Archive for July, 2010

Well today went okay, great hot sunny weather all day for the comp. every competitor was able to get in two qualifying runs and now tomorrow, weather depending there will be the top 20 for finals and then top 8ish for the super final.

Both my runs for today didn’t go how i would have like them to go. run one I attempted a 360 off the big road gap at the top and over rotated the slightest bit and tacoed my rear wheel and couldn’t make it down the rest of the course.

Run two, I tried another three off the top drop and I knew i had it, I landed perfect but then something very weird happened and my feet slipped off the peddles and got all wobbly and then couldn’t get in control in time for the next feature. HUGE BUMMER! but after I gained control again and took a breath I decided to finish my run for the fans, I chucked a bar spin on the little dirt table, 360ed off the whaletail, t-whiped off the big double and finished it off with a tail whip air on the quarter pipe. but before i could even catch my breath 4 kids were just surrounding me putting scrap paper, magazines, and pens in my face wanting my autograph so that was a pretty cool feeling and kept me going for the rest of the day after the contest.

After the little bit of disappointment I remembered that i am still pre-qualified for the finals for tomorrow, so lets hope the the weather hold up and there can be a finals so I can get a nice clean run in. if the weather is bad then they will just use the scores from today and that how they will determine the winner for the 2010 Crankworx Colorado.

Hello all,

It’s been a while but it’s been good … after all, how much better does it get than spending 24 hours on your bike in the Canadian Rockies? Oh, maybe some sleep

Wanted to give you a quick run down on Canadian Nationals – I’ll post a full blog report soon.

Summary:
Place: 2nd
Details of ride: ~275Km, 18,000 feet of climbing, and 18 hours on the bike

Details:
The drive up was amazing – great scenery and great company. I drove up through Vancouver to pick up Kate – amazing friend and support crew extraordinaire – and her roommate Lila. The drive flew by – we were catching up and just enjoying the great views along the way. Road trips with good friends always fly by …

The weekend was relaxed .. Kate and I wandered around town, found some good food, did some shopping, and went up to the site to set up the pit and get in a ride. We found the course in pretty good shape – about 18km and 1450ft of climbing per lap. Loads of single-track but most of it was not really technical …but super fun none the less. It wasn’t a course that played to my skills but it was a fun and challenging course – worthy of Canadian Nationals.

Race day brought warm weather (about 30C) and blue skies … so we got the ice scarfs going right away. The first few laps flew by … stomach was holding together pretty well and eating was on track. Kate was giving me double feeds (2x per lap) so my drinks were always cool and I never ran out of liquids. Around lap 4 my stomach started to feel funny but i couldn’t quite place it. Looking back eating Perpetuem in the heat was the wrong call … later in the race we figured this out and the Hammer guys hooked us up with some Heed (thanks Hammer!) … it’s the only thing that got me through the race …

After 10 hours of racing I was right behind the leader – about 8 min back. But my stomach felt funny so i decided i should take a quick break. After an hour i went back out and my first lap felt great. I think i ate too many salts though … my second lap was painful. I had to stop. Unfortunately I was sick for a few hours before Kate convinced me to shower and offered chicken broth which was amazing … i was back in action after 4 hours off the bike.

I had some catching to do … 2nd and 3rd were both ahead of me. I like to chase though so off I went … my legs felt great and i was turning out the laps. I passed 2nd and 3rd in my first lap out and continued to gain on them. 1st was too far ahead so i knew it was out of the question … but i still pushed hard.

All in all it was a good race – a great effort despite the stomach.

Thanks again to Samammish Valley Cycle for keeping my awesome Norco’s up and running – and of course, thanks to Kate for her amazing support!

