Bikes in February

Nothing like it. Sliding on slush and defrosted loam through the forest silently only brake squeaks and yelps.

Specialized for 2o12 and Fresh Fish!

• Just got the word from Morgan Hill that Drummer Racing will continue to be supported by Specialized Bicycles.

• Bruce @ Andy's Cycle has also agreed to continue supporting the team as we head into our 9th year our shredding and dominating east coast downhill racing.

• In other news Eric Clark and Rob Westover have joined the squad and will compete in Cat 1 30+. We all known Rob from our Sinister days and Eric comes to us from North East Racing Alliance. The Cat 2 Eastern States Cup Champ moves into Cat 1 30+. The team excited to welcome both for '12.

Post Season

• This post season has ruled. Plattekill stayed open for freeriding until December 6th. The final weekend was awesome made some tweaks to the Fox RC4 and my Boxxer. Made the bike ride much more like my hardtail.
• Thanksgiving resulted in giant pumptrack sesion at Doug's house. With massive xc loops on Drummer.
• Riding this far into the winter makes for a more shorter winter. In mid march of this year the Demo's first saw Drummer.
• Had two consecutive weekends of Snow on Saturday followed by dirt on Sunday. Big ups to Lenny for the demo of a Santa Cruz Nickle on a cold cold day somewhere in New England.
• Massive XC Loops will continue into the New Year on Drummer Hill. Monday the 26th was Epic on all accounts with a pretty heavy crew.

2011 Season Highlights!

• Racing wise, Oliver and Zach led the way. Zach made a major dent in qualifying at the 2011 U.S. Open, then found himself placing 31/50 in the finals. http://diablofreeridepark.com/images/pdf/2011DHFINAL.pdf

• Oliver managed to put down a 12th place qualifier at National Champs against a talented Pro field, but couldn't keep it together on Sunday. http://www.vitalmtb.com/news/news/2011-USA-National-Championships-Downhill-Qualification-Results,355. Last winter Oliver adventured through South America as a bike guide. This winter Oliver is undertaking a more serious challenge as he is part of a 4 person coed team that plans to row across the Atlantic, hike numerous mountain ranges then hop on road bikes all in the name of charity for Epoch Expiditions. http://www.facebook.com/EpochExpeditions

• Zach and Oli also placed 10th and 8th respectively less than a second apart at Gravity East Race #5 @http://gravityeastseries.com/Sugarbush.pdf , on a track that had gone mad and from moon dust to slop overnight.

• Doug did well racing on home turn in NH and placed 3rd in the NH States Champs decided by races held at Attitash and Pats Peak. Doug was also bitten by the pumptrack bug and its infectious skills are already evident in his DH riding.

• Colman Lamb in his first full season got a crash course in racing DH and passed taking Cat 2 junior VT State Champs with him and numerous other podiums along the way. 2012 Prediction: Colman will be beating Doug next year on the regular by solid margins.

• As a team it was great an awesome to witness Sammy's achievement to be riding downhill about 4 months after massive trauma to his lower leg and ankle while practicing at the Pro GRT @ Highland MTB. Sam will be spending his winter in New Zealand making up for lost time. 2012 Sam will be on it.

• Drummer Racing finished the year strong at the Eastern States Cup Finals @ Plattekill as Meredith and I both took 2nd for the series cat 1 19 29. Mer was only off the win by 2 seconds with a fall. Go Meredith!I had a wreck in my run also and placed 5th, 5 seconds off 2nd place. Not bad but cost me some box and that was the story for 2011 as crashes and mechanicals kept me off pace.

• The team would like to thank Specialized Bikes - Andy's Cycle for the 2011 Demo 8 . We all loved the bike and it did everything we asked and never whimpered

• 661/Sunline/One Industries for providing functional gear that works and keeps riders safe and in control.

• We would especially like to thanks resident racing orthodontist and team member Doug Wilson for helping with the jerseys and making the team look better than ever for 2011.

