Three Fluidride Pro’s were in addendance at the FOCF super D # 2 this weekend.

On Sat they held the XC race which shared the lower part of the super D course. From the sounds of it it was an awesome course. Everyone seemed pretty stoked. I arrived around 1pm on Sat on my way home from working on the Dual Slalom course for the upcoming FRCups at Mt Hood.

The weather was beautiful and the venue was awesome. There is a sweet campground adjacent to the end of the course, right near the finish. Pretty sweet! I poached a spot in the Mutoli’s site (Thanks Guys!) and quickly geared up. I was pretty excited to get riding after hearing all the hype about how good the course was. I was riding my new Transition Double and was pretty confident I selected the correct weapon after seeing the wide variety of bikes being used. I hopped in the Mutoli’s rig for a quick shuttle to the top.Following Ethan down I quickly realized I had my work cut out for me as he was Hauling. 25 minutes later I couldn’t shed the grin off my face from the killer course.

It starts out with a quick dhish decent into absolutely buff singletrack. The top of the course has quite a few ripping switchbacks with fast and flowy straightaways in between. After that you’re into a short climb and a flat section. Important to keep the RPM’s up here. After the flat is into some more descending. You are greeted with slightly rougher terrain in this section, and then into another flatish section. Lots of pedaling in this bit. Across the first bridge you’re into the second climb, and into a flat clearcut that almost resembles a pumptrack. After the clearcut you cross a road twice, then into my favorite bit the bobsled run. I don’t know the proper name for this section but that’s what it reminded me of. 9th gear most of the way, balls out. The trail is about 18inches wide with a couple feet of salow covering the unknown on both sides of you. Important to keep your speed up here and stay on line, cause if you get off, there very well could be a stump or log with your name all over it.

After a few minutes of the bobsled into a super short uphill then a short jump section that reminded me a lot of Galbraith. Then some wicked small bermed turns for a while, across another bridge and the last climb. In the race run this was brutal, and crucial. Got to save just a bit for this one otherwise you’re a goner. Then a minute or two, which felt like six, of another mild up and down into the finish.

I think I did three practice runs in total on Sat, the next two of which I succeded in getting passed by Fluidride shredder Nathan Riddle about 3 minutes into both runs. I knew then we were all racing for second place.

Sun morning came early and just one more practice run for breakfast. Then a quick turn around and up the hill for race runs. I timed a 23min run in practice with my DMC moto trainer and was hurting. So I figured if I could break 22min I would be happy. I had a pretty good run, definitely a few mishaps, but all in all in 22 minutes of anerobic suffering I couldn’t ask for more. I ended up placing 3rd behind Matt Yeager of FOCF, and Nathan Riddle. Just knowing I made it, and that the Riddler took top honors was good enough for me. I barely bested Ethan Mutoli in 4th, and Fluidride’s own Simon Lawton rounded out the top five.

Nathan Riddle ended up Placing First overall for the series, and Simon placed 3rd overall; congrat’s guys!

A big shout out to Friends of Capitol Forest for putting on such a great event, and all of Fluidride’s sponsors- Fox Racing Shox, Troy Lee Designs, SDG, Sunline, Maxxis, E.13, Crankbrothers, and Shimano.