MSC Stop #2-Nathrop, CO

Chalk Creek Stampede MX Podium

So, I forgot my camera for the weekend = LAME! MX and DS racing in Nathrop, CO = NOT LAME!

We are truly spoiled rotten here in CO having 2 of the best MX courses and now an amazing DS course in our backyards. The weekend kicked off on Friday with Kevin, Matt, and I getting to Nathrop round 11:00 in time for 7, count 'em, hours of practice on Friday. Uhh, ya, we all rode way too much on Friday (including Kevin, who came out of retirement and gave up his NORBA boycott to join in the fun), but you can't help it when the courses are that fun, the people to ride with are that great, and the weather and scenery are down right amazing! Most of us spent most of our time on the DS track on Friday, as we've all ridden the MX course several times.

The courses were well built. Keith and co. have spent countless manhours and a lot of money getting the courses built and into good shape for racing. The course starts out with a small roller to LH berm into two sets of tight tricky doubles. Then you dive into a RH berm with a small exit roller and drop down into a funny pit with a tight uphill LH berm to exit. Next is a set of rollers before a step-up/step-down combo leading into some crazy tight almost 180 degree RH berms. Then you're out into the flat turns followed by a small double, short straight, and the final small triple. Even with all of those features, the courses were nearly identical in times. Amazing, if you ask me!

I had a really good time working on the course. Bobbi and I were the only girls jumping the doubles at the top, and it was fun to be getting riding compliments from the guys, especially the ones that don't hand them out very often (Matty T!). I felt pretty comfortable on the doubles when practice ended on Friday and in the morning on Saturday. Unfortunately qualifying and racing were a different story for me. My qualifying runs went super poorly with me coming out of both of the pedals after the second double (I guess I cased it. :) oops) and flying off course. This isn't the recommended method for obtaining a fast qualifying time!! As a result of qualifying poorly, I had to race BK in the semi-finals. Bummer. Then in the consolation finals, I decided that I needed to see how well my helmet would hold up if I landed on my head, so I ended up in 4th. Oh well, still in the money, enough to cover entry fee for the race and gas to Fisher for the trip!

Sunday found us racing MX on the Extra-Crispy course. There is a straight away that has a set of 3 doubles on it that I've been looking at for awhile. I did the first set a couple of times at the 2nd spring series race, but I was bound and determined to do all of them at this race. We only had an hour and 15 for practice, so I did the top section once and then just focused on the doubles. I hit the first set a couple of times and then just decided to go for it. Well, I knew that you didn't need much speed for the second one, but I found out really quickly just how little speed you need. I cased the first jump a little and still landed flat in the transition between the second and third! Luckily, I've gotten pretty good at riding out the not so fabulous landings and I didn't crash, but I think I made quite a few people pretty nervous! haha After that I knew I could get all three so I just went for it! I'm kicking myself for not having done them before because they're way easier than the doubles on the DS course, and they are pretty damn fun! Anyway, my qualifying run was pretty sloppy but I qualifyed in 2nd, behind Bobbi, of course. The first round of racing was an easy round, as Shannon got squirrelly out of the gate, and I wasn't really worried about the other two girls. The final had Bobbi in gate 1, me in gate 2. I knew that I wasn't going to snap her out of the gate, but I wanted to be close to her at least. For some reason I had a terrible start and she was off to the races without me. Oh well, I just rode conservatively after that to maintain 2nd. I was pretty happy with my riding overall. I learned a lot, and hopefully some equipment modifications suggested by Matty T and Kevin will help my cornering so BK isn't putting so much time on my in the corners! I do have to say that checks for $185 made the weekend that much better!

I also have to mention that there were 3 pretty stand out performances for the weekend in my mind, 2 will probably go unmentioned anywhere. Matt Fisher was riding out of his mind on the DS course and qualified 4th on Saturday. He was riding the course like he owned it! Nice work Fishie and Happy B-Day tomorrow. Also, Cody Wilderman had an awesome qualifier, 6th, and then had about the worse luck you can get. Ross had a major mechanical in his qualifying run and ended up qualifying 27th, the position that the fast 6th place qualifier goes against! Bummer for Cody. However, Cody did put the hurt on Ross in the first round and almost pulled it off for the advance, but Ross pulled through by the skin of his teeth. He did however, mention that Cody rode super strong and that he had him really worried! Ross ended up in 3rd. And for the one that won't go unmentioned, but was still amazing. Petr Hanak qualified first in both DS and MX. He was giving an 11 out of 10 into one of the berms in DS and blew through it, causing MT to crash and getting DQ'ed. The energy that he saved from not making the finals in DS was evident in MX as he absolutely CRUSHED the field (Milan, Watt, and Zigman) in the finals. It was pretty cool to watch! Nice work Petr, and I can't wait for the WP training session this weekend. I'm heading up to spend the weekend with Nate, Cody, Wade, Petr, Jon, and Bobbi riding trails, DJs, and pump tracks!! It's gonna be an awesome weekend of great riding and cool people!