Silvia at Sun Peaks on Pinkbike

Myself, Matty Miles and Karl Heldt rippin up the trails opening week of the bike park, fun times!

240 ladies!  3 ‘teams’ – Jill (my team!), Sabrina and Kelly.  DH race on Friday night, XC race on Saturday, and party race on Saturday night!  Tony Horn, the mastermind behind all this, was Charlie of course and the Bosleys were everywhere, ‘marshaling’ - all guys, mostly scantily clad or naked, offering bevies, food, and most likely a lap dance if you asked!  I’ve never seen so many animal print thongs in my life.  The Whistler Firemen were out too, of course they were, what would a ladies race be without them?!

The Bosleys. No one made it by without being spanked by the noodles.

In the end, I won the DH, 7th in the XC and won the overall!  Pretty stoked on that!  Sylvie Allen, local legend, was 2nd, and Carrie Meltzer, one of my fave girls to ride with, was 3rd.  I have to say, the XC race was awesome.  I wasn’t super motivated to feel excruciating amounts of pain, so I rode comfortably, and spent most of the race with one of my best buddies, Fanny, and one of my biggest inspirations, 16 year old Lisele

Racing the DH. Pic by Jinya.

Fanny, pinning the XC. Pic by Jinya.

Lisele. 16, and fast!

The party stage was perhaps the best of all, the outfits that surfaced were unbelievable!  Where does this stuff come from?  Everyone somehow found the legs to dance ALL NIGHT.  So good!

Ready for Stage 3!

What a great event, A LOT went into this to make it a special, different and fun event.  So stoked to see so many ladies out there, shredding.  Thanks Tony

A long drive up for a great race. After not going to Silver Star I am excited for these two races in a row. I have now achieved a silver and bronze medal, I am hoping for a similar result this time. Day 2 practice is on.

I made a photoshoot at the end of June and I tought it would be cool to share some pictures. The shoot was in some trails near my home, a really cool place to ride.  KSP Production is a young photograph that mostly shoots automotive stuff. He wanted some change and here is the result!

If you want to see all the photoshoot just go on my facebook. To see some of the stuff Keven’s doing go on his website http://www.ksp-productions.com/

You can also have a look to the video we made this winter used as a test for a summer video! http://www.pinkbike.com/video/248706/

Bear Mtn BC Cup Rd.2- A step in the right direction

The skies once again opened up at Bear this year turning the fast roller coaster type track into a sloppy mess… Most riders were well prepared as similar conditions greeted us last year. 2011 was a race run to forget… I was off my bike multiple times and managed to literally run across the finish line into 8th place. I know this track well and was very confident that a clean run would pay off in 2012.

Photo credit Steve McCabe

The plan was to open it up on the top part of the track in the more technical terrain, pedal hard everywhere else, and too keep the mistakes under control. The plan was almost ruined when I spun out on the wet wood dropping out of the start gate. Chest to bar, and somehow managed to save myself from crashing. The rest of the run was not much fun, the mud stopped most riders from hitting the big jumps, and turned the track including the flat pedal bits into peanut butter… I don’t think I’ve ever spent so much time in the saddle during a race run and felt like I would have needed years of training to pedal down that track for a win. Other then the start, the plan was well executed as I rode well all things considered and emptied the tank pedalling. I ended up in 5th, one step up from the first race and I was relieved to finally be back on the podium! Congrats to Kirk McDowall for the win!

5th, and a good one for the overall!

After a very solid April, May, June for training, I had finally gotten my confidence back and it was off to National Champs in Quebec.

MSA National Champs- Hold it wide and hold on…

I’ll keep this brief. We raced the WC track and it was serious business. Be on your game or suffer the consequences.

top speeds> 75km/h; avrg. speeds high; bikes and bike parts destroyed; bodies literred all over the places.

I stuck to the plan, minimize training to save energy for Sunday, keep it upright as to not end my season prematurely. My seeding run went poorly as I lacked the aggression needed and wound up just inside the top 20 out of roughly 70 elite entries.

I opened it up for the finals, rode loose, pedalled hard, and nailed my lines. I was on a killer run that would have landed me inside the top 10, a personal best, and would have given me valuable UCI points to race DH World Cups. As I entered the bottom of the track, I let my guard up and went down hard in one of the last berms with the finish line in sight. I ended up 29th, just two seconds off my seeding time. Congrats to Matt Beer from Newfoundland for taking his first National Championship title- good luck Matt at the rest of the WC’s!!

with the finish line in sight...

Forrest boosting!

and the skies opened up...

