long time no post

well yeah i haven't posted anything in a long time now. i dont know why except for the fact it seems to take forever to do this. but its a perfect way to remember my racing and keep track of it.

and i have finally made it to the land of OZZZZ! Australia! its soooo cool here i absolutely love it.

i did my first victorian state race the second weekend i was here. i qualified 3rd and screwed my final and ended up 9th.

i just arrived home from queensland 2 days ago for the Round 2 of the national series. super fun course. real fast and lots of roots. and all those roots got really wet and slippery. but also really fun there were over 100 elite riders and only 30 went on to qualify. so i knew i had to have a good run. and i did. i qualified 12th and i was super happy. as for the race run... i struggled in a couple sections with corners and almost lost in a super fast section due to a huge drift that took all my speed. but i ended up 16th only 2 seconds off top 10. pretty good for my first national in OZ.plus all the big dogs were there..Rennie, Bryn, amiel, rando and all the super fast locals!!! so im pretty happy. the one picture i got is reeally bad but its all i got!

lately

i was pretty bummed out after worlds so thats why it took me a month to post anything. but i ended up 30th and didnt ride good at all. but oh well its all part of it. JD on he other hand.... kicked ass 2nd place!


going to australia nov 6th....cant wait.

WORLDS.....SCOTLAND

so i finally got a email.. about me qualifying for the World Championships in scotland. it has been my dream since i started racing mountain bikes. and now its actually happening. i really cant believe it! so now i leave august 31 to scotland snd come home on the 10th of september. its gonna be one of the biggest things that has ever happended to me. and i am STOKED!!!

denver is getting a bit boring. i cant wait to go back home and relax, and train on my own XC bike, and ride some good dirt jumps, and all my own trails. but most of all i really wanna ride some MOTO!!! cant wait!

i found a cool picture too from angelfire, new mexico

vermont+north carolina

vermont drive was complete crap. i offically hate driving now. the DH course was like nothing i have ever rode in my life time. all mud, and rocks that you couldn't even see. plus the fastest course on the circut added for some scary but exciting times. i never got comfortable during practice so my race run was just a crappy practice run. and i ended up coming in 4th place. so im pretty mad about that finish. but atleast my good friend JD won!

slalom was fun, a short, fun course, plus a walking lift made for killer racing and riding. i got super lucky cause everyone i raced was having chain problems, and ended up second.

COLE BANGERT PRO DH NATIONAL CHAMP! SICK!


then we loaded up again and headed down south for north carolina. this is probly one of the best courses on the whole national series. fast, technical, and all around a fun course. but the chair lift was super slow and killed the riding buzz! for the DH race day i was feeling super good and knew i had this one on lock. but as we headed up for race run it started raining and making everything wet and slick. my race run was going nearly perfect when i went into a creek crossing and hit a rock and went over the bars, then had to turn my bike around run up a muddy slick hill, and proceed to pedel my bike into a flat muddy section while in the hardest gear. i finished 3rd with a 4:15, second had a 4:13, and first had a 4:06. my fall was atleast a 10 to 15 second fall and possibly 20 seconds. so had i stayed on my bike. i feel i could of won by a good margin. but i didnt and thats racing.

slalom was a super fun course long too. times around 40 seconds. i qualified 3rd and went on to get second place. taylor calvert won.

now were back in colorado and we have a weekend off before snowmass finals. im gonna train my ass off and hopefully take the win for the finals.

plus i turned my world championship petition in and it looked really good! the team will be announced next week!

more driving

well its been sort of a long time since i did a post. we have been racing every weekend. nothing big at all but a lot of fun still. since last friday we have been in aspen at the snowmass resort for a MSC race. but the new electronic chip timing is complete crap. everyone who raced still doesnt have a time. so i have no clue on how i did. tyler mccaul missed his flight back home and left this morning at 7. now were packing up and getting ready to leave for vermont. another long drive. seems like ive done a lot of that recently. but now that wes and kyle left we picked up ryan anderson to come with us. kyle is the most unreliable piece of do-do ever. i gave up on him. wes, he's still cool though. so vermont will be fun hopefully. im probly gonna be scared of the course. but oh well, it'll only make me stronger!

Blowin' S#!t up!!!

