Gravity East #6 – Blue Mountain 2013

August 26, 2013

Photos Courtesy of MadKatz, Audrey Stuller & Amanda Karfakis

This was an interesting race weekend. Gary was off getting married (congrats Mr & Mrs Lessner!!) and the rest of us seemed to have off days all together. My personal goal was to maintain overall ranking position of #3. I achieved that. Gotta take that into finals now.

Had to miss Saturday practice for Gary’s wedding. A trade-off I was happy to make. So I went up and practiced on Friday by myself. A few others were there. Blue Mountain is back into offering DH MTB this season after being off the map for a few years. What they didn’t say was that they were opened on Fridays only offering shuttle service (no lifts running). The guy driving the shuttle is a great person. But the shuttle’s racks are less than pro and there is only one shuttle. So if more than 8 people show up, someone is sitting out a run. The racks shake, shutter and mark up your bike with their meat hooks all over your paint. Really weak.  Because the racks move so much, the driver goes 2 mph up the mountain. Sometimes 1 mph. Hard to justify paying for a ticket. It was so bad I chose to hike a bike for one run. All the way up. I digress….

Course was awesome. One of the most fun all season. Fast, flowy with lots of rock, a 5 foot rock drop and some doubles at the bottom with a wide-open burner to the finish. I think I got in a total of 8 runs before my race. Not ideal, but whatev. That’s racing. It was a great time.

Remember when I said it was an “off” race weekend for a lot of us? Adam double flatted on his race run (who double flats?!). Patrick crashed and he was on a fuggin burner. Joe wrecked a lot in practice, may have broken a rib off that rock drop I mentioned. Stuller took a baby head to the shin and bruised his tin/fib. Then he broke a chain in his race run (at the top) and still beat me. Bastard : ) Render moved up a spot and continues to improve. Really stoked for him. Go Mike!

Amy wrecked a good couple times but managed to pull a second place in Pro Women’s. Joe pulled through as well with a 3rd place finish in Cat3 men’s.

This was the second race of the season that I got to have wifey and first born on the scene. For that reason alone, it was the jam. And our friends Eleni & Brett came to visit and brought Alex & Peter along. So it was a great scene under the tent. At the end of the day, yeah, we are there to race and ride, but it’s just as much about the people as it is about the bikes. Without the good friends and company, it wouldn’t be what it is. Thankful for that for sure.