Update from Oz: The gods have chosen Graeme’s trip to end a long drought in Oz, and it has been pouring continuously. If anyone thought it was pouring badly for practice, seeding was worse. Race day is predicted to have double the rain of seeding.

So, on a course where race times are usually in the 6 minute range, Pitts pulled close to 8, with one crash, feet blowing off the pedals, and his wheels actually stopped from caked mud. He did manage to get in some pedaling, though. He is thinking he may run platforms tomorrow because he’s so sick of feet slipping. So with all that trouble, he managed 30th out of 64 riders. Good work!!!

There are no bike lifts at this venue – you hook the pedal onto the seat, and hope for the best. Also – only one run on the mountain – the race run, and lift tickets run about $70/day! Crazy!

Where’s Waldo?  Here’s a Pitts sighting at Los Angeles Airport, checking in pre-flight.  Notice his awesome Crateworks bike box -  here’s what he has to say about this excellent product:

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Feb. 8 Monday

Well, it is Feb. 9 and Tuesday Down Under! Graeme is at Thredbo, getting ready for the big race this coming weekend. He is pretty much without internet for the week.

He is staying with 18 year old Oz rider Danny Lavis – a pinner, from what Graeme says. Josh Button, Oz top-ranked rider is due to arrive sometime today; they will all be sharing a condo.

Read this and don’t weep (because things are so much cheaper for us here than in Oz) – in order to practice during the week, lift tickets are $70/day!!!! And from what I understand, there is only one run – the race run!
This event will be have way better attendance than Shepparton – that was Shepparton’s first go round, it didn’t seem to have a good reputation, and so a lot of riders didn’t show for that one.

The course: 6+ minutes of gnarly, steep downhill. No uphills, no flats! Sounds ripe for arm pump! Graeme said the Banshee Legend Mk II handles it all with ease!

Leslie Pitts, Team Manager

Thursday – Jan. 21
In order to get the trip going right, Cody and I woke up a 4:45 in the morning so we could leave by 5:00.  Happy times, I am such a morning person.  So we arrived at a gas station to meet up with some of Cody’s friends to drive out to Shepparton.  After a bit of waiting, we got on the road and drove for a few hours and stopped at a truck stop called “Dog on the tucker box”, story goes “some f*(#!ng old timer died and his dog sat on his tucker box (lunch box) and never ate the food and waited for ages”.  End of story according to Codes, and loving all the details!!!  Had breakfast there and carried on.  Eventually we stopped at a Kennworth dealer to pick up some stickers for Harley (Cody’s brother).  After about 7 hours of driving we made it to Shepparton Victoria, and after debate and searching on Google, found out where the DH and 4x courses were.  Two separate locations on opposite sides of the county!  The DH was 30km (haven’t gotten used to the imperial system yet) out of town in a small township called, and I kid you not, Dookie.  The course resembled a few races I have done in years past.  It was like Fontana with the rocks and awkward moves, Cougar Mountain Classic in Sonoma with camber dead grass and weird corners and finally, Northstar for the looseness.  So, after getting hot, dusty and dirty walking the DH we drove back into town, then out the other side over to the 4x track.  From what all I was told, over $100,000 had been put into the area where the 4x track was to make it an official park!!!  The layout of the track was very creative and well done.  Plenty long and on par with a WC track.  After the boys and I got done with hanging out there we went back to the apartment for dinner. Read the rest of this entry »

Hey everyone! For those of you interested in keeping up on what’s going on in the crazy life of Graeme Pitts, become a fan of him on Facebook!

here’s the link… GP on FB!

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Jan. 21 in USA/22 in Oz – practice today for Graeme at Shepparton. He describes the course as similar to Sol Vista – technical, dry, dusty, a lot of off camber stuff, short (2 minutes or under) and FUN! It was the equivalent of 108 degrees there with hot winds!

Today was seeding – Graeme got 15th out of over 50 riders. He totally enjoyed riding his new bike. Took 3 runs to be dialed on it. “It’s awesome!! I love it!” were his comments via Skype.
Race day tomorrow, supposed to be less windy, so expecting faster times.

Yes yes everyone!  That’s right!  GraemePitts.com has been upgraded to 21st century technology!

The site is now Blog-based which means lots of great new opportunities! Organization of info on this new site is much easier for us to deal with, and that in turn makes navigating the site a breeze! There’s an excellent search function, and everything is accessible via search, categories, and tags!

Soon we’ll get twitter and facebook synced up with the site to bring you the absolute latest-breaking news on Graeme Pitts’ neverending saga.

Please take a moment to peruse the site, sign up as a member, leave comments often (we really appreciate the comments), and check back frequently! There will always be something new popping up on GraemePitts.com!

Thanks!

-G (the older, wiser G )

Banshee Bikes (www.bansheebikes.com) and Team Geronimo (www.geronimoracing.com) are both pleased to announce their new partnership for the 2010 race season. 2009 isn’t even a memory yet, but Jay MacNeil, General Manager of Banshee Bikes, and Team Geronimo are busy preparing for a jump start on 2010 – ready to hit the National, International, and World Cup race circuits on Banshee’s new Legend Mk II DH bike and Rampant 4X bike.

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Mountain States Cup – Crested Butte, CO – June 17-21, 2009

Day 1:  (Wednesday before race weekend)
Went up the hill in the late morning to ride the mountain and found out that the race course was already taped!  Awesome!  I can practice the race run all week long!  First run down the hill and, to my astonishment, I realize that I’m way up in elevation (10,500’).  Even a relaxed inspection run was a workout.  Same elevation as Angel Fire and Mammoth Mountain, but my lungs were complaining.
On to a steak dinner and a good night’s rest and lots of hydration.

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