April 09, 2008

SCOTT riders take 1st at Fluidride Cup#1 - Port Angeles WA

CanadianDHgirls.com

The first ever Fluidride Cup took place this last weekend in Port Angeles. Karina Strand and Luke Strobel took first in the DH event. Here is the weekend summary by Katrina Strand...

So stoked I made the trip. I made the mission on my own - I tried to recruit but seeing as there is still snow everywhere here in Whistler, biking isn't the priority for most yet. I've been riding, but only xc,and I wanted to get on my DH bike sooo I decided to put myself into it right away and race.


Katrina Strand


Port Angeles is on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington - a little scenic town right on the ocean. The streets have weird names like Kitchen-Dick and Woodcock, but besides that, it seems like a cool place and I am already excited to go back again for another round of racing in a couple months!

My plan was to arrive early enough to train on Friday but that just didn't happen. It took forever to get there with border line-ups, slow drivers and ferries but I made it on Friday night. There wasn't much point in pulling out my bike then with all the mud and rain and sloppy sloppiness, and little time with the skies getting dark, so I opted to wait to Saturday.

The course was sick - it was like a waterslide - lots of floaty turns with a few jumps. One of those courses that you had to force yourself to stop practice cause you're having so much fun. It was a cool atmosphere, a bunch of riders just so stoked on biking. Young, old, tall small - all types were out there ripping around on bikes. Max (my dog) ripped around begging for pepperoni and chasing squirrels and I lapped it up with Gully, made new friends and remembered how much fun riding is after a long, cold, white winter!

For a first time event, the Fluidride crew did an amazing job. The only mistake was sending us up for seeding then making the girls wait for 2 hours - oops. I turned into an ice cube, hungry and thirsty. Not such a good combo for riding. Good thing it was just seeding! It was tough to warm up and I didn't really get warm enough for my race run.

That was only one of the circumstances not in my favor, but the others are too lengthy and boring to write about here so I won't. Considering the circumstances, I am happy with my race run. I made a couple mistakes but otherwise rode smooth. I won, but was hoping for a better time. I guess that's always the case though :)

Nice work Lars and Casey and all the dudes and dudettes from Fluidride! Find out more about the series at www.fluidride.com/fluidride-cup

Results:

Pro Women
1. Katrina Strand - SCOTT
2. Joy Mutoli
3. Leana Gerrard

Pro Men
1. Luke Strobel- SCOTT
2. Bart McDaniels
3. Lars Sternberg
4. Cameron Cole


Luke Strobel