Race the Ranch 2010

This past weekend held the first race of my 2010 season; Race the Ranch in beautiful Kamloops British Colombia. With over 350 racers it was quite an event indeed. The course was super fun with plenty of jumps and a few gnarly parts thrown in for good measure - Nothing short of what I expected from the loops! After a full winter of training arduously I was quite excited to see how I would do in competition. Practice on Saturday went really well despite some hybrid precipitation during our special practice just for Juniors and Elite men, but it was all good since it settled the notorious dust for the following day of racing.

On Saturday evening I went to see the Follow Me premier with my friend and Teammate Evan. The movie was off the hook and seeing it out in Kamloops was a great experience, especially since most of the riders on the big screen were in attendance.

Come Sunday our category was one of the last to start. My race run was pretty clean, despite being a bit too conservative on a few parts of the track. My time was decent, however it only got me an 11th place finish. Unfortunately that's about 11 places back of where I wanted to end up. Riding on this team is a pretty big deal for me so I feel that I have to make the next race a lot better. Fortunately you learn something from every race, and in last weekends case I reckon that during races you have to ride with confidence in your skills and push yourself as hard as you want to win.

Overall, It was a super fun weekend and an excellent way to kick off the season! My next big race will be the Mad Trapper in Panorama at the end of June. In the meantime I'll certainly be training harder than ever in pursuit of my athletic endeavors. I'm really looking forward to see what this summer has in store!

Cheers!

Daniel Banks

Race the Ranch 2010

The first race of the season has come to a close. I managed to get a 7th place finish in Junior which is my best finish to date. Be that as it may I am not completely satisfied with my result, but with less than 2 seconds separating me and a podium position this result gives me confidence that I can be on the podium very soon. I am taking my result with a grain of salt and using it to motivate me to train harder and continue improving.

My race run went fairly well. I lost some time after getting bogged down in the famous Kamloops dust but as far as having a game plan and sticking to it my run was almost perfect. I had planned to conserve my legs a little for the bottom rock garden bunny hop due to the fact that casing it would mean catastrophe, but now I know that I could have pushed it harder. I always look back at race runs and try to learn from them and every race I compete in seem to teach me something new. This weekend's lesson was to trust my training and not hold back.

The race itself was really well run and I am pretty impressed by the fact that they had an elite and junior practice only. This was fantastic because it cut down the long lines and you didn't have to pass slower riders on your way down the course. Despite the uncharacteristic weather conditions (hail and rain!) the course held up extremely well in comparison to last year only deteriorating in a few places.

Me and my teammate Dan also attended the Follow Me premiere Saturday night after practice. All I can say is I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of that movie, it was phenomenal! It was the first premiere that I have ever been to and it was heaps of fun and a great representation of mountain bike culture which only continued to remind me of why I love the sport so much. All in all the weekend was awesome and I can't wait to get out and continue racing and riding for the rest of the season!

Evan Blackwell

Kamloops- Spring break

Well, Spring Break has come to a close recently and during spring break I was fortunate enough to head out to beautiful Kamloops, British Columbia and get a few runs down the course before the race in late April. My first few runs I cruised down stopping in frequently to check out lines and a few blind up-and-overs featured on the course. The course begins with a few man made rock gardens which then lead you into a steep left handed switch back. This steep section then sends you over a road gap and down a high speed section of table tops and a rock garden gap. The course levels out into a flatter pedalling section frequented by jumps and rollers. The course then exits into the dirt jump park where riders face a short sprint and a table top through the finish line.

The Race the Ranch course although not a course that lends itself directly to my riding style is a darn good time! After a winter with minimal jumping I was excited to get out on some decent sized jumps and throw my Session 88 sideways as much as possible! I also managed to clock about 10-20 timed runs during the 3 days I was there which also doubled as a cardio workout because I was beat afterwards, going against the clock forced me to give it everything I had every run. As well as being excellent for fitness training these timed runs also gave me confidence that I can do I good clean race run at full pace because I made very few major mistakes under the pressure of the clock; something I struggled with last season.

After riding the course I am looking forward to the race to see where I stack up against everyone as well as enjoying all of the vibe and excitement that comes with racing.

Evan Blackwell