Hi, my name is Bradley and I've been meaning to start a blog for some time now. I wanted a way to keep friends and potential sponsors up to date on my progress during my race season. Some quick background into my experience. I have been riding Downhill for about 4 years now. I have been riding bikes for 12 years. I started out racing junior X cross country, I trained and rode hard but never felt like it was my calling. I stopped when I went to college and dabbled in street riding and skate parks but never pushed my self with it. When I moved to SLC I got the bug to try the whole downhill thing. I remember I couldn't even hit the first jump at I-street (dirt jumping was new thing too) all I knew was I really liked it! I made some friends and my first DH shuttle was down the Bountiful race course. I probably crashed 20 times that day, I learned a bunch and realized DH is about the most fun one can have on a bike. Since then I haven't slowed down (if anything sped up)
I started racing 3 years ago, I did a sport class race and won by so much they told me I wasn't allowed to race sport. I bought a license and raced the go-ride series and my first year I took 2nd overall in cat one, I podiumed every race I attended. the next year I decided to go the next step so I made my way out to a couple national level races. the competition was stiff, I managed a couple 10th place finishes that got me qualified for the national champs at Sol vista. During my race run I felt great but over shot one of the final gaps and went down hard. Got up to finish my race but found that my wrist was in a new spot (dislocated). After that I had a long road to recovery and decided to take a year to freeride and dirt jump(mistake). I should have continued racing so I wouldn't have to play catch up like I'm doing now.
That pretty much brings us up to speed to where I'm at now. I started this year off with goals set and a plan to achieve them. I started training in the gym 4-5 days a week with weights and a spin bike. I try and ride or do something active on the weekends to keep me motivated. So far this year I have already managed to lose 17pounds and gain back my fitness I lost over the last season. I still have a ways to go before i think I'm at the level I intend to ride at but its a great start so far.
As a re-cap on my season to date, I have been competing in the Fontana california winter series to get my self back into race shape. The first race was a bitch! I basically just winged it completely out of shape on a new bike, needles to say I got my ass handed to me. It was great thing in an odd way though. I've never done so poorly in a DH race. it opened my eyes and helped me understand that I need to be training and can't use just natural talent to get to the top.
So far here are my results this year in cat 1:
fontana 1--------------------20th (crash)
fontana 2--------------------10th
fontana 3--------------------18th (crash)
bootleg national------------9th
fontana 5---------------------7th
The Fontana series ended on a good note, heres a link to the results page if you would like more information about it. http://southridgeusa.com/
This brings us to my first post. I hope I didn't butcher it too much. Expect in the near future post's on training, ride/race reports, bike checks, backyard updates, and videos of my adventures of Going Pro.
Thanks,
