Sea Otter Classic - April 16-19, 2009

The Big News is that Keith won Junior Expert 18 and under with a time of 2:19:96!!! That's right, 1st Place out of over 50 riders. This is huge and something to be incredibly proud of. Great Job Keith!!! 

Here's Keith's account of his SOC weekend:

"To prepare for the Sea Otter Classic, I cut out all junk food, soda's and all energy drinks. I bought an indoor trainer, hooked it up to my dads Enduro, and I have that set up in my room. I do intervals and go through all the gears until I can’t possibly pedal anymore. I seriously burn my legs until I can’t feel them. Each interval is about 3 min, then I take about a minute, cool down, and I do it all over again. I do that to get used to that burning feeling you get when you pedal you’re a** off. What I have learned is that its all mental: as long as I don’t think about the burning, I feel like I can pedal for hours.

On that Wednesday, before the first day of practice, Tony and I simply walked the course, checked out what was new, and figured out what to do different from last year; where to sneak a few more pedals, and what are the straightest lines through certain sections. 

Thursday, I did 5 complete runs. No sessioning. That helped me pedal through the whole course without thinking of stopping like last year when I sessioned the whole track. That helped a lot. I didn’t work on speed, but I worked on my lines, and getting them burned into my brain, how to take certain corners, and where to and how to jump things.

Friday, I started to add more speed to my runs, and started to shoot lower on the jumps. I worked on not breaking in the corners, but braking before the corners for max exit speed,

Saturday, I also worked on exit speed, and pumping everything I possibly could to maximize my speed with less effort,

Sunday, race day, I felt really good. I had my lines dialed, and I knew exactly where to pump, where to pedal, and where to brake. I did one practice run, just to see how the track changed.

Twenty minutes before my race, I found a spot to be alone, had my ipod on, and my favorite song, so i could get in the zone and imagine my run corner by corner.

In my race run, after the starting beeps, I was in such concentration I didn’t hear the crowd along the track. It was silent. It was one of the best runs I’ve have ever had."

Khaner raced Slalom in 18 and under Cat 1. At 14, I'm proud of him for taking on this division and qualifying 23 out of just over 30 riders. 

Check out more Dual Slalom photos here.

In DH, Khaner had a clean run and finished mid pack in 15-16 Cat 1 with 11th place and a time of 2:33:13. 

In my race run, I slipped a pedal on the jump to table at the top. When I came down, my foot was just a little too far forward for me to pedal. I adjusted my foot and couldn't quite get it in the right place, so I had to pedal over the next table and the step up into the berm (instead of floating above them). I figure this cost me at lest 8-10 seconds in momentum and speed. I had been cleaning all these jumps in practice. I also didn't hit the rutted berm smoothly just before the hip. I came out of the ruts a bit too high and had to almost come to a stop. The rest of my run was felt fast and I ended up in 11th place with a 2:34.

All in all, it was a great 4 days of riding, hanging and chatting it up with friends and industry folks. Thanks to Phil at rideSFO for letting us hang around the hippest, most crowded booth at the event!!!

Fontana City National - 03/23/2009

Khaner, Tony, Keith, Alan

Khaner leads the way in practice.

Dustin takes 3rd Place in 35-42 Category 1.

Keith Sprints across the finish line to finish 11th out of 5o in Cat 1, 18 and under.

Check out more pics from Fontana on Flickr.

The MOB in Mojave - 02/14/2009

Khaner and I left San Francisco for Bootleg Canyon on Friday morning. Keith, James, Justin Martin,  and Alan Stoddart had already left early that morning from San Jose. The plan was to meet them in Boulder City later that night.

After about 6 hours of driving, we reached a mountain pass just east of Tehachapi and the Highway was closed. It had snowed in the higher elevations causing them to close the road and keep us all sitting and waiting on or next to the highway. We pulled over onto a frontage road and waited, hoping they would re-open the road. About 2 hours later, they did and we were allowed to drive over the mountains and through the pass. 

It was a strange mix of snow and lush green mountainsides.

Saturday we registered and practiced the DH course. Shuttles were good. The course was fun and tricky in some sections. Up top it was loose and jagged rocks. Some off camber rock sections. Ledges with no where to go but down on one side. Gee and Dan were practicing at the same time and Gee took a nice tumble over the bars and onto the rocks. My best run down was following those two... not at all keeping up, but knowing they had stopped and were looking at the course, watching us ride by. I never flowed it so smoothly. If only I could have used that as my race run.

On Sunday, Khaner and Keith would be racing the same division in spite of the fact that they are over 3 years apart. Khaner is 14. Keith, 17. The division, Junior Expert 18 and under. 

Keith had a solid run and finished 3rd in 18 and under Cat 1.

There were over 50 riders in 18 and under Cat 1, so for points they split the group into 15-16 and 17-18. With this split, Khaner ended up 5th in 15-16 Cat 1.