4th of july was super sick!
we just waited til it got dark and then went off. roman candle fights and lots of firecrackers. we did a lot of cool and tricky things too. not to many things caught on fire. and a few burns and a lot of money later, it ended up being a cool night.
tomorrow morning were off to crankworks colorado. fun fun funn!

canada was awesome. me and kyle shredded the rest of the mountain and iu learned a whole bunch about riding roots and mud. it was so rad. not to mention the world cup after parties. that was the best party i have ever been to. i arrived at 8:30 at night and didnt go back to the room til 7:30 in the morning. plus i got in for free since i judged the dirt jump competition. it was so fun to party with all my idols like hill, strobel, riffle, rennie, neethling brothers, peat, faircloth, blenkinsop and everyone else. i had a killer time and got LOOSE. haha. the drive home sucked. 1 day and seventeen hours. but we went to hanks dads house in denver colorado and have stayed there since. he's a gnarly military guy but also super nice.
this weekend we went to keystone colorado to do a little local race. i didnt race dh the first day cause i thught the course sucked plus i flatted. but i did race my first super D race and missed my start time by a minute but made it up and got second place. stoked on that. in dh today i missed my start time had to go with sport men. cought 4 guys in my race run and got 4th. oh well i still had fun! the picture is from today. from Wes Pracht. mtbphoto.com

DAMN!!!

well it turns out im not racing in my first world cup now. so thats a total bummer. but its better that i dont cause if i would of got caught i would of lost my chances of the world championships in scotland. and thats a lot bigger than just a normal world cup. so everything is good still. i ended up crashing with alf, adrian, kieran(my kiwi buddy from New Zealand) mikey haderer(national rider) and wes. me and kyle walked the track during practice yesturday and i wan to race it sooooo bad. but today me and kyle are gonna go ride the rest of the mountain. so atleast ill still be riding. the trails here are gonna be sooo good. i cant wait to shred them all!! im gonna try to put up some random pictures from deer valley and some canada stuff too!

good and bad

today we arrived in canada and our bike rack cracked at the weld. so we had to rome around montreal canada for about 3 hours trying to find some way to solve it. we ended finding a car mechanic and he did the worst welding jod i have ever seen. but its holding so far. Montreal is a way cool city with a lot of pretty girls. im gonna go out right now and get me some dinner. some more posts will hopefully come soon. tomorrow we go to mont St. Anne. but kieran,alf,mikey,adrian,and logan are here so im gone.

deer Valley plus some driving

so far this past week was pretty fun. i had no internet connection the whole time. so thats why this is so late. we arrived early thursday morning. i drove seperately with another friend who needed someone to drive with. kyle did the same thing with our other teammate David K. we slept in late til around 10 or 11 in the morning. i had Downhill practice at 2:30. i did all the hardest lines the first day so i could focus on race runs the rest of the time. specifically the 20 foot double rock jump up top. that thing has ruined many peoples weekends and seasons too. but i did it no problem.

Friday:
i had Downhill practice early it went really good for me. unufortunately everyone seemed to be coming down with flats(if you were lucky) or with broken bones or some kind of gnarly cuts. i nailed all my lines and did one decent race run. the insanely technical drop that they took out last year was taking people to the hospital constantly. but was no problem for me.

slalom was actually really fun for a change. it looked as if team big bear actually tried to make a course. it was really short though. a good qualifying time was under 20 seconds. both red and blur course i qualified under 20 seconds placing me 4th. un fortunatley during racing i strugled quite a bit and ended up 6th i believe. i didnt mind cause i had a good time racing. JD won with ryan anderson in second and taylor calvert got third with tyler mccaul in 4th.

Saturday:
had to wake up early and i got terrible sleep. but went up to the top with nothing but racing on my mind. i headed to the start gate and the wind was howling and i decided not to do the top rock jump on this run. i was riding very well and killing all my lines. as i came out of the first tree section i headed lto the scetchy rock drop that pouts you on a steep ski run and straight back into the woods. since i was riding so good i tried it no brakes. and as i came into into the woods going mach 5 i tried to make the small left and my tire just pushed in the soil instead of hooking up and i flew off the course. my brakes were on and felt like they were doing absolutely nothing. i hit a fallen tree and flipped off my bike. i rolled twice and slammed into a tree. thankfully the tree stopped me because i wouldnt of stopped rolling for a long time and was headed into some sharp embedded rocks. i stood up and everything went black and i fell back down. after teling all the course officials to leave me alone i took off to finish the course. i pretended nothing happened and actually rode way fast considering how dizzy i was. now looking back i have realised that was one of my worse crashes ever. i am so thankful that i didnt break my neck or die! i did one more fast race run and called it quits til race time. i prepared some new goggles and a tear off and took off up the course to race.. since i am the current points leader i got to start off first. i took off and rode the top part of the course like a complete goon. i couldnt get anything to work. plus i didnt pedel anywhere to conserve energy for the scetchy drop on the last half of the course. and once i completed that drop i railed all the bottom switchbacks. according to hank and kyle i was the fastest one through there and they comparred me to former world champ greg minnaar. i finished really fast and strong. stopping the clock at 2:53.47. right behine was ryan anderson anderson and he was close with a 2 55 which ended up putting him into the third spot. and a few peolpe behind him was JD who got a 2 54 and was .7 off me.. my thrird straight victory for the national series and it felt as good as ever!

