My Summer... So Far

Well it's been a while since I've contributed to our blog here but I've been racing every weekend for the past few weeks now so I've got lots to write about.

First of all the Freeriders for Child Find Alberta charity race that was held on June 26th at Moose mountain. It was only my second real race of the season and it was more for fun but it was still a really good race. We raced T-Dub from the very top right to the river which was great because in my opinion T-Dub is the best trail on Moose. The track was made even better by the fact that we got to race down the gully rather than the newer and less technical re-route. On race day I was ready to go fast and I let it all hang out on my race run. I used minimal brakes and just hammered my way down the entire course. As a result I missed a few of my lines and I was pretty much all over the place. It seemed like I was going really fast but I definitely learned that it's beneficial to stay smooth and relaxed during race runs since smoothness contributes greatly to your overall speed. I ended up coming 6th in the advanced category which is a result that hopefully I'll be able to improve on next time. After the race Stu gave me some great advice that I've already implemented into my training and racing. (Thanks again for that Stu.) It was a bit weird that the race was held on a Saturday but other than that it was a fantastic event!

For full results please have a look here: http://www.freewebs.com/adhra/

The following weekend was the first round of the Alberta Cup up in Grande Prairie on the weekend the 4th of July. It was quite a road trip but to my surprise it was really worth it! We arrived on the Thursday evening and immediately hit up the water slide in our hotel. The following morning our course walk provided us with a few laughs, but they did the best they could with the terrain that they had. The course was lacking a bit in the technical department but it turned out to be extremely fun to ride - there were plenty of berms on the bottom part of the track to be shredded! I wouldn't hesitate to call it the best DH track in western Canada east of the rocky mountains. On Friday afternoon we had the opportunity to do a walking tour of Grande Prairie while our van was getting fixed because it almost blew up on the trip up there. Until now I always thought I had some pretty unique ways but I when we went into the gun store there I realized that my redneckedness is nothing compared to some people... I can't blame 'em though, If I lived up there I'd certainly have a badass truck that could transport my multitude of guns.

Anyways, back the riding stuff, we spend a couple hours on Friday evening helping the bike park crew (who are all volunteers) buff up the 4X track for the race the next day. The next morning I had the opportunity to participate in my first ever 4X race and it was a blast! I won all my heats to take the win in the Junior category. I packed in as much training as I could for the downhill, but I still only managed to get about 5 or 6 runs in because I couldn't pass up the opportunity to huck myself into a pool! At Nitehawk they have an outdoor facility that aerials ski jumpers use for training in the summer - it's pretty much a massive booter into a swimming pool, and they have an air compression system that allows an observer to release a bunch of bubbles into the pool so it doesn't hurt as much when you land. I did this jump many times and by the end of the day I had back flips dialed so I was pretty stoked.

On Sunday the race day was similar to most others. I did more practice runs than I usually do on a race day, but it was all good since it's only a 2 minute course. My race run went pretty well because I didn't take any diggers and I kept it smooth the whole way down. I was happy with my run but unfortunately it wasn't quite enough for a podium finish. I came 4th in Junior Expert with the 4th fastest time of the day. The trip home after that was long and boring but luckily our vehicle survived. In general I'd have to say that it was one of the best events I've ever been to.

For full results from GP please see here: http://www.albertabicycle.ab.ca/results

Last but not least, the race I most recently returned home from was the 2010 Canadian DH Nationals in Panorama. I showed up without high expectations, but I was bummed out to find that I didn't actually have enough points to race Junior Expert, so I had to race Junior sport. That was a pretty bad deal since I missed out on Saturday morning's practice and seeding. Luckily the course was super fun - probably one of the best race courses I've ridden in the past few years! I trained pretty hard and up until race day the damage done to me and my bike was minimal considering the situation. It would have been nice if the trailer was around though. I held everything together on my race run and when I got to the bottom I was fairly pleased. My run was pretty smooth, but I learned that in the future I need to do more top to bottom runs during practice in order to get a better feel for the course as a whole. I came second in Junior Sport having been defeated only by my teammate Evan... by only 0.34 seconds. (Good work by the way Evan!) It was a podium sweep for Calgary Cycle! My time would have put me in 11th place in Junior Expert and 32nd in Elite.

Check out the full results here and click the link that's just above the list of the Junior Expert results.

Daniel Banks