riding feels good

Tennant places 2nd

The second round of the Island Cups was held in Parksville BC this past Sunday. The infamous "Hammerfest" race is in its 15th year and is very popular as was evident by the strong attendance of 180 racers. It rained on Friday, but was followed by sun for Saturday and Sunday which made for near perfect course conditions.

I placed 2nd with a 2.43, a couple seconds off first place's Remi Gauvin. I will now be making my way east to join my teamates for the first Canada Cup round in Bromont.

Bring on the mud!

Island Cup Men's Results

1. Remi Gauvin          0:02:41.07
2. Dean Tennant         0:02:43.61
3. Simon Stevenson   0:02:44.36
4. Simon Garstin       0:02:45.24
5. Sky Gustin             0:02:45.34
6. Andrew Mitchell   0:02:46.63
7. Jeremy Vosburgh   0:02:46.70
8. Steve Chan              0:02:47.54
9. Paul Kalisch           0:02:47.85
10. Brant Lyon           0:02:49.49

Tennant getting up to speed.

A couple of weeks ago, Dean attended a last minute race called FluideRide Cup in Port Angeles, Washington. He didn't train on friday as work got in the way, but with his limited training on the track he posted a very respectable result. He told us "The course was awesome; it was muddy but fast with some big lines and lots of corners. I seeded in 8^th in the semi-final with a 3:05, but it rained for the race run, giving me a 3:06 for 9^th place."  

Based on the talent that was at the race I think he did very well. Go Deaner! We're all excited to have him come out to the east coast.

Top 10 pro results;

1. Luke Strobel  2.46.00
2. Bart McDaniels  2.54.86
3. Lars Sternberg  2.55.71
4. Cameron Cole 2.57.17
5. Casey Northern 2.57.19
6. John Wilson 2.57.72
7. Kicharz Mukai 3.00.31
8. Phillip Wiering 3.04.28
9. Dean Tennant 3.06.31
10. Simon Lawton 3.07.95

PRIMARY IN THE WOODS!

So I received this email today from my friend Tara. She apparently found a magazine article that team Primary was in that had been stashed in the forest in Owen Sound. In my experience, the only magazines that one finds in the forest contains naked women, but hey, I guess this was a pleasent suprise. Go team!

Here's the message...
_______________________________________________________

Drew, I was in the Sound on the weekend just relaxing, flipping through a magazine enjoying the sunny when to my surprise...  actually it wasn't really surprised at all...  you and your teammates popped up in one of the articles.

Nice one. And you'll like this... that magazine is distributed all over the place up north. Seriously, I picked my copy up IN THE MIDDLE OF A FOREST! No joke, at a maple syrup festival in the middle of a forest.

Word.
T

GOING DOWN HILL IN ONTARIO

A couple of weeks ago I was approached by Mountain Life magazine to contribute to an article they were composing on the current changes at Blue Mountain in Ontario. Unfortunately, Blue has decided to keep the DH trail network focused on beginner level riders, as they believe the risk to injury rate is too high for Ontario level riders. While this is a disappointing decision for expert and elite level riders, riding DH at blue will still be fun. What was interesting was, the final quote in the article was one that I contributed. It happens to be exactly what team Primary/Devinci believes as our core reason for contributing to the sport:

“I wish every ski hill and resort was open for downhilling,” says Pautler. “I wish the community was that big. I truly believe it will be one day, I don’t see why in ten or fifteen years’ time downhill mountain biking won’t be like downhill skiing: it’s something you do on the weekends, you do it with your friends, you do a couple runs then you go sit in the chalet, and it’s fun for everyone. That’s what we’re seeing at really progressive places like Whistler and I don’t see why that’s not going to trickle down to other parts of Canada and around the globe.”

To read the article click here: GOING DOWN HILL IN ONTARIO

A big thank you goes out to Colin Field who coordinated the interview for the magazine. I'll have more on Colin in an up coming post... He is one of the best action sports photographers I've had the priviledge to shoot with.

Primary's Dean Tennant first in Nanaimo

This past weekend the first Vancouver Island cup DH race of the series was held in Nanaimo BC. The four-minute long course was technical and slippery at the top, speeding up as riders progressed downwards.

Primary/Devinci racer, Dean Tennant, started off the series placing first, despite a crash on one of the final corners. “I knew some of the corners would get blown out for the finals so I looked for inside lines to avoid them” said Dean. “I’m stoked to have a good start to the season, I think it’s gonna be a good summer.”

Dean is proud to represent his sponsors; Devinci, Sram, Rockshox, Avid, Truvativ, Want beverages, NSK bearings, Wrex gear, Makeready tuning and Sweet Pete’s bike shop.

Island Cup Men’s results

1.     Dean Tennant   4:08

2.     Paul Kalish       4.12

3.     Matt Dawes      4:12

4.     Mitch Thacker  4:12

5.     Jeff Beeston      4:15