BC Cup#2 "Race the Ranch" Kamloops

Ripping the Legend on the MOON...

Our tent, gettin' er done...
Hey Everyone- BC Cup#2 "Race the Ranch" Kamloops has come and gone and it was another successful mission for Team Trident. As Banshee Distribution Canada, it is our duty this season to promote and support the brand, shred the gnar on our Legends and offer Tech Support to anyone who needs it- and holy cow, did people need it. The Ranch was a fiercely hot and dusty battle filled with sneaky sniper lines, self-replicating ruts and bomb holes and a whole lot of spectacular exlplosions.

The "Moondust" of Kamloops renders friendly chase-and-tag training tactics impossible- if you follow your buddies' back wheel too closely (and by closely I mean within 30 whole seconds) you can't even see your front hub- then you have to try breathing the stuff. Plenty of riders young and old encountered chainguide issues, suspension failures and plenty of brake issues- the dust simply ruins the performance of your major systems within hours of arrival. This track is different from others in that it changes every single lap- the dirt is hard packed in places but has roughly half a foot of Moondust hiding the nastiest holes and cross-ruts.




Scoping out lines is difficult because you can only stay in the sun for so long- we're a Team of woods folk remember, being based on the Shore we're used to a protective canopy over roots and rock that stay put! Practice came down to basically identifying the pedal sections (and there were many) and then isolating the places where you, personally, had issues 'statistically' throughout practice. By Race time, it was a whole new beast for everyone, and I'm sure few racers experienced the same track...


Race day was pretty wild- we only got in one practice lap, totalling roughy four or five for the whole weekend. As we'd never been there before, our Focus was simply on putting in an overall solid performance with as little spills or mishaps as possible. Dalen put together a solid run with no falls for a time of 3:28 in Master Men. I had one super-lame wash-out on the creek gap in the upper zone and nearly ate it on a *brand new* full-face helmet-sized bomb hole at the bottom of the course just after the wallride corner for a salvaged time of 3:17 in Senior Men. My girlfriend Michelle, the smallest of the Senior Women's class (And Team Trident) racing aboard her extra-sweet super small Legend, had two podium-killing crashes in the upper course finishing 4th- but managed a wicked crowd-pleasing hip-jump straight into and through the G-Out Annihilator run seen below- two previous ladies had eaten it HARD face first at about 30km/h roughly 60 and 30 seconds prior... Please note the shirtless dude in the background- in frame two, he's surprised... by frame three he's like "WHAT THE...!!!!!!!" as she blew past. The crowd was roaring for her, but of course we were only screaming at her to pedal harder... ah, teammates eh? The Legend is unstoppable!





Here she comes...(Camera missed the air, she's just landing there)
Ripping the section- you can't see the hidden ruts and holes...
And WHA-BAMM!!! She nails the G-Out... buddy in the background is freaking out.

Most riders (Myself included) had most of their problems in the upper track, but the worst accidents came in the G-Out section. Only one rider was evacuated for the weekend, we all hope he's doing OK. All in all, a successful Weekend for Team Trident- racers and pit crew included. We managed a lot of repairs, spread the 22 Pride Vibe and had a great time. Our next race is Round 3: Arduum Challenge (Mission, BC) which will see Team Trident return to the gnarly steeps and roots that we call home. Less Pedaling, MORE GNAR... See you next time.

-Zac Smith, Team Trident

BC Cup #2

Update: We have video footage ... see below [nsmb.com gets credit where i poached it off of]. I think this is Deans helmet cam footage but not 100% sure so i won't give him credit until i know for sure

One word could sum up BC Cup #2… crashes, crashes and more crashes.

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It was unbelievably loose with the finest dust, choking the riders, and hiding death holes that would eat your front tire leaving you with no where to go but over the bars. If you did manage to navigate the holes using the “force” then you had to contend with your corners washing out on you.

The course conditions were always changing as well so one could not count on his practice run for any indication for line choice and you just had to gamble it was still as it was when you sessioned the techinical bits.

The 2 days were hot but I’ll take a race in Kamloops heat any day over racing in SE Asia, heat, where it will be 10 degrees hotter with less wind, and Kamloops has way less creepy crawlies in the bushes which is a bonus.

I wasn’t racing this weekend and spent my time running around with my camera documenting everything. I wasn’t sure how long I was going to be in BC so I took a pass on signing up for the races, but I’m kinda kicking myself because it looks like a ton of fun.

