This past weekend I placed 4th at the first round of the Canada Cup series in Quebec!  I was very happy with my result as it was my first national race as an Elite.

I had a little over-the-bars crash first day of practice on Friday, and tweaked my wrist.  It was an annoying little injury, but I taped it up and was able to go for two runs Saturday.   I also found a Ergo grip, the ones with the extra palm support, which cushioned my wrist and made it possible to ride.

I put down a solid race run Sunday and surpassed my goal of a top five finish.  My placing got me UCI points towards racing more World Cups as well as gaining me points to work towards qualifying for World Championships at the end of the season.

My new Banshee Legend was awesome the whole weekend, and it definitely got some second looks as I rode by.  Had lots of good comments on the colour and how “sick” it looked.

I am off to Fort William, Scotland next week for the first round of the World Cup series, then I’m headed to Val di Sole, Italy for the second World Cup.  Can’t even explain how excited I am!  It will be amazing to ride those WC tracks, and I am very stoked to have this opportunity.

Below is a short video by Vincent Allard of the race weekend.  There are a few shots of me in it, including the podium at the end.

Tremblant Canada Cup 2013 on Pinkbike

Cheers!!!

Forrest Riesco

Facebook.com/ForrestRiescoDH

Forrestriesco.blogspot.ca

This past weekend I took the win at the Sunshine Coaster DH!   It was my first race of the year and my first race as a Elite.  I grabbed the overall fastest time of the day with a near perfect run.

It was a great start to the season and my work in the off season is starting to come together.   It was my home track so I already knew all my lines and kept my practice runs to a minimum to keep me fresh for my race run.  The Mach Chicken race track here on the Sunshine Coast is very smooth and flowy so I opted to ride my new Banshee Spitfire V2.  It pumped thru the flat sections with ease and handled like a DH bike on the corners and rough sections, could not be happier with the setup!

The Tremblant Canada Cup in Quebec is in the middle of next month and after that I am off to the first two rounds of the World Cup series.

Excited for a fun season of riding bikes ahead!

Forrest

Facebook.com/ForrestRiescoDH

Forrestriesco.blogspot.ca

Work, Ride, Train, Eat, Sleep. Those five words pretty much explain the past few months for me, I have been getting a lot done on and off the bike. It will continue to be this way for the next month as I am training and saving up for a big season! It will be my first time racing World Cups as well as my first year as an Elite.

I recently got out to shoot some photos with Paul Hodgson, a local photographer and rider. I was amazed at how they turned out, take a look below and check out his website at phodgson.com

I’ve also created my own Forrest Riesco athlete Facebook page,  a Like would be greatly appreciated.  I will be posting updates on my racing, training and travels.

This is my first year out of school and I’m loving the freedom of it!! I can now fully commit myself to my goals in riding including training and funding my racing. I got out for a quick XC ride with a friend Brett Wildeman who was also able to snap some shots. The snow is moving in and its threatening to take away our trails!

Thanks to everyone who helped me out this season and made it a great one. It was very successful for me and I was very happy with where it took me. I placed 2nd overall in the Canada Cup series and qualified for World Championships which were two of my biggest goals coming into the season. Of course I had some crashes and some unlucky races such as National Championships, but that just makes me hungry for next season and pushes me to bust my butt this off season.

From my finishes at the Panorama Canada Cup (3rd overall) and World Championships I gained 20 UCI points, which allows me to race World Cups next season as an Elite. This is very exciting for me and I am already planning out what it would take to race a full World Cup schedule for 2013. Being a graduate opens up a lot of opportunities for me this winter. I will now be able to commit myself fully to funding my racing, and setting up a full training schedule.

Below is the latest project Jazz Chodak and I have been working on for Natura Media. We are planning to release monthly episodes showcasing our riding, traveling and training. We are having a lot of fun filming and hope with more experience we will be able to make a name for ourselves.

Ep.1 On The Road. on Pinkbike

Cheers to a great season!!

Forrest
forrestriesco.blogspot.com
facebook.com/pages/Natura

Hello,
A few weeks ago I got back from World Championships in Austria, I was invited to represent Canada on the National team as a Junior.   It was an amazing trip in every way, it was cool to ride a World Cup level track and it was a lot of fun spending a week with the team in Europe.   I ended up 25th in finals on Sunday and took the top Canadian spot in Junior.

The support the National team provided was amazing and made for us as athletes to be able to concentrate on our riding and enjoy the experience.

The first day of practice on the course was a little intimidating as the track was dry and everyone was getting up to speed very quickly.  Friday’s practice was a whole different story though, it rained all Thursday night and most of the day Friday .   I put on the mud tires and with the mechanics figured out some fender systems.   Saturday the track was very similar and we had timed training.   I rode quite conservatively for my timed run, and ended up around 40th,  it was tough to read how hard everyone was pushing but it seemed that everyone did go pretty hard.   I walked the track later that day and looked for some ways to shave a few seconds for tomorrows race.   Sunday morning it was still very muddy and I had a bit of a over the bars crash on my final practice run, I got a little bruised up but nothing too serious.   My race run was good, my feet blew off the pedals once but besides that it was a fast and steady ride.  It wasn’t anything amazing, but I was happy to stay on the bike and put in a time that wasn’t too far off my top 20 goal.  I was stoked to take 25th in finals and the fastest Canadian Junior time of the day.

This wraps up my race season for this year,  it was so much fun and the best one yet.   I am looking forward to taking a bit of a break and than getting into my off season training.  Being graduated opens up a lot of opportunities for me this off season and I am looking to commit myself fully to my goals and aspirations in racing for 2013.

Thanks to Chris Vezina for the photos,

Thanks,

Forrest

forrestriesco.blogspot.ca

Hello!

