Doing Some Road Racing:

Jamie Knight (age 17) is participating in the local Florida Road Racing Scene and some larger races in Georgia. He has a rather impressive start in Catagory 3: As of May he is in 4th place with a win and numerous top 10 finishes.

Currently he is racing for Ball Watch Bents Cycling. To check his Cat # results go here.


To follow his progress visit BallWatch/Bent's Cycling Team.

Update

Jamie raced the Single Speed Class for Team Bent’s during the 2008 Florida State Championship Series provided by GoneRiding. Jamie won seven of eight races and with his dropped race finished the series with a perfect score.

For Series Results visit GoneRiding.com

Brent and Jamie's Summer Exploits

June 1st Bump&Grind

On May 30th my Dad, Brent Hall and I headed to Birmingham, Alabama for one of the biggest
mountain bike races in the Southeast, Bump & Grind. This race is held in a beautiful state park, I think the name Mountain Lake State Park? The race consists of just a mear 2 laps. Two 17 mile laps, that's a 34 mile race with around half of it climbing. There wasn't a big turn out for the Expert 18 and under race just 3 riders. Everybody must have heard Brent and I were coming.......just kidding. Lucky for us Seth Kemp chose to race Expert 19-29. Anyway Brent and I battled it out for 34 miles trading the lead many times. Brent climbs better than me and I descend better than Brent. In the end it came down to a sprint finish and I was lucky enough to squeak out a victory over my teamy. Fun times on one of my favorite race courses in the country. It felt good to win a race after so long, I know racing with the older guys will payoff in the long run, but there is nothing better for your confidence than a win. Thanks to Ryan Woodall for letting us crash with him and Regan.

June 29th -July 4th USAC Mtb Camp

On June 28th Brent Hall and I headed out for North Carolina. This would start our month long journey that would not have us sleeping in our own beds until July 28th. Mountain bike camp is a week long of learning new techniques, skills and lots of riding, around 30 hours for the week.
I always enjoy this week, I've met some really good riders/friends here and we have a blast all week long. The coaches for the week are Andy Johnston and '07' National Dual Slalom Champ Chris Herndon. By the last race on Friday the 4th Brent and I were beat and ready for a little rest and relaxation before heading to New York and Vermont.

July 5th - July 7th

Brent and Jamie's Summer Exploits headed to Maggie Valley, N.C. for a little R&R. We stayed at my GranniDi's cabin while we waited on my Dad to arrive Monday with the trailer and all the bikes for N.Y. and Vermont. We visited the motorcycle museum Wheels thru Time a must for any motorcycle enthusiast if your in the area. We road to the Chattalahochi Ski resort on our bikes, this included some grades of 14%, brutal on the ascent and 50 mph desents fun stuff.
We made a mini downhill course near the cabin and we played mini golf when the sun went down. It must be noted that Brent and I have developed and intense rivalry in mini golf. We are forever looking for a place to play. Okay we didn't do a lot of resting but we did a lot of relaxing.

July 8th - July 20th

At around 7:30 am on Tuesday Brent and Jamie's Summer Exploits headed for Vermont. For this leg of the journey we were joined by my Grandma, known to everyone as GranniDi, Dad and
Mikey V. We got to the house in Vermont at around 2 am Wednesday. After sleeping in we went shopping for groceries and other necessities for the next 10 or so days. Thursday we slept in again, ate a good breakfast and headed out for a little recon on the Nationals race course. After a couple of hours riding we headed home to chill and eat some of Mikey V's great cooking. Not only does Mike take great pictures, he cooks some great food. Friday didn't start out so good, I woke up sick throwing up, this lasted until around 1030 when we headed to Windham, N.Y. for the East Coast National.

