Vail DH

In an increasingly smooth world, it's comforting to know that there is still a place to ride your Downhill bike. Vail Bike Park with Teddy Jaramillo #followcamfriday

The current trend of sanitizing trail is growing old to me. There are fewer and fewer places to ride DH rigs at speed. This isn't true everywhere but certainly applies in Colorado. Not to sound like a jaded local, but keeping the rocks and roots on trails is all that separates them from a sidewalk. If you can't ride your $12,000 carbon dream machine over some bumps, you should take up road biking perhaps. Damn kids, get off my lawn!

As technology gets better and bikes become more capable, there is less of a need for DH bikes in general. The perfect storm of capable bikes and dumbing down trails equals a lack of necessity for a DH rig. These are sad times. I raced DH for ten years and there will just always be something special to me about riding a big, heavy smash wagon. It just feels good. 

There are fewer and fewer places to ride these machines lately, but fortunately Vail is one of those rare exceptions. Not all of the trails, but the good ones are still faster on a big bike. Thank you. End rant. 

The beauty of riding DH bikes with improper gearing and no dropper post is that you can't even try to climb them. Momentum is your friend, so it is mandatory to eat ice cream at every opportunity. Fat kid delight. Who ever consumes the most ice cream wins the race. Janker was buying, I made it a double. 

Every time Teddy comes to town, we basically ride until we can't feel feelings. DJ, DH, Trail, all of the bikes, all of the day. After doing laps all day on our DH bikes, we grabbed our trail bikes and caught last chair to do a bonus lap to Minturn. After that we went to Frisco and hit dirt jumps. 10 hours of riding later, we drank beer and ate tacos. A life well lived. Thanks for the motivation Janker!

The hardest part of my day was choosing which flavors to put in my cup. 

Teddy wishing he had gone for round 2 of gelato. 

Vail is actually quite special. The place has such a strange vibe with the affluent tourists and dirt-bag locals. This mix works well to keep the levels right. Throw in some proper trail and a tight crew, and this place becomes legendary. There is rarely a lift line over here, quite the contrast to Winter Park. Maybe that extra 45 minute drive is scaring the Denver crowd away. A diamond in the rough, no doubt. Let's hope it stays that way.