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 »