Trek World Racing Make It a 1-2 At The 2012 Mountain Creek Pro GRT
Monday, May 21, 2012 at 5:58AM 
Last weekend and this coming weekend sees back to back rounds of the Pro GRT on the East Coast of the USA, which all three DH riders from Trek World Racing are supporting. Yesterday saw the riders at Mountain Creek, at Vernon, New Jersey, home of the former US Open, and now the new Mountain Creek Bike Park which Aaron Gwin had the honor of officially opening on Saturday.
The event still carries a great prize purse and the fans are always vocal and big in number. Aaron qualified fastest on Saturday with a 2m 13secs, but Neko Mulally was a non-starter after injuring his ankle in a training incident. Perhaps best characterized as a serious sprain, the injury means that Neko was best to opt out of racing until he can put his weight back on the foot, most likely next week. Here's what he said:
"I stuffed my foot into the ground and twisted my ankle pretty bad. My foot slipped off the front of my pedal and planted onto the ground and then my pedal hit the back of my calf and caused my ankle to hyper-extend. I plan to keep the weight off it and the doctor says it should feel better in a few days. The goal is to be 100% ready for Val di Sole (Italy, World Cup #2), and I'm going to be as smart as I can to make sure that happens. It sucks, I didn't even crash, I just slipped a pedal following Justin. I didn't even lose speed but I just couldn't put weight on it when I got it back on the pedal."
The remaining two riders took to the final and in the super-hot conditions, staying well hydrated was key to getting a great run in. Aaron bettered his qualifier by 3 seconds to tak e the win in 2m 10secs, and now leads the series. Justin Leov took second with a 2m 14secs, making it a great 1-2 for the team.
Aaron said: "It was a fun weekend here in Vernon. I rode well today and I felt good. It's all building towards Italy and each time I race I feel better and better."
Justin said: "My run was good, after having a 'near season ender' in seeding yesterday, today was all about just having a solid top to bottom run and I achieved that. I will continue to build next week and should be on key for Italy."
The downhillers go to Plattekill, New York for the next round this weekend. Neko will decide on Friday whether or not he needs to race on the weekend.
More info on the Pro GRT series available here:
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