Joyride Blog

10th Annual Capitol Forest Classic!

8/23/2016

The Classic is back! Or rather, was back. Two weeks ago Joy Ride worked with Friends of Capitol Forest (FOCF) to put together one of the best classics to date. With a turn out unmatched by past years numbers, and all time trail conditions this years race harkened back to a better time. A time where matching kits didn't matter as much, were no one judged you for not riding carbon and everyone was just racing for the finish line beer.

Saturday

Like a patient parent, Squatch watches his heard line up at the start gate.

It was a great thing to see Joy Ride represented in full force, with customers and friends (On in the same in most cases) sitting on almost every podium, and those who didn't cheering on from the sidelines.

Who knows whats up? Wade knows whats up.

Morning preparations going well.

GL6 old and new

Everyone loves JoyRide! We had a couple of great equestrians come out to sweep the course for us on Saturday night, when you maintain good relations with the other user groups it makes everyones lives better!

Erik Dukes (Riding for Joy Ride Enduro) had his eyes on the prize, reeling in his class (Expert men 30-39 ) for the win, and putting down a top 10 pro time. Not bad for an ENDURBRO!

It's not all about racing. Some people are just here to have fun. And thats what the classic is all about! The Poker run turned out to be the most popular category this year pulling in 30 people. Not bad!

Delia Massey (Pro Women) was all smiles on her way to her first Crown as Queen of Capitol Forest.

Jason "Hollywood" Gainey never misses an opportunity to get airborne for a camera. Even if it means he almost hits the photographer ;)

Logan Wetzel holds the title as Capitol Forest's longest serving monarch, having been King of Capitol Forest for three years running.

Henry was adamant that if I got a picture of him dabbing on course I wasn't allowed to post it. Whoops!

Russell Stevenson was on a tear attempting to reel back Toby and Logan on the descent, blowing up corners on an XC Bike like it was nobodies business.

Want to know how fun our trails are? Even on lap two of a brutal XC race some people just can't resist getting their tires off the ground.

Most people know Capitol Forest for it's miles of gorgeous and endless single track. But the locals mostly know it as the best place to hide a body. RIP.

Love your trails. Love your locsl trail builders. Thanks FOCF for keeping it real out there. Capitol Forest wouldn't be the same without you.

Jamie Stewart with the end in sight. Eyes on the prize, and the finish line just a few pedal strokes away, he could already taste the finish line beer.

Erik finished his race fast enough to clean up, get dressed, and then very quickly get undressed again. It's kind of his thing.

The afternoon was a smoker in the sun. Even the gratuitous amount of beer being handed out couldn't keep everyone cool.

Tyler Littlefield (Joy Ride Enduro) on rails headed to 4th place Pro Finish (2nd on LLMT)

Erik Dukes was looking hard to continue his domination from the Saturdays race into Sunday. Unfortuatly his stellar XC result lost out in the Ti-Breaker to Jason "Bollywood" Gainey and Erik was relegated to the 2nd spot in the All Mountain Championship.

Jason the Gainey, reigning champion in the "Grumpy Old Expert Mens" Category!

This is why we do it.

Whitney Anderson took the top spot in the Womens Expert Class, dominating with a smile!

Meet the King and Queen of Capitol Forest!

4 Comments

GRT Rounds 4 & 5 .....Windham, NY and Snowshoe, West Virginia

8/23/2016

2 Comments

Sundays mornings practice felt great and I was ready throwdown! It was supposed to rain right before we all dropped. Luckily it held out and was only just drizzling when the last man was coming down the hill. I felt really good about my run with only one small mistake up top. That run put me into 15th. My first top 20 result at a National!

From Windham we headed straight to Snowshoe where we pedaled some laps and made a little edit with trail bikes. The mountain there is unique because instead of the village being at the bottom of the mountain it is at the top. You ride down into the valley where there is nothing then catch the lift back up. The track was pretty long with some grass turns up top and long rock gardens down lower.
This was another race with lots of rain in the forecast. The first day of practice was pretty dry as was Saturdays practice and qualifying. The damper in my fork decided to blow on the first lap on Friday leaving me scrambling to get it sorted. I tried a lap on the trail bike and quickly realized that wasn't going to happen. Luckily I was able to track down an entire right side stanchion assembly that I could run for the weekend.

Saturdays qualifying went great for me as I placed 9th and had lots more to improve on in finals. It was supposed to rain most of the night and all the way through Sunday, and it did. The track was pretty much a river when we dropped in for practice and only became more sloppy as the day went on. My race run was feeling great until I smashed a wheel in some of the up rocks ending the run way to early.
First mechanical of the season so I guess I can't complain too much! I'm now headed back west for a few more races before the season comes to an end. I have learned so much from these past weeks out east here riding lots of new and different terrain. Huge thanks to Joy Ride Bikes for making all of this possible, wouldn't have been able to do it without the shops support!!

2 Comments

GRT Round 4, Killington Vermont

8/4/2016

1 Comment

After nationals at Mammoth we started making our way over to the East coast. We had a couple weeks before the next race so decided to ride a few spots on the way. We spent a few days in Dillon, CO riding the Keystone bike park and some of the other trails in that area. After a few days in CO we continued East, riding a few smaller spots in between there and Killington. We got to Killington a few days early and did lots of pedal laps in the bike park.

This is the first year that Killington has had a Pro GRT stop at their venue. For this race they had built a new fresh track for us to burn in. The terrain was rad with lots of it being raw. Lots of roots and rocks were under the this top layer of loam. The only thing to be desired in the track was a steeper grade. It was too hard to carry speed through it all but it was pretty flat for a race track.

Fridays practice went great, the track was damp and lines forming as the course was ridden in. By the time Saturdays practice rolled around the course had become much drier and even dusty in some spots making it faster. Qualifying went well as I ended up 26th with a couple things to improve on. Sundays track was going to be completely different due to the large amount of rain predicted in the forecast.

We woke up to a steady drizzle that was on and off all day long making some sections slower but most lines were still the same. I felt good on track, being from northwest I was used to wet track conditions. It was running My run had a couple bigger mistakes but managed to stay upright and came across the line with a 22nd in finals. Improving a couple spots from qualies. Thanks to Joy Ride Bikes for keeping me going and keeping the dream alive!

Another two week break then we head to Windham. Going to be getting lots of laps in on the DH bike between then and stoked to watch the World Cup at MSA.

1 Comment

10th Annual Capitol Forest Classic!

Saturday

GRT Rounds 4 & 5 .....Windham, NY and Snowshoe, West Virginia

GRT Round 4, Killington Vermont

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