Well, it’s been a crazy summer so far, I’ve raced the past six weekends in a row now and it has finally payed off.

After the Western Open this past weekend I got the email confirming that I’ve been selected to represent Canada at the World Championships in Austria!! This is a huge accomplishment for me and a goal that I’ve had for the past few years.   I was one of four juniors selected.  This was based on my results at the Canada Cups and Nationals, I placed 3rd overall in the Canada Cup series in mixed elite/junior and 4th at Nationals in Junior which put me into the second qualification position.

This is a little overwhelming as World Championships is on Sept. 2nd and I leave Aug. 25th, so it doesn’t give me a lot of time to raise money for the trip.  There still isn’t a lot of support for downhill racing so all the athletes have to pay for their own flights and team fee’s.

Worlds is obviously my biggest race this season, but I will also be attending Crankworx for the Canadian Open on the 19th of this month.

Below you can find a quick summary of all the races I’ve done the past few weeks,

Thank you to all my sponsors and supporters who have gotten me here, and hopefully this will lead to big things down the road.

Thanks,

Forrest

There was a Whip competition at the Silver Star BC Cup on Saturday night.  Here’s the photo of my final whip when I took the win in the contest.  A video on the contest can also be found here http://www.pinkbike.com/video/268837/

Quick recap of all my races

-1st at the Bear Mountain BC Cup.   It was a very muddy race and I was lucky to get down with a clean run, I also had the 3rd fastest time of the day overall.

-4th at Mont Sainte Anne National Championships.  It was a super fun course, I had a great race run until the second to last corner where my front tire blew over the top of the berm and I stalled up and had to roll over the next jump,  this was pretty frustrating as I was less than two seconds behind 2nd place.

-2nd at the Sun Peaks BC Cup.   Had a good race run but made a costly mistake at the bottom.

-3rd at the Silver Star BC Cup.  I had a great race run and the cool thing was that the top three juniors beat all the pro’s,  Mark Wallace and Mckay Vezina placed first and second, two of the other juniors that will be representing Canada in Austria.

-2nd at the Canada Cup finals in Panorama.  This was the race that was the deciding factor if I could claim a spot at Worlds.  And it couldn’t have gone any better.   I had a very solid race run and ended up placing 3rd in junior/elite, my first Elite podium.   This is also when I claimed 2nd overall in the Canada Cup series in Junior and 3rd overall in the series in junior/elite.

-3rd at the Western Open BC Cup.  I wanted to push my limits at this race and that’s exactly what I did, I slid out on a off camber corner and hit a tree which stopped me dead, and I had a very scary moment slipping a pedal on a high speed section.    It might sound weird  to some people when I say I was happy with my riding, but it’s because I tested my limits and found my boundaries which I think I have to do sometimes to improve and become a faster rider.

Race run at the Western Open.  Thanks to Stephen Exley for the photo.

Hello,

The last few weeks have been very busy for me. I was just recently out in Quebec for the first of two Canada Cups this season. This was my second time travelling to Mont Tremblant, Quebec, and they made some changes to the course this year which made it a lot more fun to ride and made the whole trail flow a lot better. I had a crash in my race run, drifted off a bridge at the top of the course and had to pull my bike out of the ditch. I had a good run after that though and managed to gain some time back, taking 5th in Junior. Aside from my crash I was happy, as I know I was on pace. Travelling with the Cycling BC team is always fun, and overall the trip was awesome.

I also did the local Sunshine Coaster DH the second week of May. It was my home track so it was a good way to start off the season. I raced my Banshee Spitfire, as that was what seemed to be the fastest bike on the course. I felt great in practice on race day morning and was stoked to start racing. Before I could get a quarter way down the track my derailleur snapped off so I pumped my way down the course, staying off the brakes as much as possible trying to maintain all the momentum I had. I had to push with one foot in one of the top sections, but managed to keep it going till the finish, getting a little loose in the steep sections trying to make up for not being able to pedal. I came across the line to take 2nd place on the day, which I was stoked on considering having to do almost the entire course without a derailleur.

I am still waiting to hear if I will be able to compete at the two North American World Cups at Mont Sainte Anne and Windham. As there aren’t many National races this year (Only two Canada Cups and Nationals) I think this would be an awesome experience and would give me a chance to compete at the international level with all the top riders from around the world.

Between races I have been out on my Banshee Spitfire and going for longer all-mountain rides in this awesome weather. I am closing in on just over two weeks of high school which means a lot of studying for tests and a lot of catching up in homework from missing soo much school while racing.

I’m very excited for this season and have a lot of confidence in my riding. Canadian National Championships at Mont Sainte Anne is my most important race this season as it is a big deciding factor in claiming a spot for World Championships. Nationals being at Mont Sainte Anne this year makes it that much more exciting, and if I do get the chance to go to the Mont Sainte Anne World Cup two weeks before Nationals it would give me a huge advantage at Nationals, knowing the course already and having raced on it.

Thanks,

Forrest Riesco

forrestriesco.blogspot.ca

Hey. Just this past week I put together my new race bike. For 2012 I am very excited to be racing on the Banshee/Trident team with teammate Kip Shortreed. I will be racing the full National series as well as some BC Cups and hopefully both North American World Cups. The first race is coming up soon and I couldn’t be more stoked to start racing, I’ll be traveling to a lot of new tracks this year which is very exciting. This past Easter weekend Jazz Chodak and I put together a little edit showcasing me testing out the new bike on some local trails. Remember to like our Natura Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/Natura/298256353554372
And also check out my blog http://forrestriesco.blogspot.ca/ to keep updated on my training, racing and riding.

Go Flat Out on pinkbike.com

Hey,

Enjoy!!

Misty days

Thanks

Forrest Riesco

forrestriesco.blogspot.com