Tara Llanes

Tara Llanes is an incredible person and she is back riding downhill after nearly two years. You can check out her website to read about her story or donate to her Recovery Fund.

At Crankworx Tara was out ripping A-Line with TLD rider Chris VanDine. The photos say a lot more than I can.

Catching Up

With Outdoor Retailer in town I didn't get a chance to post a congratulations to all the Tomac/Kenda racers. The team had a great weekend and it was topped off by Colin Cares winning the U23 race. The other big news was that Heather Holmes was selected to the U.S. National Marathon Team at the UCI Marathon World Championships next month in Stattegg, Austria. Make sure to check out the Tomac Fan Blog for all the team updates and pictures of the 29r prototype.

Outdoor Retailer is a bit of a warm up for InterBike for me since 5.10 is the only company that I represent that attends. The rumors about a SPD compatible shoe are true but it still is going to be a while before it is ready. Meanwhile they did release the new Zebra Blue version of the Freerider which for those of you skated in the eighties it's reminiscent of the Christian Hosoi skateboards.


Last but not least is that the long awaited Troy Lee Designs D3 made it's first public appearance this past weekend at the Mount Saint Anne World Cup. Of course it's a great intro to take 1st and 2nd in the men's field on the heads of Sam Hill and Steve Peat.

Nationals

I made it back from the Dominican Republic in one piece and am ready to get back to business. Unfortunetly I won't be at Nationals this week as I know there will be some incredible racing to be seen.

Best of luck to all the local racers going down to Sol Vista and I know you are going to rip it up. Good luck to all the Tomac, Troy Lee Designs, Squirt, Staats and Five Ten riders that will be there.

Park City Point 2 Point

http://thepcpp.com/

Yesterday I was lucky enough to ride about 2/3 of the proposed course with a few other Cutthroaters and friends. If you are on the fence at all about lining up for this race you better jump in head first and sign up. It's definitely going to be a arse kicker but it is sure is going to be worth it. So get on up to P.C., enjoy the trails while they are in great shape and get ready to rumble on September 5th.

Rain & Races

Race #8 of the Intermountain Cup, Peddle Fest @ Deer Valley, was in jeopardy with the potential of too much rain. But the Deer Valley soil and a little warm air after the start of the race made the trails nice and tacky. The turnout was great and racers were treated with some great weather. Of course you have to work through the opening climb a few times but it sorts things out nicely before you dive into the single track.


On the downhill side of things, last weekend's races were held at Wolf Creek Ski Resort. More rain made for fun riding and the Super D did not disappoint. That is unless your climbing legs weren't feeling too good. A new trail with an uphill start got the blood flowing for the first 1/3 of the course. The middle section rolled through some nice sections including a now deep creek crossing with a sharp up afterwards. The bottom 1/3 was incredibly built, fast downhill with some great berms in the corners.

Again the Snyper 1 is incredible and just keeps getting better every time you ride it. The Type X is a thoroughbred and just wants to go fast. If you haven't seen these two amazing bikes please let me know and I would be more than happy to visit your shop.

Tomac Press Release

Joel Smith at Tomac sent out this great press release to Bicycle Retailer last week. On Friday I already recieved my first inquiry about additional lines so again thanks to Joel and crew at Tomac.

http://www.bicycleretailer.com/news/newsDetail/2813.html

Utah Downhill Series Race #2

Saturday was practice for the Bountiful Bomber and what a great day. Partly cloudy, 75 degrees and dry trails. I had heard that their would be a shuttle but little did I know it would be a 23' box truck. Imagine throwing 8-15 people with bikes in the back of a truck, driving for 20 minutes up a rough road and then getting on a downhill course. While the shuttle was an adventure, the Trail Bike course more than made up for it. Scott and Kris from Go-Ride helped add a great section to the normal downhill course for their new "Trail Bike" division.

The Trail Bike division is great and it was good to see people out racing who probably wouldn't race a downhill if this division did not exist. I am sure this division is going to grow a lot once people find out about it.

The Snyper 140 worked incredibly well on this course and everytime I ride the bike it just gets better. It was great to be out at the race letting people know what is going on at Tomac. Lots of great feedback and excitement about the line. Of course their were plenty of questions about the Primer.

Sunday was race day and what a complete change in weather. It rained, rained some more and then continued to rain. Of course I missed the start but bounced my way up in the truck only a few minutes late and the great folks with Salamander let me in. Making a run in full rain gear wasn't what I planned on but who cares, it was a blast.

Thanks to Salamander Promotions for putting on a great race even with crazy weather, Go-Ride and all the other great sponsors. Next stop is the Wolf Creek Mayhem.