The East Coast National was held at Windham Ski resort, it is the first race the resort has held and I must say they did an outstanding job. I planned to race Downhill, Dual Slalom, Super D and Short Track. I needed to do well in order to qualify for Nationals in DH and DS. I felt a little better after we got to the resort and registered for the races. Dad and I headed up to the top of the mountain for a downhill run. Things went well so we jumped back on the lift and headed up for another run. I met up with my friend Ethan Quells after our 2nd run and he and I headed up for a run on the Expert course. That course was crazy technical, I'm glad I didn't have to race that course I'm still a Sport rider in gravity events. Beginner and Sport rider race on a different course than the Pros and Experts. After everybody finished riding there respective courses we headed to the Farm House, an old farm house that had been divided in to apartments. We had 2 rented for the weekend, Coach Drew and Martin Cox found the place and it worked out well.
Saturday morning all the guys racing XC had an early wake up they raced at 8am. Dad and I raced at 10:30, we did a couple of practice runs before the race. I felt a little better today still not good though, thank goodness I was doing shorter races this weekend.
In Downhill you get one run down the mountain so you better make it count, and I did. I had the fastest time of all the Sport riders, therefore winning my first downhill race. Next up was Dual Slalom a head to head race against another competitor. There are 2 courses, red and blue, each rider does a race on each course, the one with the fastest combined time wins and moves to the next round. I qualified as the fastest rider. I had a first round bye so I rested the first run then rode the second run just to keep in the groove for my first head to head race in the second round. Things were pretty uneventful until the last round when I missed a gate in the first run, that gave my opponent a 1.4 second lead going into the last run. I had to beat him by 1.5 seconds in order to win the overall, a tall order in a race that last all of 30 seconds. The final run went perfectly and I managed to eek out a victory by the slimmest of margins. A great day two events two gold medals.
Sunday started out terribly we got to the course late. I forgot my shoes had broken and I needed to put cleats on the new ones, so my warm up for the Short Track race consisted of the ride to the start line. Needless to say five minutes isn't enough time to warm up for a JrX National Short Track race and it showed, that and the fact that I couldn't eat more than about a cup of food at a sitting. I felt terrible and finished well back. Hopefully things would be better in Super D in the afternoon. Things started out great I was in 2nd or 3rd place and then psssssst I flatted my front tire. At least I didn't crash, not to bad of a weekend 4 races, 2 wins. Back to Vermont for Nationals. Congrats go to my good friend and BCC teammate Regan Woodall for his win in the Expert 19-24 XC race. To my travel compadre, welcome to the speed of Jr National riders.

July 14th - July 20th USAC Mtb Nationals, Mount Snow, VT

Back in Vermont we slept in again, Coach Drew and Martin joined us in the house for the rst of the week. We also had a guest for Sunday night Tad Elliott. Tad is a member of the US National U23 team. So, late Monday afternoon we all headed out for a very slow lap at Mount Snow. Tad headed to his place of residence for the week Monday night, he is a super nice guy and I hope to get to ride with him again. Thursday the U23 race opened the racing for Nationals and wouldn't you know my new friend Tad Elliott won the National title.
My racing got under way on Friday morning with the Jr Expert 17-18 XC race. I don't want to make excusses for a poor race but I still wasn't able to eat a good sized meal. I felt week and
sluggish. I was out of the race early but, not being one to quit I kept peddling until they told me I was done. I was the last rider still riding finishing 23rd a lap down, not what I had planned.
Later in the afternoon I had Dual Slalom qualifing and then finals. Things went much better in DS, I qualified as the 2nd seed. That meant I would race the #9 seed in round one. I won all my races until it was me and the #1 seed in the finals. In the first race of the final I made a little mistake in the first turn and that was enough to let my opponent win by .17 of a second. In the second race I road an excellent race hitting all my lines and won by .04 seconds, not enough to make-up the time gap. Oh well what can you do 2nd place at National in only my second DS race.
Saturday I only had one race concentrate on Sport 15-18 Downhill. I got to the course early enough to make a few practice runs I was ready to go. During my race run I felt pretty good. I think I made a little mistake in a technical section nothing to bad but apperently enough. I finished .76 of a second behind first place. Dang I misse dtwo titles by less than a second combined.
Sunday would bring and end to Nationals with the Jr Expert Short Track race. But, first we had to race Super D. I like SD it's a combination of XC and DH it give the gravity guys and the endurance guys a chance to mix it up. I had an okay race but, not great and finished 11th.
That left only STXC. I really like short track it's like racing a crit on the dirt and I like crit racing. Unfortunately, I wasn't a factor in the race. I don't think anybody else raced all 5 disiplines at National it was fun but, very tiring. I would like to thank all my sponsors for their support: Bent's Cycling and Fitness my first sponsor, Hayes Bicycle Group my first national sponsor, EndurenceFactor.com and Coach Drew Edsall, and last but not least Giant Bicycles.
All in all it was a good Nationals, I would have liked to have finished better in the endurance races. I'll just have to buckle down and train harder.

The racing ain't over yet Fontana Dam Jam is next. Story on that to come.

