Don't blow it.

After Gloucester and Night Weasels Providence had a lot to live up to. I've seen some video, and heard a lot about the quarter pipes, but I needed see it to believe it.


Day 1 in photos.

This

followed several riders later by

This

followed by

This

I'm gonna write about Day 2, because Billy should write about day one.

Thom got his crippled ass out of bed early and drive me to the race with plenty of time for pre-riding. Seriously Thom deserves a ton of credit for going to Sunday's race after his less than spectacular Saturday. The race starts at 8:00 and at 7:30 the course still wasn't finished being staked off. Not the biggest problem, but I definitely did 1 of my 2 pre-ride laps wrong.

The start grid was registration order again giving Billy and I front row starts, thank you signing up early. He and I had discussed the fact that we were probably riding for second because Charlie Schubert was there, and he has been whipping us like dogs every time we've raced him (good for you Charlie.)

The whistle blows and it's on. I see Billy surge up on the left, and Charlie zoom past on my right. I manage to be second wheel onto the grass and promptly overcook the first right hand turn. I did something similar at Quadcross, I went so hard that my brain couldn't handle turning my bike. That time it took me a while to get going again, but this time I jumped back in in the top 20. I proceeded to pedal my ass off, and managed to get around a few guys before the off camber grass part. There were a lot of guys just coasting through on the high line, so I went low, pedaled, and managed to get to about 5th wheel.

Personal highlights of the rest of the race:

-Remounting in the drops after the barriers every time.

-Sprinting up the false flat on the back every lap.

-Railing the downhill headed back to the pit, and attacking to get to 3rd wheel

-Not freaking out when Eric Oishi was closing on me in the final lap. On Saturday he was on my wheel on the last straight, I had him pull through hoping to ride his wheel to success, but he rode me right off it instead. We finished with the same time on both days.

-Not blowing it when I rolled by and saw Billy off the course hopping around. I saw that and thought "Please not again. Oh sh*t now I'm in 3rd, don't blow it." I didn't.

-Finally only losing to 2 people.

This whole NECX Superweek has been incredibly awesome. From the spectacle that was Gloucester to the party and general awesomeness of Da Weasel to getting a rider on the podium each day of Providence. Every race was awesome, and all of the people that I've met, or become better acquainted with have been awesome as well. I'm stoked that this is my home.