Ryan's Diablo DH Update

Hey Chris found a GREAT picture from this past weekend, different than the other ones I have sent you in the past. It is on ride monkey and the guy that took the pics said that my picture was his favorite out of the all the pictures he took. They still dont have the results up but I will give you my full report now.

So as to be expected my first race of the year was muddy... This is the east coast after all and I would have expected nothing less. Saturday the weather was actually really nice but the course could not recover from the rain during the week. The course got worse and worse as the day went on, there was a section that was some what dry the first few runs then I think someone must have skid over a rock that was holding a mountain spring in the ground because all of a sudden one of the hardest sections of the course was totally flooded and it had not rained, it was like someone un corked the mountain. I still got around 10 practice runs in and managed to get a full run of the race course with the helmet cam. (footage to come)

Sunday the sky was clear in the morning which was un expected because it was forecasted to rain all day. I did a few practice runs just to warm up then went back to put on race wheels and clean the bike up so the thing could pedal. I get up to the top way to early as I was number 5 and I thought that I would be going right away but the promoters thought that I would be great to wait for the rain to come and things took forever to get started. Finally I had about 10 mins to get ready so I took my Amino Vital Fast Charge (This stuff really works) and started pedaling around to warm my legs up. Well what do ya know I get a flat front tire before my run even starts. (glass, thorn Im not sure what did it) So it was a tubeless setup and the sealant sealed the tire with about 2lbs of air in(it did not register on an air gauge so it was practically nothing) so it was as good as no air because ;the tire was hitting the rim with just the weight of myself on the bike. I didnt want to do my run because it was a brand new wheel and tire never ridden, not once. But some of my fellow riders convinced me to race and after thinking about it I paid 80$ to race so it cost more than the 60$ rim. So with a front flat from start to finish I got a 3:17 which was not that bad because 1st was a 2:47 by Jurgen Beneke old World Cup champ and 5th place was a 2:59.My guess is 2nd place was not that close to first because he is always pretty far ahead. So I figured with a front flat a 3:17 is not that bad I think I will do pretty well with some air in my tires.
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Ryan Nolan
Backbone Racing