When Epicology’s newest family member, Professional BMX Trials rider Scott Thompson, invited us on a trip to the Kern River for the Annual Fat Tire Festival, we all saw a painful hangovers lurking in the future. However, upon our arrival to the Mountain River Adventures camp ground on Friday night at approximately 11pm after a treacherous 6 hour drive in traffic and a Taco Bell stop, it was apparent by the number of festival goers asleep there was something much more epic taking place the next couple days to rest up for.
The five us were awoken early in the morning to noises from eager mountain bikers loading up their bikes and jumping in vans to head off on a 20-mile downhill ride for the day.
Check out this link for some footage of the ride http://www.vholdr.com/video/2009-kernville-fat-tire-festival
If mountain biking wasn’t your thing, the wheat and barley inspired festival had plenty other events to offer along with a hill climb competition, a bunny hop contest, and a chance to check out some of the hottest new bikes from Giant and Specialized, but the reason we made the trek to the Kern River was for the two day observed trials competition. For those of you unfamiliar with the sport, observed trails are a test of technical skill, control and strength. For more info on rules and other trials events check out www.observedtrials.net
After we wiped the sandman’s sleep out of our eyes and had a cup of coffee we hopped on our bikes and cruised the campground to scout out some of the courses that Scott and his sister Monica, who also repped Epicology in the sport class, would be slaying for the next couple days. After cruising around for a bit we headed back to the trailer for some good eating thanks to Caroline!
Before we could get seconds, Scott and Monica were off warming up for the day’s events along with other competitors. There was a family-like atmosphere as friends who were also competitors cheered each other on throughout the entire two-day event. Scott hit a stride through his first half of the day, bunny hopping his way through obstacles and almost never leaving the pedals all morning. Going into the short lunch break, Scott was in the lead. After lunch-fatigue set in, the lead in the Pro-division flip-flopped between Scott and his long time competitor and friend, Shaun Miller. But at the end of the day Scott Thompson found himself in 2nd place down by five points.
On the other side of things Travis Anderson, who trains with the Thompsons regularly, and Joey Carberry would battle all day Saturday for the lead in the Sport class. Monica Thompson, a former Women’s National Champion, toughed it out with the boys all day long, but found that after nearly six years off the peddles and no preparation, she had her work cut out for her. Nonetheless she greeted us at the end of each section with a grin from ear to ear stoked to be ridding again, so keep an eye out for her in future competitions. At the end of the day it looked as if Travis might have the event wrapped up, but as we all know a long night at a beer festival can lead to trouble the next day. Despite a long night of hydrating, Travis still put up a fight, but in the end Joey edged him out by a point for the victory. Nicholas Dijohn took third, edging out Terry Elam by a close margin.
The second day proved to be exciting for the Pro class as well. Scott and Shaun Continued to battle it out for first while a three-way battle for third ensued between Matt Meyer, Phil Lucero, and Brian Maier. After two more trips through the six sections Shaun Miller not only walked away with the hill climb title but also stood atop the podium. Scott Thompson followed in second and rounding out the top three was Mat Meyer.
Billy Hendrickson won the bunny hop contest leaping a whopping 43” along with finishing first in the expert division followed by Paul Marshall in second and Joe Cambell in third.
Owen Elliot was the epic youngster of the weekend. He was the only competitor who wasn’t old enough to drive and he still made the trip to Kernville to take first in the Beginner Class.
The weekend was most excellent! We’d like to extend a special thanks to Scott for bringing us along for the weekend as well as thank Mountain River Adventures and Zak Maeda for organizing the event and being a great host. November 22 will be the next trials event set to take place in Fontana. We hope to see you all out there come support Scott, Monica and the rest of these epic athletes!
-Epicology Team
