Whistler and Crankworx

So very beautiful!

Melissa and I (and Paco the French Bulldog) packed up 8 bikes and way too much stuff and drove 25 hours to Whistler, Canada for Crankworx. I had never been to Whistler before, so I was really looking forward to riding in what some call MTB Heaven on Earth!

After 2.5 days of travel, we finally arrived, and it took us over an hour to unpack all of our stuff! We decided if we were going to drive to Whistler, we might as well bring lots of bikes! :)

Getting our prerace instructions

What an amazing place to get to ride bikes.  It seemed like everyone in this town was somehow related to bikes, whether as a rider themselves, or as a family member of someone who was riding there!  It was awesome!  Although the weather wasn't fantastic whilst we were there, we still made the most of it and rode all over the mountain from top to bottom, the dual slalom, the Giant slalom, and the Pumptrack! I can't imagine having to go to MTB heaven with only 1 bicycle!! It just wouldn't be fair!

You can't stand next to a bike mechanic for very long before they'll find SOMETHING wrong with your bike! ha 

I raced the Pumptrack Challenge and drew Jill Kintner, the Pumptrack Queen, first round, so I ended up in 8th but had so much fun racing and practicing with everyone!  The Giant Slalom course was exactly that...Giant! I ended up racing it on my DH bike, as the hardtail was a little too sketchy for me on that big of a course, and I put two solid runs together for 9th place.  It was such a fun course to ride, we had to go back up and ride it again after the race!!  Here is a link to the event coverage from the Giant Slalom race.  I think I race at ~92 minutes into the coverage.
http://crankworx.com/images/videofiles/giantslalomreplay.html

Katie Holden and I getting ready for the Pumptrack Challenge

The week was filled with riding, racing, good food, great friends, and a lot of laughs and giggles.  I truly hope to go back to this beautiful place again in the future...maybe both a winter and a summer visit, or three! :)

Colorado State Championships in Telluride

2011 Colorado State Champion

My friend Holly (super cheering squad) decided to come down to the Full Tilt in Telluride race with me. It's a pretty long drive down to Telluride, but once you arrive, it is well worth it! It is one of the most beautiful places in Colorado, in my opinion.

Saturday was a practice and race packed day! I headed up to the mountain early on my Ellsworth Dare to get in a couple of practice runs on the DH course. This DH track has always been one of my favorites and this year did not disappoint. They made a few changes to the course, taking out a nasty "coffin" jump at top and putting in a very nice road gap about half way down the track. The infamous Telluride "drop" was turned into a bit of a motorway, but it was fun all the same. They added in a super steep section in the woods near that bottom that added some nice variety to the course.

Such a fun course to race!

After DH practice, it was time for 4x practice and racing...my favorite! Steve Wentz spent all week building the course, and he always has creative ideas for how things should go. Straight out of the start gate there was a berm for each lane which merged into 2 berms for 4 lanes before sending you down the rest of the track for a fun filled adventure. I was having a ton of fun on the track and was the only girl doing the step on/step off combo on the 3rd straight. I qualified first by a good margin and then had a great time racing and took the win for my 2nd Colorado State Championship title in 2 years!!! It felt good to be back on the top of the podium!

Commanding lead in the finals!

DH was the next day, and after an exhausting day on Saturday, I had to dig deep to find the energy! Qualifying went well, and I qualified in 1st with a clean but "cruisey" run. After a few hours of waiting for the Ams to race and a mid afternoon downpour, we were off! I had another clean run but missed several of my lines and just didn't pedal hard enough. I ended up in 2nd place, which I was still very happy with.  

All and all, it was a fantastic weekend with great racing and great competition all around!  I love Telluride and hope it's on the MSC schedule again next year! Thank you to all of my sponsors, but I'd especially like to thank Ellsworth Bicycles and Smile Generation for their support.

Crested Butte Race Report

Although I am not quite done with my PhD requirements, I decided to take a much needed break and head up to the Mountain States Cup “Wild Flower Rush” downhill and dual slalom race this past weekend. The race was a regional MSC race, but it was also the 4^th race in the ProGRT National Downhill Series, meaning added national talent in the race fields. Crested Butte provided a picture perfect race venue for the weekend, with nearly cloudless blue skies, perfect mid 70º temperatures, and amazing racecourses. On Friday we had a few hours to practice both the downhill course and the two slalom tracks. I hadn’t been on my Ellsworth Dare DH bike in a few months, so it was nice to get back on and let it rip down the rocky, rooted, winding DH track! The dual slalom course was, in just a couple of words loose and rough! I may have been better served with my Ellsworth Moment, but I elected to bring my Project Pink Ellsworth Specialist (it has a special place in my heart since being named “Pauline”, after my grandmother who is a breast cancer survivor). Riding a hard tail on a bumpy slalom track just means that I had to be that much more focused on the track and what was coming next! The MSC guys did a good job of making a challenging slalom track that was a ton of fun to race. I had a couple of really good rounds and a couple with a few mistakes, but in the end I was very pleased with a 4^th place finish in a very talented women’s field. Sunday brought more blue skies and the DH race. I gave the finals everything I had, which included tumbling through the rooty section of the course, putting me in 12^th place. I was happy with both of my finishes on the weekend, especially since there were several World Cup racers in attendance. I am happy to get my 2011 season off to a good start, just a preview of great things to come this season! Special thanks to my two title sponsors this year, Ellsworth Bicycles and Smile Generation.