Sunday:
pros went up early to practice and as i closed up the condo. leov qualified first. and my time would of put me in the 17th spot for qualifiers. i went up and shot pictures with was for finals. everyone looked fast and good except alfonso garcia who was scetchy as ever at the bottom and ended up crashing on the last turn.
my goal this year has been to get a 20th place for the pro field with my time. unfortunately at this race i was stoked and dissapointed to see that i had ended up 21st. oh well keeps my drive going strong.

after that we loaded up and took off for Mont St. Anne in Quebec, Canada. it's the world cup round # 3. its north east of Maine and has been a dream of mine to race it. but unfortunately i dont have any wlorld cup points. but i also have a plan to get in to race but im not telling til it actually happens.. were currently in cleveland, ohio and pinning it non stop to Quebec. we have been driving for over a day now and i will try and keep updating.
Wish me luck.

weeks late!

guess im just lazy. but this is my update on angelfire!

4X: first day of practice got rained out so i didn't even try and go. plus i was so stoked on the downhill course i wasn't even interested in mountain-cross. the next day was race day so we woke up early and got our breakfast of champions; bean and cheese burrito and a chicken hot pocket. haha mmm mmm. after that delicious meal we headed up to the killer 2005 world cup course. it was still really muddy from the day before. the course was way fun and actually pretty easy. as qualifying came around, the course dried up and became easier and even faster. i qualified in 4th without pedaling or hardly trying.



racing was fun on this course. me and jake kinney did practice runs together at race speed so i knew it was gonna be a blast. first gate i had bmx'er blake carney and 2 other local kids. i got the gate and never saw any of then again. as i watched the other classes i just sat around. plus i watched my good friend jake kinney try to jump the first berm turn. then my second moto came after what seemed like forever. i got the holeshot again and went into the second turn and left myself wide open. 2 kids passed me on the inside. as im sprinting into the next corner already passing the 2nd place kid. the red gates that line the course got sucked up into my rear wheel and i skidded to a stop. i was bummed but also kinda relieved cause i wanted to save all my energy for downhill.

DH:
i absolutely loved the downhill course. it was 5 minutes of non-stop death. the rock gardens were rough, and lines and perfection were a must but often times hard to find. and anywhere there wern't rocks, the highspeed open slopes provided some nice scary moments and kept you on the edge. practice i struggled a lot with my hands cramping but i knew race time i was gonna have to deal with it. i also had to watch how many runs i did. the course was so fun that you just wanted to keep going but also so rough that you would get beaten up really easy.



by race day the course dried up completely. i got 2 practice runs in and of course with my luck the last run was crap and i flatted in the rocks. so i was totally rushed to get my shit together. finally got to the top and waited and waited. i knew with all the time passing by the course was drying up fast. i finally got into line and before i knew it i was in the start ramp. took off with one thing on my mind. winning, as i got into the first corner i totally noticed the dryness. my bike was slipping all over. but i know it was gonna be faster in the rocks because of it. first rock section went by with ease. pinned some more corners and rocks. and before i knew it i was almost half way down. on a 5 minute course you have a lot of time to think. i was thinking about how much i love racing almost the whole time down the hill. and when the pedaling section came i just sat and spun. i was getting closer to the bottom and realized i have been riding really smooth and conservative. so the whole ending of the course i was just pinned and drifting all over cause of the dryness. i came into the last corners thinking about how fast i am going and the rear end is chopping all over and im clipping the PVC pipes that line the bottom of the course. as i blow into the finish i was just all smiles. i almost knew i won. about a minute later the announcer says" we have a new leader and its Brad Oien by 6 seconds over second place". i was stoked. second national race and my second win. i was all smiles from there.


