2009 Yeti Video Clips

2009 promo video…

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Australia World Championships

What a trip! 

I left from Denver on Friday night, got to the airport way to early (which is typical if my dad drops me off at the airport), checked in, got screwed over by united with baggage fees, and then waited in the terminal for several hours.  Flight one, Denver to LA, not so bad. Layover in LA, get some food, “Baja Express” to be exact, burrito not bad considering it is form the airport… Flight two, Denver to Sydney. 15 hours of misery. I am squashed in between some pimple faced fat kid and a total jerk businessman. They both decided that I do not have any need for the arm rest. great. 

We finally land in Sydney. I find out that the bike I paid 200$ to get on the plane didn’t make it and will be arriving a day late… hopefully. I take my bag and walk out of the terminal. I have no idea where to meet any one. Damion, John, and Gwinny were on a different flight from Denver. Blinky is flying in from New Zealand. Gregor and Anita are flying in from Austria. And the Australian Distributor for Yeti is going to meet us in the airport. After sever more hours of waiting (It is now sunday morning, I left boulder friday night) I finally find Damion, Gwinny, and John. Soon there after we meet up with Gregor, Anita, and the distributor. We wait around for another 3 hours. Where is blinky. Turns out he missed his flight and got on the next one.  Another 4 hours of driving and we finnaly show up in Canberra, the nations capitol. A pretty modern and boring city to be honest.  

We had a really nice apartment for the week.  There was a long week of practice ahead. We had practice starting on tuesday and the race wasn’t until sunday. It was important to not do too much practice because you want to peak on sunday and not before.  I felt good on the track from day 2 on. It was like colorado dirt and the rocks were really fun. The bottom of the track was pretty flat and had a lot of pedaling, so i didn’t like that at all.  Friday was the timed practice day. I ended up 38th in timed practice with a mediocre run. This gave me the confidence to go top 30 in the race run, my main goal for the event. It was my first Elite Mens World Championships. The goal was big but for sure doable because I am riding well right now.  

Finally race day came around after a long week or waiting and practice. I was having troubles in practice on sunday morning but I was able to put it together for the race.  I hit the top as fast as I possibly could, I was up at the split by over 1 second, and ended up being 19th in the world on the top split. This shows that I can be competitive on the World Cup level on the gnarly tracks.  I hit the middle section good, made a few mistakes, and then pedaled as hard as I could at the bottom. I ended up 32nd overall in the world. I was really happy with this result and can’t wait to take another 10 or so spots off of this result next year.

Jared won the World 4x Title. It was so amazing to see and be a part of that. Congrats Jared! 

The trip back was even rougher than the trip there. I wouldn’t think that that would be possible but it was. It was such a rough flight. I had school the next day and it was rough. All week I was just suffering from jet lag and catching up with school. Only now am I caught up with both and It is quite a relief.  The regular race season has now come to an end for me. Now it is time for colligate racing. I won the CSU race last weekend but 8 second on a 2 min track. The racing is not very competitive for me but it is a really good time to go out and race with all of your buddies in a no pressure environment.

Gwinny and I. Course Inspection.

Jared and his new jersey. World Champion! so sick!

The Yeti crew

Me and Camilo from Columbia!

Crossing the finnish line on the freecaster.tv live feed

Windham, School, and World Championships

A lot has happened recently and life has been hectic!

First of all, I had a great result out on the east coast. I ended up placing second behing 06 Junior World Champ, Cameron Cole.

The track in Windham is sooo sick! Bring on World Cup Finals next season! I am feeling confident for a good WC finish there!

Pro Podium!

My sister and her family live near by in New York. My Nephews are bad ass!

I also found out the weekend while I was in Windham, NY that I had been Selected for the Elite mens World Championship team for the USA. So now I’m going to race the World Championships for my first time as an Elite. I went 2 times as a Junior but am really excited to get to compete with the big dogs now. Im leaving this Friday August 28th and returning on Monday September 7th. The race is on the 6th. You will be able to wath the entire race live on freecaster.tv Looking forward to going and also expect blog posts from the event on this space.