LEaves

Riding in leaves is like riding on ice. They rule and they don't at the same time. Massive xc loops.

National Champs! Holding it down for the east coast

Reporting to you from the lap of luxury in our full on factory style 1970's condo where we have no cell service or tv, but occasionally have wireless! Phil, John, Jordan, Hig, Stacey and myself are quite comfortable here with our super plush wrap around couch, microwave oven, one of the first dish washers ever made, atrocious wall paper and trinkets, ample hot water and great pressure. We even have a deck for all our pimpin rides. So far the south has been treating us well. Everyone is incredibly nice, things are very affordable ($300 for 4 nights in our condo), great views, and the weather has been exactly what we all want for an east coast National Champs - sunny and cool during the day, rain at night. The course is awesome, the course is awesome, and once more for good measure - the course is awesome. AND MUDDY. A great mixture of everything; some hauling ass ski slope with drifty turns, a long tech rock garden, big jumps and hucks if you choose to do so, berms and tons of peanut butter mud switch backs with hub deep ruts - time to get loose and over the back ladies and gents. Ample choices for line variety, certainly with some risky moves to shave off those milliseconds.

We are completely exhausted from riding so much but the course is such a blast that it is hard to stop. Rather out of character for me to say, especially for such a high profile event, but I am having a blast, loving the course and actually very pumped with my riding. In fact, everyone in our group is riding very well. Phil, Hig and I had qualies today. Unfortunately phil flatted putting him at the back of the pack, Hig had a bad hang up with a tree in the rock garden putting him around 25th, I had a good run - missed a few lines in the top woods and certainly need to give the last 30 second berm and pedal section a lot more effort but ended up qualifying 12th. Phil is hoping to kill it tomorrow, with a good run he should be able to get top 5. Hig is hoping to shave a good 10 seconds hopfully keeping him in the top 15 and I am hoping to stay in the top 20. Jordan is riding very fast and controlled in the mud, if it stays wet the west coasters could struggle and he could possibly have a podium finish in Cat 1

Slalom was awesome to watch, sick course. Great atmosphere, music and fireworks tonight along with 33 micro brew beers on tap. For $25 you get a glass and it is all you can drink. If I step foot anywhere near this tonight it will ruin my chances of doing any riding above meow 2 tomorrow so I have made the decision to stay away from the pretty talking southern girls and all you can drink micro brews and instead update ya'all and go to bed early. We are all completely exhausted from a combination of slaying peanut butter ruts and crushing pulled pork sammys.

So as we sit here discussing line choices and thinking over the course the question of the night is wet or dry tires tomorrow. Everyone has been running cut spikes but this afternoon was hot and burned a lot of the wetness away. Tomorrow looks to be the same with racing not starting until 3pm. Weather forecast tonight: DRIZZLE (fo shizzle - thats actually what is says.)

peace out

Rallying the old school peeps.

This weekend may be a reprieve from racing, but Drummer Summer continues with impromptu DR alumni reunion / training sessions all over the northeast. The boys are at Sunday River on Saturday and the girls are ripping down Kingdom Trails. All who can at Highland on Sunday. Party trains like what! These wheels never stop turning.

Washkevich, get on this!

2011 Whiteface 5k

Oh yeah the big boy is here as we head across the lake to the mountain that can be seen from BVT. Hosting the 9th round of the Eastern States Cup and the 3rd round of the Neh Yok Champs Whiteface is the event of the fall race season. That was a tough one. Awesome high speed grass terms after a slogging through a swamp before finishing with some berms, roots, and some speed. This season has been a tough one for the team. Lots of race run falls and mechanicals, not to mention the absence of hype master Sammy Cee. Both Zach and Colman flatted out of the gate. Oliver crashed still placed well. Doug was steady as was Jack. http://usacycling.org/results/?permit=2011-2726 The party moves on this weekend to Highland MTB Park. Expect some old faces to show they know how to ride a bike.

WOOO MOUNTAIN DEW!

