overall. Grubby Graves was 1st (again!) and Jared Rando was 2nd.
Saturday was DH morning practice and Slalom finals in the evening. So far the weather had been beautiful, but during DH practice in the morning we had a few sprinkles. It instantly made the course slick, so I only ended up doing 2 full runs, and 1 run to check out lines. We then had a pretty long break, so I headed up to the Media room to catch up on some work. There was an hour of practice before the slalom finals. I was still having problems with this one turn on the red side. It was actually giving lots of other people trouble too, but I wanted to make sure I had it dialed. I did like 5 runs on the same side, and finally felt like I was solid on it. First round I had a dude named Matt Fisher. I advanced pretty easily, and moved on to face Cole Bangert in the 2nd round. Cole gave me a pretty good run, but I ended up advancing. I then had Chris Boice in the round of 8. Chris had been hauling ass, and even ran the fastest time of the day in qualifying on the blue side. First run, I ripped the top turns and probably ran my best run of the day. As we were being ridden to the top in the trucks for the next round, Chris was trying to talk to me and make conversation. I just stared at him and didn’t say a word, and I could tell it made him nervous! I used a little veteran experience to psyche him out a bit. I handled him pretty easily, and advanced to the semi-final against Jared Rando. I was on the faster of the 2 courses first, which gave me a .9 second advantage going into the next run. Rando put together a pretty fast run on the 2nd one, but he only beat me by .8 which put me into the finals! In the final I faced Andrew Neethling. Andrew was on the faster course first, and ended up beating me by .6 seconds. In the last round, I busted out a pretty fast run and won by .8 seconds. This was my 2nd victory ever at a Norba National! I was so stoked! Nothing compares to winning, that’s all I have to say!
Sunday was DH finals, and I was pretty tired out from the slalom. I only did 1 run before the semi final. In the semi I rode like a wuss, and qualified outside the top 20. I was definitely bummed, because I was feeling really fast all weekend. The course had gotten super rough and I just didn’t feel comfortable pinning it the whole way. In the final, I tried to psyche myself up, but it didn’t work. I finished 29th. On a more positive note, Jared “Grubby” Graves was 4th for his first DH podium of the year!
We’re now on our way up to Quebec for the Mt. Saint Anne world cup. That’s always a fun race, and I’m hoping for solid showing against the World Cup competition.

Thanks to these Sponsors:

Yeti Cycles
Fox Shox
Scott
AXO
Shimano
Maxxis
DT Swiss
MRP
Control Tech
Topeak
Chris King
Thompson
Monster
Kicker
ODI
Dylan Dean Designs
Finish Line
Fizik
Toolshed
Signs and Logos.net
SponsorHouse

I arrived in Sugar Mountain late Tuesday night, after a long travel day from the west coast. Luckily, all my bags including my bike arrived with me. My teammates Jared and Justin both weren’t so lucky! Their bikes were still in Germany!
Wednesday morning we decided to walk the DH course from the bottom, and it ended up being a pretty long walk! The course was actually really good, with some super technical sections that were going to be very tricky in the wet. Since it was the east coast I knew it was going to piss down rain at some point! Sure enough Thursday it decided to pour all day long. Making the course really slick and downright tough to ride! After talking with a few pros that decided to practice in the rain, I decided I was better off waiting until Friday as the weather was supposed to clear up by then.
Friday was DH practice in the morning and Dual Slalom qualifying in the afternoon. I ended up letting Justin Leov borrow my DH bike on Friday, after I took a few runs early. Justin and Jared are our main DH guys, and as the team manager I felt it was important to get those guys some track time. Their bikes had yet to arrive, and they at least needed to know how the course rode. The other Factory rider TJ Sharp let Jared Graves ride his bike, also taking one for the team! After DH, we had some Slalom practice then went straight into qualifying. The slalom course was pretty basic with only one very small triple, and a pretty small double. The rest was fast grassy turns. Although the course was basic, it still was fun and I was feeling pretty fast! I ended up 2nd in Qualifying right behind Jared. I did run the fastest time of the day on the Red Course though.
Saturday we had a bit more of DH practice in the afternoon, then Slalom finals in the evening. By now Jared and Justin’s bikes had arrived and we were all riding our own DH bikes! I had a chance to bang out 3 back to back to back runs, and I finally felt ok on the DH course. There was one particular rock section that I was really struggling on, and I only managed to clean it once all weekend!
Slalom finals started and I had Chris Herndon in the first round. Chris had messed up in his qualifier and ended up 31st. So I was going to have to have my head on straight from the get go. I think it actually ended up helping me out because I was forced to haul ass from the very beginning. I advanced to round of 16 after narrowly edging out Herndon, and I then had to face the current Junior national DH champ Travis Bond of the Yeti/Fox development team. That round wasn’t as tough and I moved on to the round of 8. Right before they were finishing that round, the infamous east coast thunderstorm rolled in. It was bad enough for them to postpone the remaining round of 8 until after the downhill on Sunday.
Sunday was DH finals, and Slalom finals (continued). The DH course was still pretty slick in the morning training session, but it was toss up as to which tires to go with….Mud or Dry??? We all ended up sticking to the 2.5 wet scream mud tires. In my qualy I had a pretty rough time with a few major bobbles and a severely bent front brake lever. I made it down the hill, but not without some sketchy moments! For the final my plan was to basically just make it down the hill in one piece, and make sure my riders were set to kick some ass in the final. Justin Leov didn’t disappoint, scoring his highest Norba finish ever with a 2nd place behind Sam Hill. Congrats Jazzy J Leov!
Slalom finals started at 3:30pm and the weather was perfect! The course was completely dried out and it was ripping fast. I disposed of my round of 8 competitor Joel Bain, and moved on against Ben Bell in the round of 4 (Semi Final). Ben had already eliminated John Kirkaldie, and Cody Warren in the previous rounds! Ben is another one of our super fast Yeti/Fox development riders. In our first heat, I got an excellent jump out of the gate and caught a break when bell washed out in one of the top turns. With a 1.5 second cushion for the 2nd heat, I knew all I had to do was stay close and it was on to the finals! For the final it was all “YETI”! Graves and I were set to duke it out! Jared was riding fast all day, and I knew it would be a tough round. In the first heat I made a tiny mistake at the bottom of the course and dug myself a hole with a .3 deficit. In the final heat, I knew I had to come up with something miraculous to get the victory, and I just went balls out! It was a ragged run, and it wasn’t good enough to get the win. But, 2nd place isn’t all that bad for the Team Manager!

Next race is Mt. Snow Vermont, see ya there!

Big HOuse