Sunday April 6th Cross Country

Early wake up today we race at 8 AM. It was cold this morning when we got up this morning around 50 degrees so we put on our arm and knee warmers and headed out. Today will be the first time I get to race against the guys I'll see at the National Championships in Vermont in July. Once the sun started coming up the cold quickly disappeared, the weather was perfect for a race.

They called up all of the Jr. Experts to the line which was cool I have never had a call out before. There were some race rules given and then the 1 minute to go, 30 seconds, 15 seconds, GO.

Let's just say my start sucked for lack of a better term, I went into the single track 2nd from last. Not to worry the race is 30 miles long plenty of time to move up, right, wrong. About 3 miles into the race my rear tire was flat. Fortunately I had a couple of co2's with me and was back under way quickly. Unfortunately, it was one of the fastest sections on the course. I don't know what it was, but, I struggled on the short steep climbs in this race. Never the less I chased as hard as I could and finished 8th in the race and 5th overall in the General Classification. Steve should em that you don't need no stinkin' mountain to be a fast mountain biker, he flatted early in his race and still chased them down and won by over a minute. 2nd in the GC. Great job Scuba Steve. Dad got a worst start than me and finished 18th for the race and 10th in the GC.

Coach Drew had a great race proving his win in Georgia was no fluke finishing 5th in the XC out of about a zillion. We didn't get to stay for the Pro's, but, my pal Ryan Woodall kick some major butt finishing 12th against some of the best in the world. It was his best National finish so far and a good sign of what's to come. He should be ready for the National Championships in July.

As soon as we finished racing we packed our bikes back in their sweet bike bags and headed to the airport. None to soon I must say as we got to the gate they were giving our seat to some standby fliers, needless to say they were a little less than happy when they had to exit the plane.

Thing is we weren't late for boarding, we still had 10 minutes. Still it was to close for comfort.

We walked in the door at home about 2AM Monday morning, 71 hours after we walked out. Over 3500 miles in the air, 3 races in 3 days and some tired legs. I can't wait to do it again.

Saturday April 5th Short Track

I woke up at about 8 MST, Arizona time 11 our time, sweet 10 hours of sleep. Off to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. They don't have grits, hash browns or sweet tea in Arizona. They need to come Southeast of the Mississippi river and learn about good food. I had home fries with my eggs, I guess that's ok. Then it was off to the course to get Steve's Lefty fork looked at. After our practice run on Friday all the air in it mysteriously disappeared. For some reason you have to put a ball bearing in the valve stem to put air it, well of course we don't have the bearing with us or a shock pump for that matter. Off to the Cannondale trailer nobody there, borrow a pump from the Gary Fisher guys and find a small rock for the bearing, ha ha, it worked. Funny thing it didn't leak after that. Still Steve wanted to have it looked at, so we went out to the venue. The Cannondale mechanic was not very nice at all. He even went so far as to put Steve's team replica Scalpel outside the barriers when he went to find us. Needless to say Steve wasn't to happy with the mechanic. Steve never said he was a Cannondale dealer, he said it shouldn't matter. Word must have gotten around, because later in the day the guy knew his name and was kissing his feet. Moral of the story never ignore someone you don't know, they could be someone, that works for a company sponsoring you, it wouldn't look good of you.

Anyway we went back to the hotel to grab a bite, rest in the AC and get our cycling gear.

We got back to the venue a little later than planned. We took off for a pre-lap on the cross country course. Steve and my Dad's race was at 2:30, we finished our lap at 2:23. No rest for them and no pre-lap either. But they both did great Steve took 2nd and Dad got 10th. My race was next and Dad told me to do a couple of laps before my race. Good thing I did because therewas a hill right after a 90 degree turn that you had to run up. It caught Dad by surprise and he lost about 7-8 places in his race. I'm glad he told me about it, although it still was my undoing during the race. Fortunately, I can ride almost everything in Florida so I don't have to run much, I think I'm going to practice some that little hill almost killed me. It just sapped the energy out of my legs. As the race wore on it took it toll and the leaders got a gap on me. I finished in 6th place, not to bad for my first short track race, but, I know I can do much better. I then watched coach Drew race to 19th in his race with something like 60+ riders. Then it was
Ryan Woodall's turn in the Pro race. Those guys are so dang fast it isn't funny, Geoff Kabush and Barry Wicks rode away from everybody, Ryan took 37th I think. I didn't get to watch the woman's race as I was mounting new Kenda tires, courtesy of Jim at Kenda, on my Sun Ringle' wheels. There are some serious rock gardens in the cross country course and the super light Conti SuperSonics wouldn't have survived 3 laps of pounding. After the raced ended we headed back to the same Mexican restaurant from the night before, then back to the hotel and to bed. We race at 8AM tomorrow.

