Duryea Downhill 2015 GES #2 Recap

May 12, 2015

Mulally Approved. photo: Shack Attack

Mulally Approved. photo: Shack Attack

What a whirl wind. We’ve been racing Duryea as a team now for three seasons. It’s usually the first race, and one of the gnarliest. Jumps, fast, loose, gaps. Did I mention jumps? It’s a tough race to start out on considering most of us are off the big bike for the winter. This year, Shack and I got ready early, the right way. We each hit some big stuff a couple weeks before. Like, bigger than we usually go. Cleaning these kinds of gaps enabled us to basically not give a shit about whatever was at Duryea this year. We knew that anything on course would be smaller (road gap aside). Felt powerful to go into this race that confident and ready for once.

Saturday Practice

Shack and I roll up, bolt the plates on, and grab an early shuttle. We slow-pedaled the course for the first run and railed some jumps. Track was sick this year. Shorter, faster, and truly urban with the concrete stairs by the pagoda as part of the course. The jump line was on point. After the stairs, you drop into a steep, loose shute. No brakes wide open, getting thrown around by loam and a ton of loose baby heads. Then a sizable step down into jump after jump after jump. Right into the bunker gap. So sick.

This race claims rider after rider all day long, every year. Ambo came roughly 4 times on Saturday. One guy with two broken arms requiring a neck surgery. A handful of Pros and Cat 1 guys who have hit the road gap in the past often decide not to hit it a season later. It’s the smart move. No other race claims as many victims. Feels like every year you see stuff stuff like this. Over and over.

We met up with Jeremy and Anthony and practiced separately for a while. Probably should have done some runs together but I think what we all had going was working so no one really cared. Great guys. Both were feeling it. Anthony was riding his new Giant and Jeremy was bouncing between his 29-inch 5″ bike and his DH bike. Yeah, 29″. We’ll get back to that in a minute.

Bumps & Bruises

Shack had a great day practicing. I was following him into it all. He’s come a super long way since we met him all those seasons ago. Everything was going great for me until a little girl crossed the trail in front of Shack, causing him to choke off a ton of speed before the step down. That made me come off it WAY too slow. Hyper extended by ankle. Pulled off to the side, screaming. Was able to finish practice but was unsure about race day. Later on I smashed the family jewels, took two huge rocks to the shin off my front wheel, and went down hard and fast in the baby powder dust. Shoulda been in the berm but I wasn’t. Peeled the skin off my arm a wee bit.

Merely a flesh wound.

Merely a flesh wound.

We ended practice and went to the hotel. Next morning I was seriously considering sitting the race out. Body hurt all over. Ankle was trashed. Shack talked me into going to Walmart for tape. “Wrap that shit and run” he said. So I did.

"Wrap that shit up," said Shack. So I did.

"Wrap that shit up," said Shack. So I did.

Also wrapped my arm. I was a mess.

Peeled like potatoes.

Peeled more skins than Idaho potatoes.

Sunday Funday

Main man and lovely roll up from Baltimore. Now it feels like a race weekend. : ))

duryea_2015_mike4

Race Day Practice

Took four runs total myself. Shack the same I think. Jeremy and Anthony 2-4 each. I was feeling real good. Got up to speed and the ankle felt great. Jeremy was feeling the 29″ rig over the DH bike. Mad man. I fancy myself a really strong 5-6″ bike guy and I would never. Not on this course. Anthony is all smiles. We all are. Start times roll in and we all settle down for a while.

Great smile. Great team member.

Great smile. Great team member.

Shack and I make it to the top for our race runs. Everyone up there gets in order. Then we realize they changed the order completely at the top. Amanda is waiting at the bunker to snap a shot of me. She knows I am coming down third, and before Shack. When she sees Shack come down first, she panics. She’s thinking the worst. Almost in tears. She retreats to the bottom to find out if I’m in an ambo. What a horrible feeling this must have been. I curse the organizers for this. She missed my race run. More on this in a min.

Shack’s Race Run

Joe went down before me. The order at the top was all screwy. Tons of course holds and clock stops. Timing officials were scrambling to say the least. Looked like he got a good start. Turns out he crashed twice. Ended up with a 3.24.24. Considering how he was running in practice, this time seemed about right. I think he would have had a second or third place podium had he kept the bike up. Can’t stress enough how well Shack did all weekend. We worked together like a team should. He towed me into the jumps and I showed him the more technical bike lines he knew he was missing and wanted to pick up. In his own words, the track felt “different”durring his race run. More chattery and harder; less flow. Race run nerves, I’m sure. Thanks for all your help at this race Joe. I feel like I owe my results to your team work. Some real steez in these shots, Mr. Shack. Biggest take away from this year is all the great photography and the confidence going into the entire course. So rad.

Duryea Scared. HORNS!

Duryea Tatoos!