Monilee

Today was Crankworx Colorado slopestyle practice, a chance for every rider to get the course dialed up and to start thinking about tomorrow’s qualifying runs. It started if with a nice healthy bowl of cereal after sleeping in till 10 which was awesome because everyone was pretty tired from traveling the previous day. after getting my bike all built up and ready to ride, practice had started. I made my way up the course where the other riders started gathering. We all started by hitting the first big hip booter and into the wall ride. The wall ride took  a few tries to get the hang of, but it got it now. Then there was the double wale tail feature and it was intimating to a lot of us riders for a while, but Greg Watts just decided to huck it and soon after everyone was trying it. I hit it 3 times strait and then did a nice 360 off the end into a tail whip on the big double and into the last feature which is a quarter pipe. The day went really well and i got a lot of good practice in. I also found out that the top 6 from last year are pre-qualifyed for the semi finals on Saturday so that took a lot of pressure off me for tomorrow. There was a few riders who’s luck didn’t go very well though. Logan peat from North Vancouver, riding for Santacruz over rotated a corked flip and broke is ankle really bad and had to get air lifted to the hospital. He took it like a champ and he’s is now being looked after.

Here are a couple of photos from today’s practice.

Sam D

Also, here is a video of me doing a 360 off the Whale Tail.

Last night I arrived in Winterpark, Colorado for the first Crankworx Festival. The course looks groomed and there are some cool features like the Captain-Hook Mustache, Kona Wall Ride and some big-ole’ booters that I can’t wait to ride. I am looking forward to getting on my Empire today and checking out the course before my qualifying runs tomorrow.
Walking the run, I bumped into some kids who remembered me from last year and were so excited to chat. Love the fans! I’ll check back soon once I can get a few runs in. For now, you can see a full course walk-through at pinkbike.com

More soon,

Sam D

Well here we go again

As you know,…I went to London for a Mountain biking UK Bike Radar Live festival,..

It was my first time in London and it was great. Soon as I arrived to a Location I saw a event magazine with Norco Ad in it and I was on it,..I was everywhere,… every kid had his own event magazine,…we went to see Jumps where we will have demo show, and a competition.

Jumps where pretty big, big drop in ramp and a jump with 8 meters gap, followed by 3 more jumps, also big and tricky !

It was time to ride those monsters, and they where really monsters,..It was hard to keep up the speed and trick any jumps but at the end I manage to ride thru it and put a show for a crowd !

Next day we had a whole day demo shows for a crowd and it was wild, all the kids where asking for autographs and Event magazines where perfect for that !

Tricks where crazy,.. I did few double tailwhips, few supermans, barspins, 360 unturndowns, superman tailwhips, and also few crashes !

It was a good day !!!

Next day was a Comp day and I was pretty beaten up from a day earlier, so I tried to do save runs,…didn’t want to risk at all because I didn’t really liked the jumps to go crazy.

First run was superman on a big jump but I lost a speed for a next jump,…Second run,..was full of tuck no handers, barspins, and tailwhips,…And Third run I lost speed again on a second jump and missed the finals !

But I was happy because It was amazing experience and great people everywhere,…good training for sure !

Flew back home and went strait from a plane to a bus for a Island Brac where was biggest summer extreme sport & film festival in Croatia “Vanka Regule” where was a premiere of Dh Productions ” HERE WE GO AGAIN” movie where I have small part inside!

Movie was amazing but I was speeding strait to Switzerland,…for a Freestyle Night water jump competition !

10 hours of driving and I was there,…

THOSE JUMPS WHERE HUGEEEE !!!

took my bike and went for a training !

first few jumps where pretty cool,..until I smashed my face on surface of the water and got my brain shock ! I was dizzie all night but finished qualifications first and made it to the finals,…

Finals where head to head battles with just one try, one jump,….won first one with double tailwhip, won second one with double backflip,,..and I was in finals !!!

For the final run I did backflip doubletailwhip and I win the comp It was amazing and just perfect, I was so happy and wet

and yes,..10 hour drive back home,…and here I am

Next week UMAG DIRT JUMP COMP !

Cheers

Mislav