US Open – Diablo Freeride Park, Vernon, NJ – May 22-24, 2009

Arrived in NJ a full week before the US Open so I could ride Lars Tribus’ awesome private mountain bike park.  I met Lars when I was in La Parva, Chile for the Pan Am Continental MTB Championships.  Lars is an old-school Pro DH racer who could have his way with anybody anywhere for years, including consistent podiums and a first at Worlds Masters.   He has a pretty rad setup – huge pump track, mobile starting gate (which I helped build on the back of his truck aptly named “The Death Mobile”), huge doubles, a moto track and DH trails.  I got to stay in his pool house for the whole week, which was pretty sweet, and Ethan Quehl (Jr. Ex National Champ 2008) joined me mid-week.  I spent some time doing trail maintenance after an east coast winter, and then did some rad riding with Lars, Ethan, Sean McClendon, Cody Warren and Kyle Strait.  It was the highlight of the trip.

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Fluidride Cup #2, PGRT #1 May 1-3 2009

Sometime the week before the race:  Arrived in PA ready to get the track figured out and just get used to the scenic Pacific Northwest.  Connected with Olympic Dirt Society guys Lars Sternberg and Scott and managed to get in four runs on Tuesday.  Walked the course on Wednesday and helped ODS set up.  My first impression riding there was “Incredible!!  This is awesome!!!  Exactly the same as the trails at UCSC but rougher.  With super-hammered old tires that I had lying around, I still had traction.”
Thursday:  First day of practice.  Track was incredible; it had dried out since the first time I rode it, so it was even faster.  Felt good, Kirt and Lindsey Voreis arrived with the Santa Cruz AllRide trailer, and most importantly – Travis Lucas, team mechanic!!!

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Pitts takes 2nd in dual-stunt!

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Sea Otter Classic,4/13-20

Arrived at SO our usual Monday evening, ready to practice on Tuesday.  Not happening – the wind was so brutal that if I tried to hit any of the jumps, corners, or ANYTHING, I would just get blown over!  So after a couple of runs of trying to practice the top section, I decided my life was worth more than that and headed back for some trials fun at the campground.

Wednesday – registration, move into the paddock and help Jeff Lenosky and Kyle Ebbet test some sections on the Dual Stunt course.  After testing one of the sections, Kyle asked me “So how do you think it would feel riding this for the first time as a 13 year old girl?”  to which I replied “Dude!!!  Be nice!”  They were having an amateur girls’ race…..

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Pan Am Continental Mountain Bike Championships 3/17-22

Tuesday – arrived in Chile at Hotel La Posada late morning and, lo and behold, look who walks in the door – Lars Tribus! It was cool meeting him for the first time and talking with him about – what else? – biking!! (Lars is 5X Masters World Podium, ’03 Masters World Champion). Two local dudes pulled in as we were building our bikes up and said they and Chris VanDine were going to do some runs – did we want to go with them? So we ended up doing 6 practice runs cold turkey. VanDine said that the first run “you are going to be hating life, but every run after that is going to be sweet!” I missed that run and just went straight into having a sweet time.
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Keyesville DH & Trials – March 14 & 15

Boy is trials different from DH! It’s like golf on a bike except it doesn’t require just one ball! It is the tactition’s event -being able to analyze the course and then perform with lots of distractions- like someone standing right next to you talking to you. I haven’t figured out the nutrition yet, either. Everyone in the sport class tanked after even a small lunch. You need a lot of patience and focus. It was really fun though, and I can’t wait to do it again.
8th out of 15.

The Keyesville downhill was a fun relaxed event. Small bikes, good friends, and number plates. In the end it’s a good thing the pro-line (over the grass that wasn’t taped off) wasn’t penalized they thought they’d do at the last minute. Off to Chile!
Results TBA.

-GP

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