Bunker blasting. Click to enlarge. photo: Amanda Karfakis

Bunker blasting. Click to enlarge. photo: Amanda Karfakis

STEEZ!!!!!!! photo: Mike Vivano

STEEZ!!!!!!! photo: Mike Vivano

BRRAAAAAAPPPPPPP

BRRAAAAAAPPPPPPP

My Race Run

What a nightmare. Cleanest, fastest run I have ever had at this venue. Cleaned the finish line and noticed there was no time on the clock. “Ok,” I thought. “Just a glitch. Seen it before. They will pull it up in a minute or two.” Rider after rider came down. No time for me. Checked in with the officials. “We have it, but you will have to wait until the end of the race for us to calculate it.” Huh? “Lemme get a re-run!” “No,” they said. I had to sit there and watch podium winners 1, 2, and 3; all members of the same team, hug each other in podium-sweeping joy. It was like drinking battery acid, slowly.

BUNKER HUMP!

BUNKER HUMP!

After the beating I took, after finishing so strong, all I wanted was to see was a time. I couldn’t believe it. Waited the entire race, until pros finished, still no time. I wasn’t alone. There were many of us. They had the podiums. Still no time. A week later, the proper times were calculated and released. I took 4th place. It’s a podium in the ESC series. Amongst all these yellow and black team kits, there should be a cyan Spoke Apparel guy with a shit eating grin and his 4 year old big man by his side. : (  That’s the bummer for me….missing the opportunity to be up there with him. But I am glad they found the errors and fixed the times. What separated me from that 3rd place Red Bull step? My time, 4th place = 03:05.9. 3rd place = 03:05.4. I’m coming for ya Joe P.  : )

Back to Amanda. When I finished my run, she and Dre showed up a couple minutes later at the bottom of the course. She had tears in her eyes and could not believe I was OK. She was so scared for me. That’s love, eh? Organizers gotta get shit straight next year. It’s not just the riders that suffer through this. There are families involved. As if this was not enough, the timing issues even effected the pro podiums. Logan Mulally went from 7th on the day of the race to 4th (podium) a week later after the results were corrected. His time was off by nearly 10 seconds. Crazy man. GES explained their side of this story here.

Only one pic of me. This is the only shot I care about. Missed getting it last year. This year I bring it home with a podium. Golden.

Jeremy’s Race Run

This guy. On this bike. What a burner. With a time of 2:49.1, Fahey won Cat 1 40+. In the revised times, they show Lane with Jeremy with the EXACT same time. No idea where that comes from. Makes me question it all even more. Regardless, I saw the times as they happened and as the riders crossed. It came down to tenths of a second for Jeremy and Lane, just like it did for Joe and me.

The winning rig and rider. photo: Joe Shack

The winning rig and rider. photo: Joe Shack

Jeremy comes down pedaling his ass off. Out of breath and spent. He left it all on the track. I got him water and whatever else he wanted as he held that hot seat. He earned the hot seat and he stayed there the entire time. When asked how he smashed the field, he replies “The 29-inch bike in the pedaling sections.” When asked to speak into the mic for an interview on the loud speakers, he declines with a barely noticeable shake of the head. Heh.

Some like it hot.

Totally out of breath, Fahey rules.

Fast guy after fast guy comes down. Lane, Mike H. Will, Gerry, Ian…..Jeremy wins. Lane shows some love cause Lane rules. Great win, J. Impressive for sure.

Lane Love.

Lane Love.

Boom!

Boom!

Fahey, 1st Place, Cat 1 40+ photo: Simply Adventurous

Fahey, 1st Place, Cat 1 40+ photo: Simply Adventurous

Anthony’s Race Run

Cat 1 19-29 is where the action’s at. Anthony was feeling light, fast and confident all weekend long. He took that confidence into his race run posting a 2:48.1, which would have been a top ten pro time. He landed on the 5th step. Super respectable in a field where almost anyone on the podium could choose to go pro any time. Nice work Anthony!!

Anthony Folk, 5th Place, Cat 1 19-29

Anthony Folk, 5th Place, Cat 1 19-29

Trucking down the track.

Trucking down the track off the bunker.

BOOOSSSHHHH!!

BOOOSSSHHHH!!

Step-DOWN!

Step-DOWN!

Random Shots

Race weekends are just as much about the people as they are about the ride. Below are some outtakes we liked.

Will, Kyle & Macy. Such good people.

Will, Kyle & Macy. Great people. photo: Shack

Does it get any better?

Does it get any better?

Teach them to fly.

Teach them to fly. photo: Amanda Karfakis

Mike Hartlove's GES Hot Seat. photo: Joe Shack

Mike Hartlove's GES Hot Seat. photo: Joe Shack

Surrogate Team Member, Lane Boertmann

So Lane shows up, apparently doing the same thing with his hair as I am. Great minds. He’s rocking a Fox glove on his right hand, with the first two fingers pushing through the worn out tips. His (non-matching) left glove is one of these. So I reached into our team kit box and found Bobby’s pair of XL gloves to give to Lane. Sorry Bobby, I couldn’t see this go on any longer. Now Lane is a sponsored Spoke Apparel rider, right? Heh. So he stickered his bike accordingly. Can’t wait to see you at more races, buddy!

Lane is Spoke sponsored : )

Spoke sponsored : )

Spoke Apparel Love.

Spoke Apparel Love.

Top 10 in the World Over Our Team Banner. photo: Brice Shirbach

Top 10 in the World Over Our Team Banner. photo: Brice Shirbach

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