Cali

Here's my GROM Racing race report from my California trip:


This past weekend I travelled with GROM Racing head coach Christopher Herndon to Lake Tahoe to compete in the Pro Gravity Tour Race at the Northstar-Tahoe Resort. The race’s place in the Pro Gravity Tour series attracted a number of national and world class athletes and served as a World Championship qualifier for junior racers.

Christopher and I travelled for nearly twenty hours on Thursday to get to the race venue. The fatigue from travelling made acclimation to the altitude, time zone difference, and conditions even more difficult. The course itself was completely new to me. The track soil was sandy and dry, coined “moon dust” by local riders and the loose conditions caused braking bumps to swell to axle deep ruts. Luckily my team bike soaked up the rough sections and blown out turns on the course.

I spent Friday practice working to become familiar with the new track and made decent headway before afternoon seeding. Seeding went well and I placed 17thout of a field of junior riders about forty deep. I knew I had a lot of speed left on the track and I would need to carry more speed come race day to reach the podium. I took several more runs on Saturday with top pro qualifier Brad Benedict and pro rider Amado Stachenfeld to boast my comfort level on the course. Through all the dust and grit my GAMUT chain guide performed flawlessly and I never dropped a chain.

Race day brought more intense heat and the course became even dustier. My race run was going well and I flowed through the top pedaling sections. Unfortunately, I went down in a high speed sandy berm in the middle of the course. Although I did not achieve the result I was looking for I learned a lot from the new riding conditions and unique experience. I would like to say thanks to Juan from GAMUT for sharing his pit space with me and Christopher Herndon for accompanying me and helping me throughout the race.

Now to catch a few DH runs, see ya!!

More Race Starts

I spent the previous weekend at Plattekill Ski Area in New York. The race was part of the Pro Gravity Tour Series which is the US national downhill series and was a World Championship qualifier. The course was rocky and technical with a few long fitness sections, classic for Plattekill. My run was clean and fast and I ended up 3rd in the junior expert category. I was pleased with my strong result.
Memorial weekend I attended the US Open of Mountain Biking at Mountain Creek New Jersey. Hundreds of racers raced included a handful of world cup and national riders. I started to get up to speed by Saturday morning on the course which was characterized by a rocky technical upper section, fast and open lower bits, and a 40 foot finish line jump. I had difficulty in my qualifying run going down in the first turn and then finished out my run smoothly. I was unable to qualify for pro finals but I learned a lot from the weekend and enjoyed watching pro finals.

First Race

First race was this past weekend at Massanutten Ski Area. I had a great weekend and enjoyed practice. During my race run my tube punctured in the top rocks. Oh well, it was fun to see so many familiar faces. I just have to stay positive and keep on training. My new race bike felt awesome and I am excited to continue working on fine tuning it. A huge thanks to Grom Racing which provided great support and help throughout the weekend. Race two is Plattekill in a few weeks, can't wait!

2010 Bike Race Season Around the Corner

Only three weeks until my first race at Massunutten Ski Area in Virginia. I have also joined a new junior downhill mountain bike team, grom racing. Visit gromracing.com to learn more!

First Post

First blog post here!!!!

This blog will follow my life, more specifically my experiences living in Montgomery County Maryland and my journey to become a professional mountain bike racer.

There are only three days until the winter solstice, the most important mountain bike holiday. Longer days=longer riding time. In the meantime, I'm watching a true nor'easter brew. The snow is coming down, and weather.com is calling for 1-2 feet! This can only mean snow xc rides and extreme luge tracks in the back yard. Can't wait to get a good season of mogul skiing in the bag also. Monday is also going to be my first day of weight training...yay.
Thanks for reading!
Sam

Here's a shot of me doing a luge berm last winter with an angry face: