Saturday morning brought the race day excitement after an hour drive from home and getting set up with the Scotts Valley Cyclesport crew, I was pretty stoked for this race as it's about finding the balance between how hard you can push while floating on the line between tucking the bike going down or just droppin a foot and drifting moto style. I had my Stumpjumper 29 back on its Sea Otter set up with Specialized Purgatory/Fast Trak tires and tad higher pressures along with suspension to help with the high speeds and copious amounts of pedaling among each stage.
After results were tallied and the day came to an end, I was pretty pumped to make it down each stage without any mistakes and fight the pain to power down on the pedals..this placed me in 6th overall among the Pro field. With 3 weeks until the next round up north in Mendocino, I was planning on getting some big ride days in to prepare for what that race would consist of.
This is where my plans changed.. With Memorial Day and wanting to add to the weekend, I headed out to Hollister Hills for some Moto action. To this day, I've ridden and raced dirtbikes wayyyyy longer than bicycles, and it's still going to take some years for them to equal out. Hollister has been the local spot to ride since I was 5 years old and always made for nothing but good times, learning to find the line between speed and being smart to avoid wild crashes. After a few hours of track and trail time on my KTM 250sx, I was ending the day on a main single track loop, having a blast and riding at a comfortable and pretty quick pace, but completely in my comfort zone. Next thing I know, I'm waking up down a hillside with other riders and rangers around me without a clue of what happened. I was knocked out with a pretty good concussion, but found out that I had been involved in a head-on collision by a group of riders coming at me around a blind corner on a one-way trail. With no memory whatsoever of the incident and a very banged up face, I found myself in the hospital, but luckily all scans of my head came back safe and the worst would be a swollen face for a few days with broken bones near the sides of my nose. After hearing about the accident and seeing the busted triple clamps and headset exploded on my bike, I realized how lucky I was to be walking out of the room...
After taking the rest of the week to rest and recover, I was getting nervous about if I would be able to race round 3 of CA Enduro in a little over a week. As race weekend became present, I found myself behind the starting line of stage 1 ready to try my best to survive the 6 1/2 hour day covering 40 miles and 6 race stages. The Mendocino forest right off the coastal ocean views of Highway 1 offered some of the most adrenaline rushed racing with traversing through very tight, wooded trails at mach speed. I was fighting the nerves of not wanting to crash and hit my head again, keeping in mind the doctor thought I was still resting in bed.. but also having a total blast riding with everyone and the amazing trails. Finishing the day, I found myself quite tired, super stoked on the riding, and happy I could complete the day after how crazy the past 2 weeks had been. A 15th place finish was a bit off the pace but with how tight the times were among the 25 rider group, I was just glad to be in the mix.
Now it's time for the technical bike park events starting with China Peak this weekend!
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Sponsors:
Scotts Valley Cyclesport, Specialized Bicycles, Praxis Works, Gamut USA, Monster Army, Smith Optics, Krawl Loco Clothing, DNA Cycling, Hammer Nutrition, Stikrd, FOX.
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Instagram: @nickyd358
Twitter: @nickyd358
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