Red Bull Ride & Style Weekend

Saturday was the day we were all waiting for. The big race was upon us. This year officials changed the course, the course was wider, shorter and a whole lot faster and more entertaining for the audience. Starting head to head from an elevated platform about 100 meters from a massive berm going to the left, followed by a hip style jump, up and down the platform again into the finish line. First eliminatory round was one lap, the rest were two laps. I won all my races until I got paired up in the semi finals with and old team mate, Walton Brush. I got 3rd place after my victory versus Jason Clary, defending Red Bull Ride & Style Champion. Walton Brush finish 2nd after his match against Addison Zawada, Ride & Style 2012 winner, who dominated all weekend.

 Photo By John Watson[/caption] Sunday was rough, after a long night of partying and celebrating, racers had to get ready for the most brutal race of the weekend, The MASH SF Twin Peaks Race. Last year the race consisted of a there and back race from the MASH SF store to Buena Vista park up a 14th street (And when I mean "up" I mean steep and painful in every sense of the word) as many times as we could hit them in 30 minutes. And if that wasn't enough, top 10 from that race advanced to the final race. Another there and back race, but this time from the MASH store all the way to the top of Twin Peaks (the highest point in San Francisco). This year they changed the first qualifier race to a good old fashioned San Francisco Alley Cat, I was very happy they did. The main race was another alley cat heading out of the MASH store up to some of the steepest and highest streets in San Francisco. I followed last year's winner around as my tour guide hoping he would get me a decent placement. Last year I got 5th place on a bike much different than the one I'm riding these days, my expectations to do better this year were not there. I was happy hoping I could do as well as last year. Walton Brush from the MASH SF team won the MASH SF twin Peaks race; representing Predator Cycling, Wolfpack Hustle and Brooklyn Machine Works, Hernan Montenegro (me!) got second and Kyle from MASH SF in 3rd. The MASH SF Twin Peaks Alley Cat race is no joke, on a brakeless Fixed Gear or on a road bike. It's a very challenging race, physically and mentally. Even though I didn't win, I feel like 2nd place was a huge accomplishment.  Photo By Terry Berentsen

It was an absolute treat to make it out to this event and do my best to represent Los Angeles and all the people who support me. I wanna give special thanks to Aram at Predator Cycling, Austin and Joe at Brooklyn Machine Works, TJ and all the Orange 20 Bikes staff, Steve Tortorelli, Mike Martin at MASH SF, all the Red Bull people who set up this awesome weekend, Sean Spaulding and all my friends who made this weekend so amazing. Thank you all.