Video of Session B

it’s a wrap!

Last night marked the end of session B! It was such a good week and I am pooped now!

Not to get all cheesy and stuff but I think that this week coaching was one of the best things that could have happened to me. I love racing so much but I really feel like sometimes I just get so caught up in it all that I forget why I ride. This week reminded me why I love bikes…FUNNN! So many big trains. Learning. Teaching. Shredding. Hucking. Slow. Fast. Getting loose. Sending it. Cruising. Tech. Jumps. Berms. Sun. Rain. Just having fun and being in the moment!

There is nothing like racing, I love it. I love the drive that it gives me to go that much faster and train that much harder. I just love going fast and I hate getting beat. I don’t think that that competitiveness will ever change. I want to be the best, period. Racing is in my blood.  But when you get so fixated on the end result you forget about the journey…I feel like that’s what has happened to me the past few months (or year?)….and its pretty cool that it took a week at summer camp to open my eyes again! :)

Anyway, thats my little rant.

Photos: Mike Crane

Landed the backflip

Yahhhhh!! So pumped. It’s crazy, I didn’t start the week thinking about doing a backflip but after watching all the boys throw down, I was the odd one out so it was time to step it up…there was no reason not to and every reason to do it!

Some Compound goodness!

Ken is the master at overnight sick edits! Just had another epic day of shredding, lots of sending it…to flat! ha.

TODAY @ CAMP OF CHAMPIONS

Backflip into the bag at Camo of Champions from Katie Holden on Vimeo.

I just had so much fun on my bike today!!!!! Love it. So much.

Photos: Mike Crane

Camp of Champions

I am totally pumped to have been invited to coach at Camp of Champions. As far as camps go, its one of a kind…they truly are leaders in the action sports market, attracting some of the best campers and coaches for skiing, snowboarding and biking. This week coaching its Greg Watts, Andrew Taylor Mike Montgomery, Garyeth Dyer, Alan Hepburn, Ryan Barrecloth myself and a few others.

Yah so we pretty much just rip the park all day everyday and try and help these kids learn and progress. Lots of mini skill sessions, lots of follow the leader, lots of plain shredding. Love it.

In the evening everyone gathers back at the compound where there are dirt jumps, a mulch pit, an air bag to learn tricks onto, a mini skate park, a mini half pipe, pool, ping pong, a lounge with flat screen TVs and XBOXs…plus lots of other random activities like water ramps or paintball. Yah, they are not joking around. I want to make a compound of my own someday :)

The skiers and snowboarders have been getting jealous of all our fun in the air bag and mulch pit so they are all giving biking a go. Rad! Last night Bobby Brown (X-Games Gold, Skier) decided to give it a go so he tried backflips into the air bag, then decided to do them into the mulch….he doesn’t ride bikes, at all (you would know that from seeing him ride in a circle, ha!)…but he obviously has amazing body awareness because he landed it perfectly! SOOO RAD!!

The week is only half done, so there is plenty more shredding to be had!

Vital Bike Check

Bike Check: Katie Holden’s 2010 Specialized… – More Mountain Bike Videos

Specialized 2011

I have been doing pretty good keeping my mouth shut about all of the exciting 2011 stuff from Specialized but it is popping up left and right all over the internet right now so I thought you might like to see a photo from the Moab shoot in the look book. Thats me on the 2011 Safire! I love this bike…it’s my weapon of choice for pretty much anything except gnarly downhills!

home sweet home

Whistler is a special, special place. After being on the road pretty much the entire season thus far, it feels really nice to just come home and relax and see my friends. I missed the first Phat Wednesday race of the year (Chain/less B-Line!) but I made it last night to cheer on my favorite people!

For those of you that don’t know. Phat Wednesdays is essentially the Whistler “Beer League”. Pay a toonie ($2) and get a race run and a beer ticket. There is a cap of 200 racers and both this week and last week sold out…like 50 people were turned away. Although it is the beer league it is pretty competitive over 100 guys, like 40 girls and a bunch of juniors and masters…a lot of rippers in the mix. Yah so everyone gets their run , schwag and $ (Billinghurst made like $400 bucks last week!) is handed out and the party gets started.

My shoulder is still messed up so I have been trying to give it as much rest as possible…I am pretty scared to ride on it as I think its going to be ridiculously painful! But yah, so I didn’t race but I was there for the social scene…cause thats what I do. :) I was soooo happy to see everyone and I can’t tell you how much I love my Whistler family!

Leogang World Cup

So I just got back from Europe…whew this season has been a roller coaster and a half. Half expected I guess. The first two World Cups hit me pretty hard…they just smash you…your heart, your ego and your confidence but I know that I would not be in the situation I am now without those experiences.

After Fort William we made the trek down to Austria via train which was such a fun little adventure, that kind of thing just puts me at ease. Lovvve little adventures. Things just fell into place and we ended up in Saalbach Austria. Saalbach was pretty quite as most of the circus went out to Willingen, Germany for Wheels of Speed but Keene and I decided to go hang with the Monster Specialized boys in Saalbach. Got a few good days of shredding in and had a lot of just straight hanging :) I also got a lesson in suspension set-up by the boys which was amazing to say the least…so come Leogang my suspension was sooooo good.

I can honestly say this is the first WC where I started to relax and have confidence in my abilities. I walked the track like 4 times…knew the track like the back of my hand and was just having fun. It was pretty dry at the beginning of practice but as the day went on, it pissed rain and the track got pretty muddy- but I was loving it….I just kept riding because I wanted to be ready and confident riding in whatever weather Saturday had in store for us.

On my 9th run I was getting a little tired so I was just cruising to the finish line (with the finish line in sight) on the high speed flats and then I hit the ground. I didn’t hear or see anything just hit the ground so hard. It turns out that a guy was trying to pass me on the inside (I guess he was thinking I was going outside???) and he clipped my handlebar and I just hit the deck so hard and took all the impact onto my shoulder. I knew as soon as I sat up that my shoulder was messed up. I was so upset as I could immediately tell that opportunity, the revenge, I had so been looking forward to was not going to happen. My eyes were just swelling trying to hold back the tears (as I write this my eyes are swelling up again).

I tried to stay optimistic on Friday night with some ice and anti-inflamitories. I hoped on my bike on Saturday morning and just held onto the bars pulling and pushing and there was just nothing…not happening, no way.

I know it was an accident and and the guy meant no harm. With that said, it was pretty stupid and reckless if you ask me. We were pretty much at the finish line and it was a practice run and it was not like it was a top to bottom run this guy was doing as I had just stopped to clear my goggles of mud like 15 seconds before and he was sitting right there too. Lame. So bad to come all all the way out to Europe to race to have it end like that. Urgghhhhhhhh.

Anyway, I just hope that my shoulder heals up fast. I don’t think that there is anything majorly wrong with it that would require any kind of operation or anything but I separated my shoulder pretty gnarly like 3 years ago and then partially tore my rotator cuff last year on the same shoulder so the whole thing in general  is not how it should be I mean its not like it has kept me from doing anything or caused me problems but not everything was totally intact before this crash so who knows. It is amazing what some ice, rest, anti-inflamitories and thera-bands can do. :)

Photo: Troy Brosnon