Fluidride: Bike Shop, Seattle Washington

We just got back home after spending the last 10 days up in Whistler bike paradise for the Crankworx festival. As usual it was a week filled with racing, music, riding, parties and good friends in a beautiful mountain setting. I decided to race the Garbanzo DH and then skip all the other events to just ride the park and have fun. The Garbanzo was the first gravity event of the festival, which meant that I had one day to practice before the race. It was pouring down with rain - as it has done the whole summer, so it was nothing new to me. My goal was to get through the tough top section of In Deep in these treacherous, muddy, slippery conditions, and to then start racing and pedaling as hard as I can. All went according to plan, I did get through this section fairly well, until I slid off one of the wide bridges in the woods. I had my front wheel on the bridge with the back one in the woods until I hit a tree to come to a complete stop in a ditch. Usually, this would be game over for your race run, but this is the never ending DH race from hell! You can make mistakes and still end up reasonably well.I had a blast, happy that it was over and that I had the entire week ahead of me to just ride to my hearts content. We had planned to do some xc riding too, but the lure of the park was too much. I had to ride my DH bike as much as possible, because I have the rest of the Summer and Winter to spend on my XC bike - especially now that I have signed up for the Cape Epic again for 2009.Katrina Strand organized a special lift ride to the very top of the mountain for a whole group of us to go and ride the trail Ride don’t slide. We had a massive crew with Andrew Neethling, Matti, Thomas Vanderham, Sven, Donnie, Sam Dale, and the Atherton clan. It was great not to have to hike up there, but the views were the best part of this lift ride to the top. It was breathtakingly beautiful. The trail was amazing. I forgot how steep the start of it was, but after a few minutes at this pitch, I got into it and had a huge grin plastered across my face. It was great to get away from the usual Crankworx madness and lift lines for a while. Thanks Katrina! So for now we are back in Bend OR, trying to catch up to life in the real world. Bills, laundry, groceries and loads of xc rides to work off all the beer that was consumed. Andrew Neethling is here for a few days of riding before he heads out to Australia for the 2nd last World Cup round.  Here are the results for the Pro Women.  Here are the Pro women’s Garbanzo Results: