Rider Updates
May 6 2012
Blue Ridge 1 made the pick for round 5 of the 2012 VCHSS season. Weather was top notch, terrain was sweet and camaraderie was on point! The start was completely different than any other race to date. Picture a 50m wide start line, with your front tire in a 6" deep rut and dead engine. Approximately, 15' in front of the ditch was where you started a uphill pull for about 75m into a 90 degree left hand turn, all the while funneling you into a 20' wide gap. It may sound odd, but worked out really well considering last year there were 5-6 injuries just from the start. We were slated for 3, 14 mile laps.
I managed a 5-6 place into the woods, and made a few more quick passes to settle into 4th. Another dude in my class managed to squeeze pass me about halfway through the first lap, so I just hooked onto him and was cruising nicely along when disaster struck.................his KTM. As I dodged his seat flying by and he slowed down to retrieve it and I twisted a little more with my right wrist to ensure adequate separation. I came through scoring on the 1st lap in 3rd and knew I couldn't be far behind the leaders. I decided to push harder and attempt a lead change, but couldn't make it happen on the 2nd lap. I finally caught them on the 3rd lap and knew the dude in 2nd was ultra smooth and usually mistake free. I tried to push him into a mistake and did just that, he caught a tree and fell. I checked to make sure he was ok before throttleing on. Feeling good, I was letting it all hang out and hoping to catch 1st before scoring when gravity decided I hadn't paid the bill lately.
I was hauling 4th gear hammering it down a rocky fire road that had the little rain diverters in various places. I had been hip jumping one that was on a turn the previous laps, but at much lower speeds, with great success. I knew I was outside my envelope, but had the desire to win! Well, as luck would have it, the hip jump didn't pan
Sep 11 2011
What a day for a race. The 10 year anniversary of September 11th, the VCHSS put on a great show for the event. Great speech by a retired Navy SEAL, bagpipes and the race was dedicated to Kendall Bayne. She is a 15 year old that suffers from a rare form of cancer, the series came together and sported shirts, stickers and ribbons honoring her and raised over $1000 to help her and her family with expenses with her treatments.
So was the DNF bad? Yes, I wasn't very happy. After getting my bike loaded, I watched the race with my wife and daughter, something I don't get to do very often. Being able to spend the afternoon with my family was well worth the few points I lost by DNF'ing.
Mar 27 2011
Another spectacular race put on by the VCHSS in central Virginia. The day started out as you would expect for this time of the year, mid 30's and raining. Not the best weather for a race but since it was the first race of the 2011 season, the weather didn't discourage me in the slightest. I managed to pull 4-5th at the start and quickly picked my way up to 1st within the first mile, but met a nasty muddy uphill and think I got passed by my entire class. I can't put into words how muddy this course was! From the three mile point until timing, it looked like a yard sale! I pushed after my incident and came back to finish 3rd in my class and 20th overall. Thanks to my sponsors, I definitely tested the gear and air filters at this race!
Feb 27 2011
Great race, with perfect weather the temps were in the low 70's all day. The course offered sand, with more sand, covered with sand! This was my first National race, the course was great and flowed nicely. There were miles of whooped out pine tree beds. Hardly any mud, where there was mud they had built wooden bridges to avoid terrain damage (great choice since offroad racing is being scrutinized). I had a few issues during the race with my nutrition setup, but overall it was a great race. I finished 12th in class with 22 entries.
Jan 18 2011
Theres something special about a South Carolina sunrise on race day, maybe it's the Spanish moss hanging lazily from the live oaks or it could be the sweet smell of the loblolly pine filling the air. We couldn't have purchased better weather for a race, the high for race day was around 57 degrees, no wind and clear blue skies.
I had an uneventful start, rode clean for the first 39 miles through some of the most scenic terrain the area has to offer. Pulling in for the gas stop I was running with a score of 35. After topping off, talking to my support crew (wife, daughter, mom, sister and brother in law) grabbing a few bites of electrolyte snacks I head off to our restart area.
The section after gas up started off well, until about 5 miles into it. I took a hard spill on a turn which tweaked my bars and I lost a few minutes getting them back to a rideable position. Things started to fall apart from there. After coming out of a scenic hardwood swamp section a low hanging tree limb somehow found its way under my helmet and into my my mouth. Needless to say, I stopped quickly to survey the damage. Busted up my lip, pierced the inside of my lip and gum in two spots. All my teeth were intact, bleeding but otherwise ok I powered on. I don't know how long I was stopped checking myself but I ended up losing about 40 minutes on the last section. Definitely not my best effort, but it was a good race and great training for next months national.
Oct 31 2010
Decided to take this weekend off from racing and run the Marine Corps 10K in the Nations capital. Finished in 52 minutes, overall position was 873 in a field of over 7000. I didn't go alone, my wife and 11 year old daughter ran it also both of them finished in just over an hour. Great family event and phenomenal course, there were only a few hills (not that they matter since I run hills everytime we run during the week). I would have rather been racing hare scrambles, but you can't beat spending time with your family doing something like this.