then for the rest of that day we just goofed off and waited for awards!



on monday the pros went off. griz qualified freakin 5th and was just on it. david k stopped for like 20 seconds during qualifying and still qualified 6th.
i went up and watched everybody looked way good from where i was. i was banking on griz's first national pro podium. but his drivetrain seized and he crashed. jarl the aussie kid threw his chain and my good friend Alfonso Garcia came through with a 10th place for mexico. ha! david k got second too.

so we packed up and started driving home. i always try to make the best of long drives and i just kept awake and everyone else too. we stopped a few times and goofed off. but finally when i was getting some decent sleep the truck pulls off the highway and i hear alf say oh shit whats wrong? it turns out we ran out of gas. 40 miles out side of flagstaff AZ. in the middle of nowhere!. so of course i made the best of that too!

We rode bikes and played "BIKE" i dominated. Alf went over the bars. plus we had no light. only the moon.


We joked around and laughed. a lot.


We listened to music on alf's phone. thank god for technology!


And here is all the loosers that got stuck!



but i actually had a good time getting stuck, we called triple A and they suck cause they don't listen at all. griz ended getting us diesel fuel in a 5 gallon bucket and everything worked out fine. except it took 5 hours. but i don't care. by the time i got home i was tired and just happy to be home.

now in 2 days im leaving for 2 months. SWEET!
ill actually do posts when i can!

first day of DH practice

the course is waaaaaaaay sick. it kinda reminds me of a world cup course. its super muddy and rocky and then into wide open super fast sections. its long too. i bet times will be around 5 minutes. bike is working awesome and i feel alright too for hardly ever riding mud. except on my last run today i was feeling really good then in one of the fast rocky sections up top i slipped on an exposed wet root and went straight into a tree. it was a pretty bad crash but ill recover just fine, i think. more rain is on the way which means more mud and wet rocks. so we'll see how weather will treat us. plus arm pump and altitude is going to play a crutial role in rusults! i really just wanna ride some more!

Long Drive to New Mexico

well we just arrived!i left my house yesturday at 1 pm and arrived today at 12:30 pm. 23 and a half hours toget here. thats of course with a lot of gas station stops and other random stuff. so far its hailing and pretty cold. but its also a very nice place and i just cant wait to ride!! were waiting for our room to open up right now so we got a lot of down time still. hopefully we'll stay out of trouble! keep checking in,im gonna keep up with posts!

Ready for real downhill!

finally got my Downhill bike in! and its superb! after riding a hoopty bike for so long its kinda weird to hop on a sturdy ride. but i think ill adapt just fine. i leave for Angelfire New Mexico tomorrow right after school! i hear its gonna snow on the first day of riding, and rain through out the week. oh well. ill just take it as a way to learn mud riding. im still way excited. i already sold my old frame for $750. all that money is going toward my Australia trip later this year. hopefully i can steal Alf's or Wes's laptop and keep updating through out the week. Wish me Luck!!!

Fontana NMBS #1

Winner!



dropping into the rocks

This was the first national race for all the gravity folks. it was cool to see everyone again. especially somewhere so close to my house. i only live about an hour away from fontana. So i guess you could consider it my local race course(s). me and kyle adams had our own place to stay in Ontario about 10 minutes from the venue. it was actually really nice! except we had to go there in Kyle's trooper. i thought it would explode for sure.

Thursday: i arrived at 6 in the morning after dropping my dad off at work. i went into a nearby parking lot and crashed for around an hour. then went and got some french toast breakfast!!! so GOOD! after that went into the pits where everyone was still setting up. then i started working on my/ Donny's new Turner DHR (38.5 lbs) bike. i had to ride Donny Jackson's( southridge usa) dh bike cause mine wasn't ready yet. during DH practice i absolutely hated the bike. and i don't know why. after that we had 4x practice that was actually a pretty fun course!

