US Open - Evan Turpen

Better late then never I say...One of these days I'll be on top of this whole "blogging" thing.

After racing in Plattekill, New York, PJ and I headed back to Jersey (Hoboken to be exact) so that he could go back to work and I could kill time between races.

Coming from a small town in Northern California, life in a densely populated city was pretty overwhelming for me. Luckily I had brought two bikes along with me (my TR450 and Double) so I had a short travel bike to mess around on to remain sane.



The weekdays before the U.S. Open were mostly spent recovering, catching up on the internet and laundry, and dialing in of bikes. I did venture out a few times for rides in and around Hoboken. Since there was almost no dirt and definitely no mountains nearby, I improvised. I scoured the streets looking for anything to bunny-hop over, jump off of, or slide around on. I eventually settled on this cool little area under a bridge where there were raised sections of cobbles forming rollers in the street. I started pumping and jumping off of them and eventually had a little course going complete with a rutted cutty berm. This was the most fun I had in a long time in Hoboken, but man I miss the trails back home!

One of the days (following the suggestion of my girlfriend) I went on a Manhattan journey. PJ let me borrow his around town beater bike which after some major mechanical love I deemed safe for my solo city mission. I rode it to the PATH (Jersey/New York transit train) and took the PATH train all the way to 33rd in Manhattan.



As much as I thought Hoboken was culture shock, New York was 10 times as much! I have never seen so many people and cars packed in to an urban area in my life! So crazy! Riding a bike here was hectic as could be! There were no bike lanes (for the most part) and what seemed like no consistency with the flow of traffic. I looked to other cyclist for guidance by following there methods of travel. Still not much consistency there, but it sure was better than what I would have done on my own.

From 33rd I took a journey up to Times Square just to see it then up further to central park. Central park was cool, green, and alive with the energy of those wanting to escape the madness of the city. All it needed was a pump-track and some dirt jumps under the trees and it would be complete! I got lost in the park riding all over and enjoying the lack of traffic and noise until my phone rang, bringing me back to reality. It was a massage therapist that I had tried to schedule an appointment with, but she had been out of the office. She said if I was around that she could fit me in to her schedule within the next half-hour. I told her where I was and she gave me directions to her business.



I managed to make it to her massage studio six stories up in the heart of Manhattan in a timely fashion. $145 later I was shocked and questioned the benefit of massaging my messed up shoulder. Oh well...what's done was done and it was time to head back to Jersey.

Once Thursday rolled around I was excited to hit the road again headed out to the U.S. Open for the weekend. The U.S. Open has always been one of my favorite events and I've had some good results there in the past. This year the course had been changed drastically and to be honest I didn't really care much for its new flow (or lack of). Regardless, it was still a good track and the weather for the first time was hot without much threat of rain (a welcome change compared to the other East Coast races).



My practice sessions here were pretty strange. I never seemed to get that many runs and I was always stopping and starting. I never managed a full run until qualifying Saturday and that didn't go so well. I clipped a pedal hard and blew both feet off entering the first main woods section. I tried to regain my composure but for some reason struggled to get my feet back on in the exact right spot. Maybe the thousands of rocks I was riding through were to blame! Eventually I would find my flow (sort of) and qualify 27th out of roughly 150. Not bad, but not good either.

Once Sunday rolled around I still didn't really feel prepared for the finals. I had some mistakes and line changes in practice right up until the end (something I don't normally do). Feeling a little nervous before finals due to my lack of preparation, I had a beer with Nick from Shimano to calm my nerves. It must have helped cause I only made one mistake costing me a tiny bit of time and eventually finished 18th, 3.74 seconds off of top ten and 8.78 seconds off podium. Not too bad given the circumstances.




Overall it has been a fun trip, but I will definitely plan my East Coast travels better in the future. It is looking like I am short on funds at the moment so unfortunately I will be staying home to work instead of racing Mont-Saint-Anne and Windham World Cups. Bummer! But I'll be back racing soon enough...

Happy Trails,

Evan