See anyone we know? Click below!

2011 Killington Gravity East Series Race Video

by Jason Scheiding

Sugarbush GES / Killington GES

Sugar Bush Results http://www.live-timing.com/report.php?r=27565&rp=542517 Gravity East @ SugarBush, VT. Pic courtesy of Sugarbush. Z. Fauk on Sunday A.M. practice. Saturday was moon dust and doubles. Sunday was misty mountain hop, spikes, and slick slick grass. The GES moves to Killington next week. Killington Results http://www.gravityeastseries.com/GES%202011%20Killington%20Results.pdf Rosy and crew did a great job making this race course flow better and run faster. The weather cooperated. It was a burner. Unfortunately that bitch Irene has taken Killington out for the rest of the 2011 season.

MT Snow VT Finalsand Attitash

• These two mountains have really stepped up to the ESC plate this year and each delivered a great race track. It is nice to get such great racing on fun courses. MT Snow really did a good job on this last one. High speed slick rock to 75% woods and tons of real dirt, lots of fun corners and some other shit.

• Mt Snow continues to step their game up to close out the VT State Champs. With a track the was described by Phil Kmetz as a "mini saint anne" half of this was fresh stuff combined with previous parts from earlier 2011 events. Mt Snow has made serious effort the past 2 or 3 years and they are gaining on the competition

• Colman took the VT State Title for junior sport racer and Meredith took 2nd VT State for cat 1. Congrats
• Results http://usacycling.org/results/?permit=2011-1847

July 4th Plattekill Race Report

• This weekend's race was both a celebration of Independence Day and a memorial for Stephen Porraro, who passed away of a heart attack much too young. Although I'm too new to the sport to have known Steve, it was good to get out there and show support to his friends and brother, as well as to a community he was deeply ingrained in.

• It was said that Stephen was crucial in cutting trails on the double chair side of the mountain, and I was not disappointed. Saturday showed us tons of sunshine and dry conditions on a track that was steep and super loose, with some chutes and lots of open slope to woods turns lower down. It was hard to resist cranking out runs through the jungle.

• Eric and crew kept in Platty tradition with an impressive fireworks show, and rumor has it Lauren Daney shot one of the Syron boys in the mouth with a large firework. Not sure.

• Sunday we woke up to rain, which had everyone hopping to test the track under the new conditions. Some of us found ourselves in the huge lightning cloud that rolled in, which delayed practice and left the track a combination of splash, slick and sticky by afternoon. The thunder rolled out just long enough to get everyone through race runs, although few people can claim crashless finishes. Jack with 3:03, Zach with a 3:14, and Meredith with a 4:41.

• Drummer Racing managed the weekend relatively injury-free, but with Cat 2 riders stepping it up to the more challenging track and the general gnar of Splatterkill Hill, a few ambulances were spotted on the access road. Our stongest healing vibes go out to those injured, with wishes for speedy recoveries.

• Huge, enormous thanks to the guys of Generation Gap Racing for the use of their spare EZ-Up tent all weekend. We're neither sunburned nor soaked as a result and are truly grateful for the generosity.

• July promises another Mount Snow, another Plattekill and a much anticipated Killington race as the Eastern States Cup Series continues. Until then, drying & cleaning soggy gear.

Busy Week

Sick ride last tuesday on Drummer with Oliver. Clay Corners was running around like a "dog with two D!cks" as Rob Warner would say. XC was delayed by rain. Saturday A.M. ripped up threader some but not before threader ripped into my chain guide. Monday brought BV laps with ZFaulk it was wet but not really. Still getting used to the new bike when it gets out of control and not hitting the brakes. If the weather holds up more xc and BV before heading off to Plattekill for Eastern States Cup #4 with Zach and Meredith. Plattekill always delivers.

