"I HATE SECOND PLACE !"

i was pretty confident going into this race, dont have much fitness yet but the course last year didnt require much pedaling and i won it going away. crash decided to lengthen the super d this year though so i wasnt as ready as i could have been, not that i had a bad run, there was a couple of sections that i lost a little time and one or two places that i rested when i shouldnt have, so losing by four seconds doesnt sit well with me.
about a third of the way down i caught my minute guy and passed him, then i caught his minute guy and he wouldnt let me by, i lost 5 or 10 seconds trying to get past him, now i could be all pissed at that guy but hey its bootleg canyon, if you get off trail most anywhere you are in trouble so im not going to blame him, i could have made those 4 seconds up else where. oh well, i gave it my best shot and i had a blast hanging out with friends that i dont see often, a lot of the reason i enjoy racing so much is the people that you get to meet and hang out with, good times...

this is a picture from interbike last september, there wasnt this many people at the race but there was about 400 racers and 150 camping in the lot all weekend. bootleg has a great vibe, you can feel brent all over that mountain, the time he spent building is hard to fathom, the guy was relentless as there are trails that you dont even know about if all you do is gravity. my buddys from salt lake, mark and brad talked me in to going for a ride after the race, we went and dropped off the top but went down the west side off the mountain on a trail called I>M>B>A> it was a riot, damn thing almost went into henderson then all the way around the south side by the golf course. up and down in and out over and through, cant wait to do it again... zaun you gotta see this place!!!

this is a pic of me during the race, a super fast section but just after this was a huge g' out jump that launched us about 6 feet in the air and about 20 feet to the landing. it freaked me out cuz you were flat hauling ass when you hit the g' out, got squirly a number of times in practice but was really surprized at how my new suspension worked, that push treatment is worth the bucks, my yeti never felt so plush...

ah the podium, like i said, i hate second place, i would rather get a third, i swear, third is like, " cool i made it to the podium", but second is like," damnit i was so close", im getting over it now, in fact after the ride that mark, brad and i went on i drove into town to grab some grub, while there i saw a teenage kid that must have had MS or some thing as he was in a wheel chair, it made me think hard about how lucky i am, some people will never have the opportunity to race a bike on that mountain.

listen up tribal members, we are truly blessed to be able to do what we love, some times im not sure about the god stuff, but others i feel like there is something watching out for me, why me ? i may never know the answer to that, im just going to keep on rolling and try to question nothing, ya know ?

they built this zip line at bootleg last year, looks like a blast, it goes from platform to platform 5 times to get to the bottom, gotta try that some time.

so all in all bootleg was a gas, good friends, good atmosphere, great racing and a memorial for brent. i will always remember this event, i met some new friends (saudu, tex, ken, dave, dana and michael ), and hung with some old, jen came to see me ( lookin good girl ) jay tried to find me, and i made a new friend named erica, she was a so fun to talk to, we had a blast watching the downhill, she is a trail maintenance worker and we talked a lot about brent, she knew him well and shed even more light on the man who will be missed by many, i hope that when i pass people will remember me half as fondly. to all my friends out there, i love you guys, i dont know how i would have made it this far with out each and every one of you, now get your asses to the desert and lets ride our fucking bikes till we colapse, drink some good brew and do it all again..

peace out & rubber down !!!