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!