Attitash ESC #3 NH State Finals

The first 1/3 of the season has vanished in the last 5 weeks. ProGurts @Highland- Plattekill, U.S. Open and the first 3 rounds of the Eastern States Cup . Right now we head into a break for some recuperation but first .... results Attitash in the Whites of N.H. held the final round for the N.H. State Champs and 3rd round of the E.S.C. First off this track was awesome and had everything a dh race course should have. High speed ski slope, wide taped woods roots rocks with tons of flow and doubles. The weather created some of the best dirt I've seen lately. Rained some a Friday into Saturday. Sunday was mint. Colman took another 2nd place on the day despite 2 crashes and finished 2nd for Cat 2 juniors N.H. State Champs. Meanwhile Doug finished 4th on the day beating Colman 2/3 this year ( 1 sec from 3rd) and 3rd for Cat 1 40+ N.H. State Champs. Oliver put down another mid pack finish 9/16. I placed 7/14 with a good run but again off the win by a lot. Had a blast on a sick course all weekend. Eastern States Cup heads home to Plattekill for round #4 for July 2nd and 3rd.

ESC #2 Pats Peak / NH Stats Champs #1

Pats Peak was a great race and very tricky. Considering the rain and traffic the course held up pretty well. It was wide with a variety of different lines NOT to take. It was hard. From Saturday on it rained through Sunday morning then stopped. Colman is on a roll with his 2nd podium appearance. Meredith hit the deck first thing Sunday morning and again in 2nd race run but it was only a few bruised fingers and jammed ligaments. For such a tech track in bad conditions Mer rode great and tested things out 3/3. Oliver piloted his way to 8/13 for solid result in a competitive Pro field. Doug (finished 6/8) and I were off the pack respectively. I've never been of fan of two run format races. First run was solid & under control maybe a little slow but placed me decent. Got hosed as my second run was better then worse then sloppy. I lost a second while my competition picked up time and stayed on the bike so I finished 15/22. Results http://www.patspeak.com/data/uploads/summer_docs/PatsPeakDownhill2011.pdf Attitash is up next as Doug, Oliver and I head to the White Mountains for the NH State Finals ESC #3.

Eastern States Cup #1 @ Mt Snow Results

Eastern States Cup race #1 heads to Mt Snow as part of the VT State Champs Series and Eastern States Cup. Camper compound moved to Mt Snow for the weekend. Great weather and a fast and flow course with some skinny bridges mixed in also. It was dry and stayed dry through Sunday. I can't remember that last time that happened. There were some serious gnats out there eating riders alive. Colman got a "W"1/2 , Doug beat Colman by the skin of his teeth and pulled 4/12 in a competitive 40+ cat 1 class. Mer survived her first Mt Snow experience and learned a lot 4/4. My run was crap and way back 15/25 (I'm not pedaling anymore). Oliver held his own on a long and pedal heavy course with a 10/12. The ESC Nema team Challenge also began it is going to be tight down to the wire I think in October. Results: http://www.usacycling.org/results/?permit=2011-1815

2011 US Open

Big Ups to Z. Fauk - 2011 US Open Finalist with a solid 31/50 finish and a 28/100+ qualifier. Zach stayed calm Sat a.m. despite big mechanical issues. Way to go man! The track was old but new & fast but slow. It did have some nice flat grass corners. I flatted out early in my run. Disappointing but it was fun hanging out and practicing a different challenging course. Death drift thing. Oliver had a rough time in his race run couldn't find any flow all week. We saw a black bear in the "woods" between parking lots too.

