Here we are on the trail at our favorite photo spot!! You can see by the smiles all around that we are having a great time. The weather was great for day one and the participants improved and all accomplished the downhill flawlessly!!!! No crashes just whoops of joy!! We truly had a great day that was finished off with a great chicken BBQ put on by Track’s Bar. Then, we had a prize giveaway from our fantastic sponsors, Shimano, Speciailized, Kona, Tacx, and Redbull Japan. After that, Koui gave a maintenance session that the participants studied eagerly, even took notes....then we got into really relaxing, having a few beers and enjoying the wonderful live music..... Unfortunately, day 2 had to be cancelled due to the heavy rain. So we decided to do another maintenance session and then head to Kuzo Onsen. We did just that and then had lunch in Omachi and said good bye until next time!!! Thanks to all who were involved for making this a great Sweet Riders Event!!!! See all of the photo’s here!!

We had another fantastic ladies clinic!!! We had a sunny day and great hard work by our lovely ladies. We did have a crash today but, all was good. Sometimes it comes with the territory. Ladies great job today!! More pictures here!!

Last Weekend’s Stuff:

Well, since I got my new Specialized Demo 8, I had to get out and practice for next week’s race. Was having lots of fun on it even though the weather wasn’t so nice...... The race day came and I felt pretty good, the qualifier was my first run and made some mistakes but was hoping to correct those in the final. Rain was off and on, and after the qualifier, it stopped raining for over two hours and was looking like a dry final run, so I changed my tires back to normal tires instead of the mud one I had on the front for the previous run. Rain tires are not my favorite on rocks and this course has a few.....

However, once in the gondola on the way up, it started to pour rain.......lots of rain so I was thinking oh no!!! I tried my best but unfortunately didn’t have the confidence with my dry tires in the slick wet grass and rode too cautiously.....which means slow.......lol, anyway I ended up fifth and a bit disappointed because I was a chicken.....but determined to get back in the saddle and practice more to rip it up for the next Fujumi race in September........

The next day, I was resting and it was raining again, but a friend of mine invited me to do a photo shoot. This friend and I have been chatting on the net for about a year now and finally we set a meeting to meet face to face. His name is Ian Miller, in the mountain bike community he is a well known magazine editor and photographer, check out his stuff here. NIck Kowal, another local Hakubite, (who runs a pension called Powder Lodge) and I, were going to do a photo shoot with Ian. I was stoked, this was a great chance to work with a professional from Canada......

Can’t wait to see the pictures he took, here are a few I took........enjoy. As soon as I get his shots they will be up on the site!!!!

Well I have to run off to work now.....hope it’s not to rainy where ever you are, like it is here.......have a great week!!!

Mark at the finish of the 6hr enduro....

Us chilling after the race

Team Sweet Riders

What a great event this was!!! The venue, Fujimi Highlands, was perfect. Sunny day, mountain views all around, 900 participants, great sponsors and great fun!!!!! Mark and I were team SweetRiders in the 6hr Enduro race. Was great fun but along the way Mark got a flat and also had to work extra hard when i was off practicing and racing in the Dual Slalom event held at the same time......but we thought the course was great fun and enjoyed ourselves!!!!! We both did the night criterium race as well. As guest riders for the event we were entered in all the events and had an action packed day that ended off with an Oakley BBQ and party. Fun, fun and more fun..... Enjoy the pictures here!!!!