Ryan Nolan's Last Two Races

Hey Chris! Wanna give you an update of the last 2 races. I said about 5 races in 5 weeks, but that didn't happen. I just didn't want to drive 8 hours to some NORBA race that was going to suck, so I have planned on finishing out the rest of the Diablo races because they are usually so much better. I'm going to try and hit the last Gravity East race in October as well. There is usually a collegiate race in September that I will do as long as it is still happening and I am looking to do a Super D race that is pretty local to me as well.

Sugarbush,Warren VT (Gravity East)

Big mountain, and the course had a bit of everything. The course would have been really good if a lot of the woodsy sections weren't as slick as the were. The top part of the course was about a minute of pedaling right out of the gate. It was downhill but if you wanted to do decent it meant pedaling your a$$ off right in the beginning. Once you entered the woods you were now tired and didn't really want to ride your bike anymore... or at least stop and make a pit stop to recover from the 6 tacos you ate the night before. A mandatory stop and rest was not in the agenda. So to make a long story short I crashed on my face in my race run, in the section that was the most difficult I guess because it was where everyone chose to watch. I was really tired coming into the section and my front wheel just hung up and a rock grabbed it, and over the bars I went. I wanted to just hang out for a little while because I had just landed on my face, but the angry mob around me with all their screaming at me convinced me not to take a breather, and to just keep on going. I didn't get hurt so that was the good news. I don't know what place I got because I left right away to go over to Killington to do some runs there. Killington by the way is one of if not my favorite place I ever rode which is also good news. The bad news is I still don't know what place I got. With the crash though I wasn't real concerned, because you take your foot off in Pro and you loose, crash and they will throw rocks at you.















Diablo #3, Vernon NJ

Diablo. My favorite place to race or ride. DUST! You tell me that a course is DUSTY and you will see a smile on my face that is not soon to leave. I love dust so much... just about any course can be made great if you just throw some dust on it. Well Diablo 3 was dusty and the course was great. It was a real downhill course that had some pedaling in it but not that much, and not for extended periods of time. It was also a rough course. Plenty of techy rock gardens and also open places where you were just pinned. It was the best course I had ridden in a while just because I feel courses are lacking so many things lately, and whoever designed this must actually ride downhill and realize how to make a course that 1-Flows 2-Isn't a marathon 3- Has sections that if hit with good speed, your bike feel like it is going to blow up. This course met my expectations and I couldn't have been happier about that. My race run was ok. I had a few mistakes and had a hard time keeping my feet on the pedals, which is a problem... but I didn't crash. When I could keep my feet on the pedals I was going pretty fast. With the few mistakes and bobbles I had I ended up 14th. In AM the run would have been ok, but after talking with a bunch of PROs I realized that a really small mistake is a big deal and a few of them is a huge deal so having flawless runs is something that I am going to have to work on.










***********Well, RYAN, unike SOME people, at least you MOVED UP (and you didn't even win consecutive National Championships), so we can surely cut ya' some slack for taking top 15 in the PRO class. Nice job homie-G, and thanks for the update!*****************************************