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While I was busy enjoying a social life that all my racing and coaching doesn't allow BetterRiders were tearing it up at Crankworx! What a weekend for Jackie Harmony! She won the Air Downhill, the unchained downhill and the UCI C1 downhill! She was definitely the queen of the event! Brian Buell had a great week, second in slalom, third in the Air Downhill, fourth in the UCI C1 downhill!
Check out this video from the Dual slalom at Crankworx! Great to see 3 BetterRiders in the finals and one of them winning the event! Bummer to see two of them going up against each other in the first round, Cody Kelly is a ripper and he had to face Mitch Ropelato in the first round! They are good friends and I have had the pleasure of coaching both of them, great kids as well as great mountain bikers.
A warning to you, if you have a big ego you might not want to read this. Hi Gene, My husband, Zac, and I took your DH camp at Bootleg back in March and wanted to give you an update. I had been working on the skills on my local XC trails (Fantasy Island and Starr Pass). I figured otherwise if I only practiced on DH runs I'd hardly get any practice in. Earlier this year I did the Whiskey off-road in Prescott. I was doing the 25 miler for fun, as I had never done it before. Took my camera along to take pics during the ride and everything. I got to the first downhill and it was awesome! This was the first time I had to practice the new body position I learned in camp. No more stretching out over the rear tire. I had the elbows out, back flat, chest down and even though it felt a little strange because I was still getting used to it, I told myself to trust it and stay in that position. The trail was very loose with scree, but my rear tire was planted. Everyone in front of me was steering around the water bars and I was going straight over, passing when I could. I was watching the XC riders in front of me and it was scary. They were twitchy and all over the place and I just stayed in my body position, at some points at almost a track stand while I waited for them to get over an obstacle. At one point the trail opened up onto a ridge down the mountain. Everyone in front of me was walking but I stuck to my guns and started down the hill. I called out to those down below "rider up" and they moved off the line as I rode down. Everyone was standing with their bikes as they hiked down and I rode by, and it felt like I was in my own personal World Cup and they were spectators on the side of the trail. It was awesome! I totally cleaned the DH and felt like a rockstar as the other riders watched. Hope all is well with you! Take care, Elaine If you want to ride like Elaine or simply improve your mountain bike riding, invest in yourself instead of your bike and sign up for a camp today.
Great weekend of racing at the Triple Dip at the Sol Vista Bike Park! Three fun and challenging tracks, tight racing, great organization (stats and timing went off perfectly) and great prizes (thanks to the town of Granby and SRAM). Three downhill races on three separate tracks made for a great weekend of racing. In the Pro Women's class BetterRiders Julie Olsen and Jackie Harmony earned 3d and 2nd place overall behind US power house Jill Kitner! [Julie, Jackie] Julie, Jill, Jackie In the 15-18 year old open class BetterRider Luca Cometti won the final race with BetterRide alumnus Alex Willie in second and BetterRider Matt Branney in 3rd! Luca earned a second place overall finish and Alex finished 4th overall. [Matt, Luca and Alex] All BetterRide Alumni Podium, Luca on top, Alex in second and Matt in 3rd! In the old guys class, I managed to place second in all three races and earn 2nd overall behind Quentin Splauding of KHS. Shawnee Mac won the second race and finished just behind me in third. BetterRider Joe Dodds earned an 8th place overall finish and Jason Krause race to 10th overall. I am already looking forward to next years Triple Dip! What a great event for BetterRide racers! BetterRider Mitch Ropelato finished 3rd behind Needles and Sick Mick Hannah and just ahead of 3 time World Cup Overall Champion (and BetterRide assistant coach) Greg Minnaar in the final race to secure 5th overall in the 3 race format.