Injury- Bummed out

Unfortunately I’m typing this blog with one hand.  I misjudged a rhythym section at the BMX track Tuesday training for 4x World Champs just 5 weeks away. I scorpioned over the bars straight into the typically rock hard flats of a BMX track suffering a broken collarbone. I’m thankful my helmet did its job preventing a serious concussion and that I did not sustain any more serious injuries. If all goes well I should be back at it in 4 weeks time. This leaves me with a difficult decision, cross the pond at the end of August for 4x World Champs with a serious lack of track time or catch the last two rounds of the BC Cup series too battle for a strong overall standing…. I will have plenty of time on the trainer to think this one through.

Keep the rubber side down and happy trails!

Harold

Thanks to those helping me out:

Race Face Performance Products, Loaded Precision Products,  Cove Bikes, cSixx chainguides, BikeRac, Lorex Tech. Active HD Camera, Elka Suspension, Five Ten

Hi guys,
last weekend I competed in the Wam Bam Dirt jump Jam competition in Fernie BC.
This was my first time competing at an FMB World Tour bronze event and It was really cool to be riding with and competing against some of the pros.
The course was really dialed and the comp was at night under flood lights. I tried my hardest hitting all the extra large jumps with style and throwing down some nice 360s but it was not enough to make it into the finals. Right now I am working on revamping my trick jump so I hope to learn some new tricks be a better contender for my next competition. My Atlas bars are still working great for me and I can’t wait till the rest of my RF order comes in. Here are a couple of cool photo’s of me from the comp shot by Kyle Hamilton:

This year has definitely been one of my most busiest. The year never really had a defined starting point to be honest. From shredding straight through the pow in the winter on my entourage to pre season trips to Vancouver, it felt like last season never ended. In April we had our first freeride camp in town and the kids were amped! Super fun shredding with those little guys forsure! After that I headed down to Sea otter for my first time with Aggy and Jordie Lunn. Even though the majority of my time was crammed in the back of Aggy’s taco under a lot of gear it was a super fun trip! I got to meet lots of new super rad people from Kona and other companies, got Tattoos with the boys, shredded some fun trails, world premiere of strength in numbers and had some pretty funny nights! I did the Downhill race there and got 8^th in senior men, I think next time ill bring a road bike to do that race! Coming back from that we had the first BC cup here in town which was pretty fun, got 4^th in that one. Shortly after that we had another kids camp with a big crew of keeners! Theres something about seeing little kids so stoked on the most minor things that makes me extremely happy about what I’ve accomplished so far.

May consisted of nothing too insane. A lot of camping and riding weekends with awesome friends, lots of digging and just lots of fun! Our spring  here in Kamloops has been super rainy, which was super unusual. The rain allowed us to get a lot of digging in and a lot of amazing days on the hero dirt trails. A lot of people were actually kind of bummed it was too wet but you have to take advantage of sick dirt like that! Trust your tires!

June was a super rad month, with the anticipation of our local hill Sun peaks opening. Planning out shooting missions, bike camps and rad trips with the friends. The highlight of the month had to be shooting with Reuben Krabbe. Reuben is a super talented Photographer from Whistler. He as well as Seb Kemp made the trip into Kamloops to shoot an article for DIRT mag about the amazing town I am graced to live in. Shooting trails like Rio, Harper, Gnarcroft, the bike Ranch and the gravel pits! I’ve recently seen a bunch of the photos he shot while here and I am super anxious to see what makes the cut, so stoked!

Majority of our crew made it out to Sunpeaks opening day and it was really sick. Having lived in Whistler the past couple years it was sick to be back there forsure. A few days after that myself, Matty Miles and Karl Heldt (Silvia Films) were lucky enough to get a sweet room up at the hill while we shot video and photos for the hill. It was a super rad week forsure, we got a lot of sweet stuff! The following weekend I was riding at Silverstar and had a super out of the blue crash. The first thing I remember is being in an ambulance with a neck brace on and in a spinal board with the doctor telling me my neck was broken and it might be unstable so don’t move! I haven’t been that scared in a long time. Long story short I came out with a minor neck sprain, a really good concussion, some cuts and bruises and some broken knuckles! Definitely not the position I wanted to be in first week of summer. When I picked up my stuff from the hill I found my fox moto helmet smashed in pretty good! So glad I decided to start wearing DOT helmets.

I then took a week to recover in Banff with my brother. I then headed straight to Whistler to coach the last week of Camp of Champions, Such an awesome time! I’ve never seen so many smiles in my life! I had a blast shredding with the kids, but thankfully was still able to keep it mellow considering my injuries. Now I am finally back home and I am getting anxious to head back to whistler for crank-worx, Ill be doing lots of shredding there aswell as a few races!