Tomorrow school starts. I’m going to be a sophomore at the University of Colorado at Boulder. I am an Anthropology major. I think it is going to be hard to miss an entire week of school but it is totally worth it for World Championships. Not looking forward to class tomorrow but it will be cool to see every one and meet some new people. I am also really excited for colligate season to start. The racing is really fun and laid-back so it is a really good way to wind down the season. There are 4 conference races here in colorado and then National Championships in Northstar, Tahoe, California. Last year I won both the conference overall and the National Title. I am looking to repeat this season.

Skin suite. Race run at national champs 08. Won by 7+ seconds!

Update

I got back from quebec last week. I have some photos and stuff to post from that trip when I get back to Boulder on Monday. I’m here in Snowmass, Colorado now with the Yeti team. Yesterday was the first day of practice and the track is very very fast and rough. There are not many turns on the track. This morning I was practicing on the track and had a massive wreck. I hurt my lower back really bad and had to sit in the ER all day. Turns out I’m ok but I will be out for a few days. Looks like I won’t get to race this weekend. On wednesday I am going to New York for the next Pro Gravity Tour event and then back home to Boulder.

National Champs Yeti Podcast

Check out the latest Yeti Podcast from Yeticycles.com Sweet coverage of National Champs. Congrats again to Aaron!
USA National Championships 2009
Yeti Cycles Podcast from the 2009 USA National Championships in Sol Vista, Colorado, USA.

Quebec Trip

I decided to go to the Monte Satine Anne and Bromont World Cups after National Championships. I can’t race because of a UCI rule. I have to have the needed 20 UCI points as of July 6th and July 11th for the races. I didn’t have the points then. I earned 50 points last weekend though. There is a small chance I will be able to ride the World Cup in Bromont. It was still worth it to come to the races here with the team though. Sam, Jared, and Aaron have so much to offer. Just watching how they prepare for a World Cup and do there training is awesome. I have been able to learn a lot and hopefully this will set me in the right direction to become a full time World Cup pro. There is awesome riding here aside from the race track and I have been testing out a new Yeti prototype (review/comments to come). It has been a lot of fun! I’m about to go watch Dh practice and test out the new bike more. Here are some photos from the trip so far…

Stopped some where along the rushed 30 hour drive

Quebec City from a distance

There is sick XC trails here. I’m making the best of my time here. These berms are on the World Cup XC course. Rad!

The view from the top of the lift. It was nice weather yesterday but I think its going to be very rainy today and tomorrow for the race.

The start gate

USA National Championships

National Champs couldn’t have gone much better. I got 5th out of 125 in the Pro Mens Downhill. Its my first season in pro and I can only hope to make a step forward this big every season. I’m just going to sum the weekend up with a bunch of pictures… Here ya go…

Yeti has the sickest pit set up. Hands down…

Qualified 4th Finished 5th

Our lockers in the team trailer. It was awesome to get to hang out around the World Cup racers this weekend. Grubby, Blinky, and Gwinny are rad.

Fox Racing Shox got me dialed this weekend. Complete rebuild for the fork and a fresh RC4 shock on the rear. This stuff is working so awesome! Couldn’t be happier!

Walking the course with Scott. This jump was a 50ft MINIMUM! So intense!

Not only was I stoked to place 5th, I was also really excited about my teammate Aaron Gwin winning and becoming National Champion!

New Yeti Proto-type

The first of the 3 big jumps and the smallest of the 3 as well. Not small by any means however!

Race run.

Photo from Littermag.com. Race run.

2009 USA National Championships Pro Mens DH Podium

From Sol Vista

Today is the last day here before practice. I’ve been here with the Yeti team since yesterday just getting our pit set up as well as dialing in bikes and getting as prepared as possible for the event. Other teams and people started rolling in mid day today. The first practice on the track is tomorrow at 11AM. I have only had a look at the jumps on the dh track, they look really good. Update to follow after practice tomorrow.

New Smith Optics lens’ rule!

Our pit set up from a distance.

National Champs!

A Contender

The Contenders – USA Mountain Bike National Championships

Here is a cool feature from Littermag.com to get you acquainted with the players of the 2009 USA Mountain Bike National Championships this coming weekend in Sol Vista, Colorado. As far I know I will be the youngest pro competing this year.

This is my section in the article

Random videos…

Just saw these. They are not bike related but I figure its cool to watch anyone who is at the top level of their sport.

Ken Block

James Stewart