Fluid Ride Finals - Derek

Derek was totally psyched to compete in a real downhill race and felt lucky to have Chris Bentley there as his mentor. Derek and Chris decided that it would be most competitive for Derek to enter the U14 “Sport” class. Derek got in 8 practice runs on Saturday and with tips from Chris he was feeling great…until he took a race day tip from Chris that he probably won’t ever duplicate…he took a Red Bull up the mountain and guzzled it before the race. The effect was not exactly positive for a 13 year old who’s not used to caffeine! He was more nervous and felt jittery and took a spill on his first race run. So then he felt even more pressure going into his second run but it turned out to be flawless and was fast enough to pull him into 7th place out of 10 riders. It was a great weekend and overall super entry into the downhill world…and it’s always great to hang out with the guys that win…Congrats Chris!