What's up world wide web,
This past weekend was the US Open at Diablo Freeride Park here in New Jersey. It is definitely one of the biggest races in the US these days, especially with the $7500 first place prize. Tons of people come in from all over the world for this event and it always ends up being a fun time. This year there was an extra day of practice which was awesome as we all had one more day to ride such a fun course. Although it was a super fun course, it was extra rough this year and I got more flat tires this weekend than I have in the last few years combined.
The Giant Slalom was super fun this year as well. It is like a mini-DH race on a single slalom track with big berms and some tech jumps in a best of 2 run format. Friday night I qualified in 6th spot for the finals. Saturday night was time for the finals, and of course just has it was about to start, the rain started falling. It only lasted for about 10 minutes, but it was enough to make the track a little slick for the first run. I slid through just about every turn on my first run and ended up in 6th spot again. I knew I had to push a little harder in the next run to make the podium and as a local I could definitely feel the pressure to do good. Not wanting to let down the crowd, I charged super hard in the 2nd run (almost too much as I almost went over the bars on the triple). I was pedaling in spots that I'm usually on the brakes for. The crowd was awesome and extremely loud. I came across the finish about a second faster than my first run. I ended up with a 5th place finish, beating out some legends and securing a spot on the US Open podium for my first time ever!
Sunday afternoon was the downhill finals that I had qualified in 18th (out of 131). I was super pumped to do well in DH after doing well the night before in slalom. The track was unbelievably fast today and my Jamis DH bike was running really good. X-Fusion suspension was dialed, fresh Maxxis tires, and new Shimano brakes. It was almost too fast though. In my run I was coming in to sections way faster than I did in practice and starting missing some of my lines and having more than a couple close calls with flying off the bike. The Red Bull rock garden was crazy this year! There was a Red Bull DJ blasting tunes all day and the crowd brought their own noise as well - air horns, cowbells, pots & pans, loud voices, etc. It was a crazy feeling going through there. Check out my helmet cam run to see what I'm talking about. The bottom half of the course went well, but the mistakes up top had already been made. I finished with a time of 2:30, which ended up tying me in 21st position.
I wasn't too psyched on the DH result this year, but the Giant Slalom podium more than made up for it. Thanks to all of my sponsors for making sure my bikes were dialed this weekend - especially making sure I had plenty of spare tubes! I am taking a couple days off to recoup from the Open but I have some freeride events and roadtrips coming up next so that should be fun. I should be able to start pumping out some web videos as well, so keep checking my website for that - gearsnroses.com.
Thanks all, see ya at the trails
-GR
GEORGE RYANS DH RACE RUN VIDEO!
