The rock garden of a race called the Mountaineer Run in Masontown, West Virginia was by far the most grueling and technical race we have all experienced this year on the GNCC circuit.
Heading to the line it was blistering hot! Ricky gave us the flag and we were off. When we hit the woods I had no idea that rocks could be that slippery. It had not rained but water was coming out of the ground in many places from recent rainfall. I was bouncing all over the place trying to get some traction!
Lap 1 I came around in 4th place and I thought that I could just settle down and pick my way through the rocks and pass some people. Lap 2 I was in 5th place and was having some arm pump issues. My suspension was not dialed for that many rocks and they started fatiguing. Chris Douglas and Ted Mullins had a good ride going and started checking out. I dropped back into 6th the next lap after making a mistake behind Adam Bonneur and he was putting in a good ride and pulled away. Lap 5 Ryan Belue had caught me. I was exhausted after fighting the rocks all day, and when he came around me he gave me a fist pump for some motivation and almost washed out! It gave me something to laugh about for a few miles as we kept on plowing through the rocks. Lap 6 was definitely the hardest lap to complete! I had caught Brad Bakken and I could tell something was up with that. I fell on a hill and he stopped and was just like “dude I hit my head”. Props to him for finishing! We finished out the race near each other and I was glad to be done! Overall it was a learning experience day. Never go to a rock garden without getting some tips on suspension set up! Thanks to everyone that is supporting me this year and we will see everyone at Snowshoe! Now time to get ready for more rocks.
Brapppp!