Friday: i had DH practice in the late morning and i figured out the bike. Actually started to love the bike. then second run in i was trying a new line in the rock section when my rear wheel got bucked up somehow and before i knew it i was on my face! nothing really bad but a good sized chunk out of my tooth! i was really shaken up and pretty dizzy too. so i went back to my pit and popped some aspirin and got ready for 4x practice. by the time qualifying for 4x came around i was feeling ok. then i qualified 3rd with a mistake. so i felt good about that. for finals in my first gate i was with my best friend JD but when were in the gate JD is no longer my bestie! i slipped my pedal out of the gate and JD got the snap but i stayed in second and didn't push just so i could move on. that put me into the semis where JD and i were in the gate again plus bmx'er erik nelson and canadian chris meyers. and i got an ok gate but of course bmx'er was quicker. i could of gotten him in the first turn but i still have yet to learn aggressiveness. plus i don't want enemies this early in the season. so i was sent into the constellation round where i got the gate and lead the whole way. so that placed me in 5th for 4x. ok start for the season!

Saturday: this is real race day for me! no joking around today. practice went very well, i hit all my lines and felt like i had everything dialed. confidence was not 100% since my bad fall on friday but i couldn't really complain to much. race time came around way quicker than i expected it to. before i knew it i was in line for my race. i was 4th in line and i felt really good. i don't even remember being nervous. out of the gate i felt the wind and i just tried to relax and make it happen. first few turns were fast and flowy. then my front tire slipped and scared me but i kept it all under control, it just slowed me down a bit. then i went into the rock section that i fell in. it felt like a thousand eyes were watching me but i couldn't hear anything. i stayed relaxed and didn't try to go fast. i just wanted to hit my lines smoothly. everything went perfect! the only person i heard was my mom at the bottom of the rocks. it felt like she whispered in my ear, "GO BRAD!" then came all the pedaling. i felt like i was on a motorcycle and i just accelerated then into the next rock section perfectly. the next pedaling section came and as i rounded the corner i see a red shirt. its none other than Hank Cadle. he starts running with me and yelling PEADEL PEADEL then screams WORLDS, WORLDS! and it totally inspired me and i just got on the gas! did the last turn and gave it my all to the finish line. i then hear the announcer say, "we have a new leader, Brad Oien!" best feeling EVER! i then got up onto the winners seat and watched the rest of my class come down. no one else was faster than me. I WON! and i was stoked! i couldn't even find my parents. i told everyone i saw and everyone was super pumped. especially my teammate David K. i finally found my dad and i could tell he already knew. i hugged my mom and my dad and we just went on being stoked together! ha!

great time!

Sunday: i stayed around sunday to watch pros and just hang out with everyone. SANJAY came back from south america! YES YES YES!!! so i went with him and caught up on stories at Denny's. plus i ate till i could eat no more! then when we got back i heard the terrible news on my good friends Alfonso and Hank. Alf gashed his forehead and could no longer race. and Hank broke his hand and was at the hospital. those are pretty much the only people i stayed for. So that was way lame! then while waiting for the race to start i went and played basketball with David k, Steve Smith, and Nathan Rennie. i dominated! anyway the pro race ended with Cody C-dub Warren winning, congrats to him!

overall a great weekend with the exception on alf and hank!
looking forward to New mexico!!!

quick post on firestone

i got a pretty cool picture from the firestone race. this was just a local race for the downhillers but a national for the XC crew. i ended up 2 in jr. X, and almost last in pro. i guess i just sucked that day. but i did tie alfonso in the first run then he managed to take 4 seconds off his last run and i only took off a secod. so whatever. i was just there for fun, and fun was had. except for sleeping on the lumpy ground!
anyway, i guess wes pracht does take decent photos!

Sea Otter

new blog is up! im pretty excited about it and cant wait for the up and coming 2007 season to start. it all started two weeks ago with the Sea Otter Classic. that is where i signed my deal with the ODI/ Southridge/ Turner team. i am super pumped about this team. Donny Jackson (southridge usa race promoter) has a super good program for his riders. my new teammates Kyle Adams and newly signed David Klassenvanoorschot ( i think i spelled it right) are really fast and knowledgeable riders and i cant wait to bank off their experience. haha! well david k is fast, kyle is just, eh, whatever. haha. anyway sea otter was pretty fun with the exception that i couldn't get my bike built for slalom. but oh well it was nice to just focus on downhill.
practice for downhill was the worst its been in years. one run every hour! so by race day with 3 days of practice i only had 4 runs in. bull! anyway i still felt really confident, but in my actual race run i just didn't pedal enough and had one bobble up on top so i ended up 8th place out of 80 kids. sounds good but i wanna do better. oh well i just cant wait for the real resort racing!