WONDERLAND
If you haven’t been to Woodward, change that as soon as you can. If you have had the experience, then you’ll know exactly what I mean when I say I heard church bells rung by angels who said, “Welcome to heaven.”

Specialized picked the perfect place to showcase its new product line. There’s indoor and outdoor street courses, vert ramps, trail sections, etc. It is impossible to get bored. Maybe it’s because I usually only see him at national events, but I think this was the first time I ever witnessed Christophe Leveque actually having fun on his bike. But more on that later.

If you’re a camper at Woodward, you’ll stay at one of the many cabins. We had the luxury of staying at perhaps the nicest places I’ve been in years. The Woodward Bed & Breakfast is gorgeous. The rooms and lobby are immaculate, and each room is decorated within its own theme (ours was ducks).

Our first night there we headed over to the ramp park and had tons of fun. The big attraction was the foam pit where everyone was pulling some sick aerials. Tim “Fuzzy” Hall was sticking (in the form of course) radical backflip/x-up/can-cans. I was even trying my hand at wild 360s, tabletops, and x-ups. The foam is so soft; you can’t get hurt. But the hardest part is getting out! It can sometimes take up to ten minutes of digging, struggling, and sweating. Then you have to find your bike!

The next day we played outside. We first hit the little dirt trails and then Christophe hit the smaller of the bigger trail sections. The bigger section wasn’t quite done yet, but they looked pretty gnarly. There were a couple of dudes working on them all day making them perfect.

No one paid any attention to the outside bowl, but TJ Lavin, Fuzzy, Colin Mackay, and Christophe were putting on a photo session at the outdoor street course. (Keenan Harkin was injured and couldn’t ride much, but his stories were almost as good as the sessions.) And I’m told that Christophe really never rode the street courses before; but man, he looked smooth and powerful even on his Team Hemi. Lavin pulled two new tricks that he can now add to his résumé: nothings and lookdown backflips. Sick. Everyone was simply going off and it was better than anything you can see on television.

That night Fuzzy and TJ were having fun pulling opposite 360s as a host of others tried new things on the resin ramp. Jamie Bestwick showed up and was flying on the vert ramp. He was going so high it was scary. It’s no accident he decided to live just around the corner from this wonderland.

You can’t get bored at Woodward. Even if you’re not riding. There’s too much to do, see, watch, and learn.

CONTENTS

• The Products
• Ropes
• Go Carts
• Vans Triple Crown Preview
• Roundup

Check Out the Full Photo Gallery.

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