I had a good run and stayed on course and on the bike. The top section felt reasonably fast, but down low in the rollers I lost my flow and had to brake coming into a crucial speed section. 

They usually have separate divisions for 30-34 and 35-39, but here they had them grouped together into 30-39.  A 30 yr old dude won my division, but as he was crossing the finish line, he took a bounce that threw him into a ladder bridge on the side of the course, snapping his humerus. I ended up with my humerus intact, and 10th in 30-39 Cat 1.

The temperatures turned chilly as the sun set and the awards ceremony become more elusive.

Check out more pics from the MOB on Flickr.

A New Sponsor!!!

At the beginning of the year, Keith swapped his 888 for an older FOX 40 that he had in his garage and he loved it. He told Khaner and I that he felt so much smoother on the 40... and we should switch too. We discussed it and decided to send FOX a sponsorship application. They responded quickly with an offer and we accepted. We couldn't be any happier with our forks so far this year.  The 40's are plush as h**l. And the 36 Talas on my Nomad has been perfect. We're hoping to get the rest of our Marzocchi's sold asap so we can upgrade Khaner's Chameleon to a Fox 32 Talas.

2009

In the interest of sponsorship, we decided the team would consist of 3 riders, and they would be the riders that ultimately made it to Vermont for Nationals. Keith, Khaner and I (Dustin). As far as the primary sponsorship, Phil and I agreed that it was too difficult logistically for this to be a rideSFO Team. There was too much to coordinate and not enough time or geographical proximity to make it happen. So, rideSFO remains a sponsor, but not the title sponsor.

Gamut, Sunline, Sixsixone, Royal, Formula, Crank Brothers, and SDG stuck with us and we're proud to be running their product this year. They all make the best gear in their respective categories, so its a no brainer for us. 

Santa Cruz decided not to sponsor us this year. Not sure why, but I'm assuming because we hadn't done precisely what we set out to do: Create a large team that travelled and raced together under the rideSFO banner. What we had done, was take 3 riders to more races than they had ever done before, and to a solid year of podium finishes. I have to say that I'm very proud of our accomplishments, and proud of where we finished at the end of the year. 

I sent Marzocchi an application, and they said they'd get back to us. I think they assumed they were just sponsoring us through rideSFO. But, I have to say, in 2008, we were very unhappy with their product. The 888's were much more laterally stiff than the Boxxers that we had been running, but they quickly became plagued with air issues. Marzocchi service was pretty helpful just before Nationals, but as time wore on, responses have been slower, and ultimately it just became too frustrating to continue dealing with them.

Keith Attends Gene Hamilton Racing Camp

At the end of 2008, Keith made the trek to Bootleg Canyon to attend the legendary camp of Gene Hamilton. You can see Keith in the pic second from the left.

Read more about the camp here.

The End of 2008

Its a bit late for the first post of the 2009 season, but what can I say. You start training, start looking for sponsors (hoping to keep the old ones and bring in some new ones), start racing, keep working to pay for the racing, try not to neglect the family, the housework... It goes on and one. And so does life. And here we are, a couple months into the season and this is my first post. Life goes on.

I have to say I wasn't the best about keeping up with races last season either. It was off to a good start, but I think I relied too much on this blog to be a photo gallery, which just takes too much organizing, too much planning. You can't go back and create posts between posts, your newest posts just show up last. So, once you get behind, you have to go back and do all the old posts to catch up. You can't just do a new one and then expect to go back and fill in the blanks. Nope. And that's my excuse. A few races got away from me and here we are. I missed half of last season.

Overall, I have to say, 2008 was a great inaugural season for the Faction team. It was off to a great start working with Phil and getting our sponsors lined up. I was pretty proud of who we rounded up and the application I put together. We were a strong team of 7 riders with high hopes and aspirations. We all had plans of attending all the NMBS races in Cali, and even some in the Midwest. And Nationals in Vermont.

As it went, three of us made it to Vermont and had a great time. Keith and his dad James travelled with Khaner and I. We rented a car together and booked the same hotel together. James functioned as team photographer, and the rest of us raced.

The DH course was fun, rooty, wet in spots, challenging, fast, rocky, even scary at times. We all had great practice runs, and were feeling great when race day came. Khaner went first and ended up in first in 14 and under. James and I were at the bottom waiting for Keith and he never showed. We both got worried, especially James. I had to head up for my run in spite of the absence of Keith. After all was said and done, I ended up 4th in 35 - 39 Expert. Keith showed up later and had a broken ankle. He had went too fast through the top section and got thrown off course, over the bars and onto his feet where he rolled his ankle. He got him some crutches and got taped up for the ride home.

On the way home, we got stuck in DC overnight due to bad weather so we made the most of it. Keith and Khaner had wheelchair stunt contests in the airport and we all checked into the Hyatt at a discount rate for the night. The next morning, we headed back to the airport and back home to our jobs and families.