I was having an average, mellow summer. Shooting some stuff here, working a bit there. Riding as much as I could and keeping it real every day. That was until the storms came rolling in. People from near and far suddenly excited to work together on all sorts of projects. Everything seemed like a lot of commitment, but also like a lot of fun. The first of the frenzy to come my way was the invitation to help shape a story about Kamloops to be printed in DIRT magazine later this year. This would mean working with Seb Kemp and Reuben Krabbe, a pair mountain bike wordsmith and lens men who’s work I’ve admired for eons and felt honored to collaborate with. They had me out of bed and sideways as early as 4am, dodging windstorms and raindrops like the end of the world was soon to come. Having just recently seen the final gallery, I am now shaking in anticipation of the printed article.

Next up… capture a burly corner photo with Margus Riga for Raceface to use in an upcoming add for the Sixc carbon downhill crank I have been riding. A very tight time frame was issued but thankfully I had the perfect dusty turn lined up midway down a nasty cliff only a few minutes away from my house. Once we were in action, Margus and I both surprised ourselves with what we produced. Margus is a man with a keen eye and extremely creative vision. I couldn’t have been happier with how our add printed. And to my surprise, the add was to be run in the Bike Magazine Photo Annual. To say the least, I am flattered to have a two page add fitted in amongst the most stunning collection of images presented to us in print this year.

Leaving dusty berms behind, I was on route to the Chatel Mountain Style. I’ve never felt to warm with the idea of competing on my bike but an invitation to the Mountain Style really roused my interest. It would be my first trip to Europe, a big mountain event,  a chance to chill with friends like Aggy, Sorge and Semenuk, and a world of new experience. All the components seemed to add up to something that felt right. The entire trip was a blast and although the contest became rushed and rained out, I still made it out alive from one of the gnarlier events of the year in an alright space of 11th place. I wish I could have done more, but I think all the riders are on that page. I’m just stoked that everything went well, the trip rolled along smooth and breezy and I’m already itching for my next trip across the pond.

The final stop on my recent list of riots to attend was back on my own side of the globe and back to the great white north from which I came. AFD, an Alberta based fuel company extremely dedicated to the youth of our sport, put together a fun oriented race in my hometown of Whitehorse, Yukon. Attending the race as a special guest to smash turns with the younger fella’s, judge a small dirt jump event and tip back Yukon bottles with the organizers and old friends was effortless work and a total honor. Brett Tippie, Geoff Gulevich and Harookz were my wingmen so you’d have been hard pressed to find a quiet moment north of sixty that week. The event and the whole trip was a great success. Seeing riding develop to such new heights in the small town I used to call home was nothing but a pleasure and I left town feeling a heavy desire for more Yukon adventure.

I’m finally at home again with a couple of days to myself and I expected to feel some sort of relief, having been so busy. But I am wound up and ready to charge. I want back out in the wild. Next week I have a round of camps followed by photos with Sun Peaks Resort and then a short while later I have the chance to compete in the Deep Summer Photo Challenge at Crankworx in Whistler. I’ve been eying up that event for ages now and always hoped to participate. With so many new friends and so much gnar still to come, this summer has no end in sight.

Right from the start I could tell the Sun Peaks BC Cup course was going to be all out. The speeds at which the course pushes you is like nothing I have experienced before. With a few nasty crashes in practice I found my self pushing my limits and probably going the fastest I have ever gone on a bike. From that point I had to tone back my speed In order to keep a smooth, consistent run. When race day came along I managed to do just that and finished 1st.

Sprinting into the finish corral.

With just three riders behind me I had an agonizing wait that seemed to drag on forever.

With this last result I am now the current points leader and am eager to lay down another solid run at Silverstar next weekend.

Big Thanks to RaceFace, C4 Rider Training, Steed Cycles, Bond Training for all the ongoing support and encouragement.

Summers are always super pinned in Whistler, and this season is no exception. With the recent heat and long days, our Phat Wednesday series has been all time fun and all time BUSY! If you’ve never heard of this race series, it is the best in the world (ask around town). In some cases, you’ll see World Cup athletes racing against average-Joe types on courses all around the Whistler Bike Park for a whopping entry fee of $2 per race. Last week there were 260 racers! We’ve had 5 races so far and I’ve placed 1st and 2nd consistently throughout the races – right now, I’m leading the series for overall women, but with the competition I face each week, that could easily change with 3 more races to go!

Shredding in my RaceFace kit and components before Phat #1 on Bline. Jinya Nishiwaki photo.

Jinya Nishiwaki shooting again for the 3rd Phat Wednesday - this one was a big pedal down Aline-Angry Pirate-Samurai Pizza Cat-Bline. Hard to be awesome on Angry Pirate!

This summer is about to get even busier even though coaching for the Dirt Series is on hold (at least in Whistler) until September. Crankworx is coming up and the shredding in Whistler is awesome right now!

-Leishner