Canadian Open DH

Yesterday was day 3 of Crankworx and the 1st of three DH races i'm competing in.  The Canadian Open DH is definitely the most challenging course i've had to race and I was pretty nervous about it.  I love riding the track but trying to go at race pace gets pretty scary and the track is very unforgiving.  A good friend broke his hand in practice so after seeing that my goal was to just get down safe and save myself for the next two races.  The conditions in practice were horribly, some of the wettest and muddiest conditions i've ridden in, the course is super technical and steep also which mad it really tricky to stay in control.  

I was really nervous in the start gate but managed to get focused and have a really good top section, I held speed and kept it smooth.  Coming into the infamous Heckle Fest where there are at least 100 drunken fans screaming anything they can think of at you I decided to throw a big whip over the jump to keep them happy.  Shortly after Heckle rock I washed out in a rutted section, i'd been having trouble with it in practice also, I lost a few seconds but got back on and decided it was all or nothing now.  After my little off I had nothing to loose, I pushed it to the limit and rode faster than ever through the technical roots and rocky shoots, I was close to loosing it a couple of times and then slipped off line and stalled next to a tree which slowed me up a bit.  As i was coming into the finishing area I backed off a bit and tried to style it up for the crowd, I whipped it out a bit too big on a jump between some trees and clipped a tree mid air with my rear wheel which nearly sent me off the bike.  I held it together and cruised into the finish jump and through out another big whip for the crowd and rolled across the line.  My time was 3:19 which I was really happy with, a couple of seconds quicker would have pushed me up 10 or so positions.  Apart from a couple of mistakes I was still really happy with my time and finishing unharmed.

Tomorrow is the Garbanzo DH, the most brutal DH race out there, 15 minutes of pain but the satisfaction of finishing makes it all worth while.  Then on Wednesday I'm competing in the Air DH down A-Line, i'm hoping to be up there with the big guys after my Phat Wednesday race win a couple of weeks back.