National Shots

It's 4:53 AM. The sun is just cresting over the horizon.

Time for the wake-up call.

But this isn't your run-of-the-mill wake up call.

It's not your regular cup of Joe.

And it isn't even a gym membership.

It's a little more intense.

Welcome to South Mountain.

A place with groomed trails, rolling hills and water stops?

Anything but.

We're going to get photos of a lot of our favorite places all over South Mountain.

Here are some shots decending National. This is the first of a series of posts to come.

Here's the same decent at a different angle.

Very often photos don't really do justice to what the actual trail looks like. The camera might add weight to a person; it also smooths out the trail. This next series gives a little more perspective of what Cody sees as he rides down. To give depth perspective, notice how close he is to the camera in the first shot compared to the last.

This last section is usually ridden fast. Coming off of south mountain, there are several straight sections with hairpin turns. The first is a shot of Cody coming off of a straight. The "stairs" are steep enought that if you go off them wrong, you'll grind your chain ring on the rocks.

Notice Cody's going down fast enough to have to lock up his front tire so as to not run over the cameraman (last picture).

That's why he's the MBAA Series Champion for 2009.