But our gang of Banshee/Trident industry guys –Dalen, Zac, Michelle, were tearing it up and Tony, Kane and I were doing all the support for the race and for anyone else that needed help. The crew Michelle, then L-R Zac, Kane, Tony, Dalen

It was really awesome and we had something like 400 DH racers in attendance

I finally got a chance to meet Dean which was awesome , but hunted high and low for Matt Brooks the guy who does almost all the building and maintenance for the Bike Ranch where the race was being held.

Update: It looks like Wayne P was responsible for the course. Sorry for the confusion.Matt no longer is doing the park stuff. Matt did mention he got a job with Red bull so thats super awesome.

We drove up Saturday morning to get setup and let the guys do some practice runs, and then later in the day session a bunch of the tougher lines. JS from Transition was also with our crew on the way up as his sponsors include Trident who help him out with Manitou gear.

Near the end of the course was a particularly tough section that had 1 faster pseudo line that people were sure if it would be taped off during the race or not. We found out later it was left open but numerous other “cheater” lines did get shut. So a lot of time was spent trying to figure out the fastest way through. Dean made it look easy but others weren’t so lucky.

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Race day came and I scoped out the best places I could find to get some shots of the guys. I was bummed to find out I had missed Deans run and didn’t get any of him with his race face on. I do however manage to catch the rest of the crew who were spread between various classes so it was a lot of hiking up and down the mountain all day waiting to see if it was them popping around a corner. Although this one guy had the sweetest spot… just hope he had a very long zoom.

So here are some of the pics of the race.

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It was a lot of good times and special nod to Bob Santorum for keeping the laughs coming.

Next race is Panorama and a quick detour across to Calgary and visit my friends at Bow Cycle.

Oh and Zac… I checked. McDonalds doesn’t make their apple pies out of apple flavored turnips

Update: As a PSA please be on the look out for these bikes that were stolen at the race. http://www.pinkbike.com/news/pinkbike-team-bike-theft-2009.html

Race the Ranch DH 2009 from Dean Wilkes on Vimeo.

Sleepless in Kaohsiung!!

I am sure we all go through spells of not being able to sleep. People think too much, others have weird sleeping patterns, it's christmas, you have blue balls, or you have a mental disorder. Lately I fall into three of those. I sleep too much, and then the next night cannot sleep, also I am getting excited to go back to Canada next month for some serious shredding on my new Wildcard; and lastly I have always been a little mental.
Jump back a couple nights, it's 3am I am lying in bed staring at my ceiling...430 am and I am out at our jumps in the pouring rain, putting a berm and a jump into our new trail. And then again Friday morning at about the same time I was back out there, but with the weather clearing up I was able to do a little riding on my new Wildcard.
Took some video of one small line... I was alone so it is not a very good vid, but just wanted to share it with you.
And I am curious to know what you do when you cannot sleep.... if you just lay there, then you are wasting precious time! I suggest that you buy a good light and head out to your local jumps for some quality time with your shovel.... Well I should get some sleep, I have been up now for about 35 hours....

Sweet Dreams!
Jim

More Winterberg...

Ed Von Schleck just sent me a big ZIP file full of photos he took during Wednesday's riding session at Winterberg bike park - big thanks Ed!

I'll let the photos do the talking...


John, Rob and Ed's brother training the DH track



Expert hip line in the Slopestyle park



Session on the timber jumps in the SS park



Boosting off the timber jumps in the SS area



Super tacky tires and concrete bowls = scary



Sequence at the start of the Expert hip line in the SS park



Drop in the Funride area



Threading the skinnies before sending a big drop at the end



Watch those Syncros pedals!!



Pushing up in the SS park next to a casualty of war



Wallride sequence - natural direction



Wallride sequence - switch direction



Session on the North Shore



Pinning one of the gaps on the DH track



Mythic Rampant + knobbly tires = abuse friendly



Run through the rock garden on the DH track



Ed recovering from a 'soccer' injury - healing vibes!!

Winterberg rocks!

John "Jesus" Holme and I just got back from Winterberg, Germany; we took a short break (3 nights) to check out what the bike park had to offer...

Things started off high-tech at Stanstead Airport with biometric passport control and a buck-rogers style monorail connection to the airside terminal



Before things seemed to go low-tech with our Air-Berlin flight, which turned out to be a little Bombardier Dash turbo-prop; having never flown on a propellor plane before it was quite "interesting" but somehow more reassuring to see that huge propellor turning as we headed over the English Channel towards Rotterdam



The flight was a brief 1h20m which makes a very welcome change to the long-haul to Vancouver I've done on 3 previous visits to Whistler / Vancouver - we left Stanstead in the morning and were actually riding by the early afternoon which was quite weird!