Pro Grt #3 PLattekiLL

The race started with Oliver's arrival on a wet Friday as thunder storms and lightening closed the lift by 3p.m. Saturday started the same with damp humid air thanks to heavy fog. By the afternoon the fog had blown away and the track was drying up for Pro Seeding. The track was awesome lots of lines in different areas, lots of hooks, and one mental step down that actually wasn't that bad. Oliver was fast, as was Zach but both held out for Finals on Sunday. Unfortunately Oliver took a dive Sat and then again Sunday A.M. He pulled out to preserve his body for the US OPEN. Zach hit his lines hard and fast hucking the pro line off broken tooth in his race run and keeping it rubber side down most of the weekend. Mer had a great practice and almost held it together for her first Cat 1 race but an otb disrupted her race run. She was super pissed not because she fell but because she fell on the easy part, not the 4 or 5 drops that she had been killing with her official 187 # plate I debated all weekend about changing up tires from swamp things to minions but kept the swampers on for the race run. They really loved the corners and rutted clay dirt. It was a sick run and a flash before my eyes. XC riding is working. All in all not a horrible weekend for Drummer Racing as the team works out the early season kinks for 2011. Sammy was missed but kept us pumped w/ lots of support via text. Doug Colman and TJ should be ready for the first Eastern States Cup at Mt Snow. Results on the link. http://www.live-timing.com/races.php?date=05/22/2011

BV Laps - Tons of XC - Platty Pro GRT

Zach and I worked over some Bolton roots today in the dark dampness and fog of the mountain. It was the first time riding the squish bike since Plattekill 10 days ago. It felt odd for the first run, then it felt squish. The xc bike is a ripping one brake single speed wonder that has seen some action lately. Most importantly the 3rd round the Pro Gravity Tour begins tomorrow as practice continues into Saturday with Pro and JR X qualifications at 4p.m. Racing starts at 12 on Sunday. Zach, Oliver, Meredith and I will be in attendance along with billions of other people who rip. The track features the same path with some new improvements and more hucks. We will begin to arrive Friday afternoon.

Highland Pro GRT recap - tough weekend for Drummer Racing

Good to have the first race out of the way, tough weekend all around. Hitting the road Friday morning it was great to be back in the camper with familiar faces and friends. Weather was great friday, pretty good on saturday and there were enough black fly to literally drive you insane. It was at the point where wearing goggles was necessary to keep them out of your eyes, even when you were hauling ass down the trail. The course was tough. Technical, flat and techical in many spots, you really had to work to keep your speed as a small slip up could cost you seconds. Sharp rocks, roots, it was bumpy. It certainly took names as there were constantly ambulances coming and going from Highland. Pro practice ran for 4 hours a day and I estimate a good third of that total time the course was closed due to injured riders being removed. (This resulted in many pros poaching the Cat 2 and 3 practice time.) Unfortunately our team mate Sam was one of these who has suffered a broken fibular and shredded ligaments in his left leg. He underwent surgery yesterday so everyone send healing vibes his way; the first half of the season will certainly not be the same without him - in fact by my calculations (all things considered equal) it will suck approximately 30% more.

• Real tough for a first race, I was certainly battling the cobwebs this first weekend dealing with general riding confidence issues and feeling like a passenger on my bike. Add many spectators, photographers and a stacked 65 person pro class of the best national riders around for a very challenging weekend. Then add pissing rain all Saturday night and downpours all Sunday to top it off. I finally took a knarley over the bars wreck in a wet rock garden late Saturday afternoon - it wasn't until this that I actually got it together and started riding better. Due to course closes and changing weather it took right up until Sunday am before seeding run for me to get my lines together. Took seeding as a serious practice run riding smooth and consistent by my standards with no pedaling in order to save it for the race. By the time race run came around it was nearing 3pm and freezing with constant hard rain. This certainly was a hit to many racers moral, many of which simply wanted to get it over with. I had a decent run, kept it upright, a couple costly mistakes killing my speed in the flats and blew my beet off the pedals in a rock garden. Indifferent emotions for my 45th place with a time of 2:50. Had I eliminated a couple crucial botches, 5 or 6 seconds faster would have seen me around 30th place. Can't get too aggravated as I left the weekend void of injury and mechanicals and managed to keep it upright for both seeding and the race. On we go to Plattekill for the next Progurt, Looking forward to this a ton as all team members except for Sammy will be in attendance for an excellent course at a mountain we all love. Hoping to enter this race with far more comfort, confidence and a refreshed sense of focus.