Bear Creek MASS Finals

For once a race season hasn't flown past.  For me, 2011 started on March 12 down in Danville, VA and it actually feels like that was almost 7 months ago, not just last week.  The MASS series wrapped up this last weekend at Bear Creek.  I love everything about Bear Creek.  It's a mountain biker's course with a little bit of everything thrown in.  It's intense and it's not watered down at all, and rewards those who get their flow on, relax, and let it roll, and just let your X-fusion take care of it.  Basically, you need skills and it's the kind of course that will exploit you if you don't, which I think is good, because that's what makes if off-road racing.

I had a good races on both Saturday and Sunday taking the W on both days.  Brandon kept me honest on Sunday where I really had to stay on the gas all day.  Its so cool to be so competitive with but still be really good friends.  I think we really feed off of each other and make sure the other never gets too comfortable.  We get along great off the bike, but once the gun goes off, it's game on and I think we're both better because of it.  He was just within sight most of the race but I kept my head down, mashed the pedals, hit my lines, and prayed for no mechanical problems like the last few weeks.  With the win this weekend I locked up the Overall Elite title for the series which I can now say that I've won.  I probably would have won it the year or two if I would have just registered for the series...

Letting the body english take over.

I only had about 5 minutes to sit down after the XC until I had to pull race support for my nephew Ryan who made his racing debut in the kid's race on his sick Lightning McQueen whip.  We did a little course recon, scoped out the major climbs of days and decided where the most of the major attacks for the day would be.  A couple hot laps through the techy log section and he was ready to rage.  I'm pretty sure I saw him marking the other kids on the line.  

Met up with Scott Wilson, the new East Coast Marketing dude for SCOTT to test out the new 2012 Spark 26 and put it through the paces in Michaux.  I have to say, the changes from the last edition to the 2012 is noticeable.  The back end is much stiffer with the 142x12 thru axle, the rear shock pedal way better than the original NUDE, and the tapered head tube is (for a lack of a better cliche) confidence inspiring.  Changes to the geometry were huge too.  Travel is up from 100mm to 120mm and the chainstays felt noticeably longer which make a super stable ride.  The kicker is in the rear pivot design that drops the BB by 8mm and slackens the headtube by half a degree by flipping two small chips on the rear shock pivot.  A two minute adjustment turned a full-out XC bike feel more of all day trail riding rig.  Nice.

Terror of Teabery on Sunday!