Tuesday - A big/eventful day
Ok, we'd ridden Cycle Ranch (awesome), done the street ride/Oasis thing (awesome and awesome), now it was Tuesday and we were going to go to Cross Creek that day. CC has a regular MX track, some great woods/trails and even a supercross track. Then Austin Del Valle (ADV, the night track) was scheduled for Wednesday night.
But when we got to Cross Creek Tuesday morning after another delicious breakfast at Rudy's, we found out that ADV was going to be open TONIGHT and closed Wednesday because the owner of ADV had had great weather the last 2 Tuesdays, then got rained out on Wedneday night. And the weather pattern was predicted to be the same this week, so it looked like we were riding 2 tracks in one day. Oh darn. Well, the main track at Cross Creek, while entertaining, wasn't prepped and was kinda crusty and dangerous. It had been changed a lot since I rode it last. It was now run in the reverse direction and a lot of the table tops had been changed into 'make it or die' doubles. All of us have mortgages, so we decided to just ride easy at CC, save our strength, then head out at 4 pm for ADV.
Well, for me, this plan didn't work out too well, as I crashed in some whoops and hurt my left wrist and broke off my front brake lever against my knuckles, (YES, I need bark busters, JUST LEAVE IT ALONE!!) so that ended my riding. I'd already ridden the MX track a lot and had some fun once I got my suspension sorted out. Then we went on a really fast trail loop with some cool local guys, which I really enjoyed. So I was left as designated photographer. I never did get any woods pics or pics of the main track, but Jamison and Rod were having a ball on the supercross track, so I got a lot of pics and video there. Mike did come up short on a double and cased it so hard, his handlebars rotated about 120 degrees in the clamps. He tweaked his shoulder a bit, but not too bad.
NOTE: All the ADV stuff is at the bottom of this page.
Jamison LOVED this very steep-faced jump
More...
Right before the finish line tabletop
Not the best pic, but it shows the SX track
Rod enjoying the new beast
And again ...
Another...
You can see the main track over yonder ...
Cross Creek Videos:
Jamison
Jamison, with a twist
Jamison and Rod clear the finish line tabletop
This is what happens when you think you're taking a picture
and you actually started a video
Mike's been working on his wheelies and it shows
Another of Rod
Mike's new pipes are LOUD! Wait, that's him SNORING
Austin Del Valle
So we looked at some maps and figured out how to get from Cross Creek to ADV. We stopped and ate and made it there just a bit later than we wanted, although I didn't care, I was hurt. ADV is on flat ground, but I've never seen a more fun track. The surface is all PERFECT sand and the track is challenging, yet safe. As safe as an MX track can be, anyway. I had ridden there last October and it was a ball. Well, when we got there, I realized than it was good before, but they had improved it SUBSTANTIALLY. When we got there and Jamison, Mike and Rod saw how nice the track was, they FLEW out of the vehicles and started THROWING stuff out of the truck so they could ride it. I swear, 4 year-olds on Christmas Day don't get this worked up. It was pretty funny. So they got out there and rode their little hearts out, while I walked around and ran the camera and kicked myself for missing out on this. They came back in for a drink and were RAVING about it.
Jamison had a fair amount of bad luck, two flat tires and problem with his shifter, but we all pitched in and the tools were flying, someone holding an axle, someone holding a light, and pretty soon he was out there ripping it up again.
This blurry pic was the only one that came out, due to the dark
ADV Videos:
Jamison in the whoops
Jamison doubling
Jamison doing a big tt
Jamison on a straight
Jamison doing whoops again
Mike on a tt
Mike on the straight
More of the same ...
Mike on a different double
Mike haulin' the mail on the straight
I like the light on this TT jump by Mike
Mike in the whoops
Rod in the whoops
Mike on a different double
Mike haulin' the mail on the straight
I like the light on this TT jump by Mike
Mike in the whoops
Rod in the whoops
These next videos of some local fast guy who was FLYING.
I had a lot of time and he was fun to video, so there's a lot of them.
The 6th video shows him going through the whoops and doubling into
an area they call the Catcher's Mitt. Watch closely, at one point
in that 6th video, he does a triple step up that NOBODY else did, it was crazy.
The videos are in 'track order' in other words, it goes like this:
Triple
Short chute
Rhythm section
Straight
(large section of the track I didn't show, but Mike has previously done a TT with good light)
Then the BIG step up they call Godzilla
Whoops
Catcher's Mitt Double after Catcher's Mitt
Step up
See if you can make sense of the track. Man, I wish I could have ridden it.
Triple
End of triple, then short chute, then rhythm
Triple, then short chute, then a neat rhythm section he had down pat
End of rhythm, then the straight
His whoop speed was INSANE
Fast guy doing the Catcher's Mitt
Stepup
Links
Intro
The trip down and Saturday
Sunday - Cycle Ranch
Monday - Street Riding
Home