Germany was very clean, modern and efficient, we noticed wind turbines everywhere as we flew into Paderborn (PAD) airport, and solar panels covering lots of houses and buildings

After a 1 hour taxi ride to Winterberg (at the eye watering price of 120 euros!) we checked into the "Hotel Schneider" which was only 1km from the bike park, and let us use their garage to store our bikes

We got a little lost riding up to the bike park, but soon found it and got our lift passes (about 20 euros for the afternoon) and were surprised by the large number of riders, then we realised it was a public holiday that Monday

We started with the Continental trail area which had an odd "t-bar" drag lift that was quite hard to stick under my Mythic Rampant's super-slammed saddle so I ended up clinging onto the bar and getting dragged up the hill



The Continental area had a wicked north shore section combined into a super sweet 4X style track with loads of berms and jumps going down the hill, a huge amount of work had been done and the track could be ridden all day to find the perfect lines



After sessioning the Continental area to warm up, we headed up top to the main bike park which has a seperate chairlift, and we checked out all the trails including the awesome North Shore, part of which is shown above

One surprising thing about the trails at Winterberg is how big the stunts are, and how high the North Shore trails are, with no safety netting (like you get at Whistler on Clown Shoes) - you ride strictly at your own risk, and if you get hurt, its your own stupid fault, which is quite refreshing!



After sessioning the North Shore, we headed down the 4X track into the Slopestyle course, which again had a theme of VERY big stunts, all open to the public, apart from 1 insane drop where you needed to go and get a key; the Slopestyle park actually blows Whistler's Boneyard out the water - it has way more to ride, some wicked timber stunts, dirt jumps, wallride, satelite dish, many different drops, flowy tabletops, banked corners and even a concrete bowl!!

All of this was open to the public for riding, and it was very groomed / dialled; being a permanently established venue it doesn't suffer the upheavel that the Boneyard has to undergo every year for the Crankworx Slopestyle event which means the Boneyard always seems like a big mess



I took my Mythic Rampant and John took his Wildcard - the Rampant was a stellar performer and did not flinch despite being thrown off some very big stunts and ridden stupidly quick down the super fast trails - the Rampant with the Pikes on 100mm was the perfect bike for the insanely quick "Freecross" trail which consists of 180 degree switchback after switchback with tabletops and "s" bend chutes thrown in for good measure - it makes A-Line seem slow in comparison!



Above: North Shore section




Above: Slopestyle entry choices




Above: John checks out a stunt in the slopestyle park




Above: Freecross trail section




Above: Scary slidedown ladder in the Funride area




Above: Drop decks in the Funride Area




Above: John hits up the big road gap in the Funride Area




Above: First time I have ridden a 100mm bike on something this big, no problem!




Above: John riding the wobbly bridge




Above: Rob C wallride




Above: Rob C hip air on expert line in Slopestyle Park

We've got way too many photos and video clips to post, including helmet cam footage of the North Shore, Downhill track (awesome!!) and Funride, and we also met up with NSMB regular Ed Von Schleck and his brother, who did some filming and we sessioned the park with Ed's brother, as Ed was recovering from a seperated shoulder - Ed is going to be posting some video and photos soon on the internet

Ed helped us with info and transport arrangements to Whistler, huge thanks to Ed and his bro!

Overall, our short stay at Winterberg was awesome, Its a great bike park with some very big stunts and great trails to ride, its all efficiently run, affordable for a short break and very easy to get to, especially for UK riders or European riders

I'd recommend a short stay of 3-4 days to get the most from the park without it getting stale, as it doesn't have the breadth and depth of the many trails at Whistler (a much bigger mountain) but what Winterberg does have is very very good quality trails and a chance to push your personal boundaries higher than is possible at Whistler - the DH track was simply excellent, one of the best I have ridden (very rocky, rooty, rough and tech) and would keep any aspiring DH racer very busy learning the lines

John went to France last season and said they also have insanely big stunts on the trails and slopestyle area, probably due to the lack of liability culture in Europe? If you are going for a longer stay there is plenty of non-biking stuff to do, so you could easily do a full week and have more time in the bike park with a rest day mid week to recover, as we both felt quite sore and battered from riding constantly for 2.5 days

More info here: http://www.bikepark-winterberg.de/#

Not losing a day to travel is a huge bonus, and Winterberg itself is a quiet, chilled out town with a great selection of hotels, restaurants and shops, but perhaps a little thin on energy drinks for you addicts amongst us! We did find some weird drinks called "Mad Bat" and "Magic Man" but that's another story....

cheers!

Rob C