Arizona NMBS #2 Friday April 4th Super D/Time Trial

First off I have to thank Steve Bent (Bent's Cycling & Fitness) for assisting me with my travel.
Clayton Goldsmith (Hayes Bicycle Group) for parts, mechanical assistance and shade via the Hayes team trailer. Jim (Kenda Tires) for tires. All of these people assisted me in one way or the other to make this weekend a success.

Okay here is how it went down:
Friday April 4th Wakened at 3:15 A.M. by my Dad, out of the house at 3:35. Arrived at Steve Bent's house at 4:05. Amazingly he is at the door ready to go. Head to Orlando airport on the plane by 7:00, in the air at 7:20. Arrived in Phoenix at 9:00 A.M. their time, 4 hour flight took net 2 hours, cool. My coach Drew Edsall met us at the airport just as we got all the luggage and bikes in to the Escalade(really a Ford Escape) Steve told my Dad we got upgraded to an Escalade on the phone when he picked up the car.......NOT. We were able to get an early check-in at the hotel, so we dropped off the luggage and built our bikes, grabbed some lunch and headed for the course. I have never been to the desert before so it was cool to see all the cacti everywhere, cacti to the Arizonians are like trees to us, no big trees like around here, therefore no shade. Once at the course we headed up to the start of the Super D/Time Trial. On the way up the hill I notice my rear brake is dragging pretty badly, fortunately the SD course is mostly downhill. Now if you haven't riden in the desert it's a little different than anything in Florida. The closest thing turf wise, or lack of turf, is Oleta with no roots. The difference is everywhere there are things just waiting for you to touch them so they can stick in, scratch or scrape you. But, the course is fast and fun and the weather is perfect. When I get to the pit area I take my bike to the Hayes trailer to have my brakes looked at. Clayton had it fixed in about ten minutes and it worked better than ever. Then it was back up the hill for the race. My Dad arrived at the start about ten minutes before his start luckely I was still there so he could see me off. When they started staging the Expert men James Knight was called out so I went to stage, there I found out I had somehow missed my start. I went to the starter and explained I had been there for 15-20 minutes and never heard my name called. The starter was kind enough to allow me to use an empty time slot for my run. They didn't have to do that and I am very thankful to them for it.
I got scolded by the officials at the finish, but they let my corrected time stand. 4th place. Lesson learned! Be early to the start line. After that it was off to dinner and back to the hotel. A few minutes in the hot tub, to bed by 10 Arizona time, 1 our time. Holy smokes a 22 hour day.

Gainesville SERC

Well the first mountain bike race of the year is in the books. It wasn't a total success but it wasn't a total dissapointment either. Of course I want to win every race I enter, but, we all know that isn't possible. For the first race I was very pleased with my conditioning for this point in the year. I was able to attack a couple of times in the race, pull away from the riders I attacked and stay away for the rest of the race. So, overall it was a good start to the
year.
Prop to the rider that finished ahead of me. Seth Kemp, from South Carolina, has been a friend for about three years. He is very strong as he trains in the Pisgah Forrest a lot. Regan Woodall is a good friend and fellow BCC teammate. It doesn't hurt to have the fast mountain bike racer in the state as a training partner and brother, Ryan. As for the two other racers that finished ahead of me I don't know who they are, good race guys. To my Bents and BBC teamy Brent welcome to the world of the Experts. Good job in your first expert race, I know with your work ethic you'll be at the front soon. It should prove to be a fun year battling with these guys, one I look foward too.
Good luck to my pal Ryan Woodall who will be heading out to California on Wednesday. He will be out there thru the Sea Otter Classic. Show em we don't need no stinkin' mountains...... to kick their butts on a mountain bike. Our thoughts and prayers are with you, in more ways than one;). Good luck to you too Luke. See you guys in Arizona.
Thanks to my sponsors: Bent's Cycling and Fitness, Hayes Bicycle Group, EnduranceFactor.com, OnYourMark laser bike fitting, and of course BuildingChampionCyclistsFL.
Well I guess I've taken up enough of your time for now, Peace!
JamJam