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Entries in 2012 US Grand Prix (8)

Friday

Jul202012

2012 US Gravity National Championships Day 2 By Dirt Passion

Friday, July 20, 2012 at 9:18PM

Day one remained unscathed in terms of moisture, well at least up until the sun went down. About 8:00 p.m. theThunderstorms rolled in. Not sure of the total amount that actually fell, but about 0.5 miles away where the DirtPassion crew crashed, it rained for a good solid hour and for the next few hours it drizzled.

That meant the next morning would be wet, not a repeat of race day in 2011, but still it would make the morningpretty interesting. At the top of the mountain visibility was about 0.25 miles….. the fog was THICK! The spikes wereout, tape was getting taken out left and right, spectators were slipping on the wet grass, and mud pellets weregetting thrown in every direction.

A chilly morning with the blanket of fog started to make its way out just after the first Amateur rider made theirway down for the first race run of the 2012 Nationals. With clearer skies (not sunny), the temps went up as did thespeeds as the Cat 2 folks started their race runs. Full results for the Cat2 and Cat3 folks can be found on USACycling at the following link. Congrats to All!http://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?permit=2012-23

With the weekend “Signed, Sealed, and Delivered” for the Amateurs, all attention will be directed at the Cat 1 andPro riders for the rest of the weekend. The Pro course being newly groomed for this specific event it wasguaranteed to be Greasy, Greasy, Greasy from top to bottom with no sign of things drying out soon, especially withthe threat of rain for the rest of the weekend.

With about four hours of practice split to between both the Cat 1 riders and the Pros, most of the time on course,reviewing lines, watching others, pushing up and doing it again and again was at the “Rock Garden” Definitely acrowd favorite, the attrition rate, those that either went down or those that had every ounce of speed sucked out of them, was about 70%. Rightfully so, riders spent lots of minutes trying to figure how to successfully get throughthe twenty yard stretch of rock hell!

of them, was about 70%. Rightfully so, riders spent lots of minutes trying to figure how to successfully get through the twenty yard stretch of rock hell! Pro seeding start tomorrow just after the noon hour, then those that have entered the Dual Slalom will get theirchance to be named the best in the US for Dual Slalom. The night will be topped off with the “Brews and Views”,beer tasting, live music, and bicycles! What more could you ask for?

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Friday

Jul202012

2012 US Gravity National Championships Day 1 By Dirt Passion

Friday, July 20, 2012 at 9:02PM

July 19, 2012 – Dirt Passion Press Release Day One of the Best in the U.S. – US Gravity National Championships Well, it’s finally here… the battle for the best in the US started today for the second and final round to be Beech in the Southeast for the first time in more than 10 years. Arguably, the biggest thing on the minds of most was the stars and stripes decorated that coveted annual sleeve. What would we see this year? Who has what to prove to who? Maybe nothing, either way I think it’s safe to assume it will be interesting.

The morning started early, with USAC trailers, Gear Vendors, Food Vendors and each of the team with their madscramble to get set up before the mountain flipped that switch for the lift at high noon. Trailers here, trailers over there, bikes, bike parts, tents, buckets full of gravel, rope, stakes, work-stands, bike racks, you name it was there…. Looked like a mound of workers ants.

With all of the moisture that has been plaguing the SE region on the past month, and it’s typically a reoccurring question in the “High Country”, how would the weather cooperate? Search the weather, all you see is those little clouds with droplets of precip and the word on the mountain is spikes, spikes, spikes……. Fast Forward 6 hours after the start of practice and would you believe, a little humid, but nothing but sun, sun, sun.

Overnight that did change with thunder-boomers in the distance which brought about 2 hours of rain. From Dirt Passion’s perspective based on what all the talk was on the Pro course, BRING THE RAIN!...... pointed toward,please wash those greasy rocks off.

Day two is the day for the Amateur’s to show what skills they got in store for us. First rider down in the race run forCat2/3 is at 9:15a.m. Yeah, they are Amateurs, but Grassroots is where it’s at. We’ve all been there! Rip it Guys

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Monday

Jul092012

Justin Leov Wins At The 2012 Highland Park USGP

Monday, July 9, 2012 at 4:32PM

Trek World Racing's Justin Leov and Neko Mulally were in action yesterday at the 3rd round of the US Grand Prix of MTB at Highland Park, New Hampshire, on the US east coast. Neko stunned the field in Sunday morning qualifying with a run that was 5 seconds quicker than any rider, but unfortunately crashed in the finals in the first wooded section. Justin on the hand was nursing a broken finger from Windham and was a conservative 5th in qualifying but laid it down for the final run.

Fresh after his announcement that this year would be his last on the World Cup DH circuit, Justin showed why h e is still considered one of the class acts in Pro Men's DH racing. After the drama of last weekend where he was set to have a great World Cup race and then smashed his hand against a tree on his last training run, Justin wasn't sure he could race at Highland Park as the pain was still very evident. Nevertheless he buckled down and put in a solid run, one that he thought would be enough for 2nd. After the podium he got news that he wasn't expecting. Originally told by the Albany Medical Center that his fingers were free of any fractures, a late email came from the same medical center shortly after he'd won the race yesterday saying in fact they have since noticed a volar plate fracture in the finger. Justin will now be having the finger seen to on his return to New Zealand this week to ensure it's all good for the next World Cup in a few weeks.

Justin said: "I feel less soft now haha! Seriously though, this weekend was tough for me, after the crash of last week I hones tly didn't think I could really race this weekend. Cotton wool and tape helped a lot and after a roll down in qualifying I knew that I at least wanted to give it a real go in the final. I felt a lot faster and managed to put down a solid run. I know Neko would have beaten that time today if he hadn't crashed, so it's good to see him back on form again. He looked fast and committed all weekend. I'm so pumped to be going home for 10 days, I can't wait to have a little break and get healed for France." Justin now has a commanding lead after round 3 of the 4 race US series.

For Neko it was clearly a disappointing afternoon after posting such a strong time in the morning qualifier, one that stood as fastest of the day; all eyes were on the hill with his team mate in the hot-seat, as it all looked set for another 1-2 for the Session 9.9 equipped Trek World Racing. Just a small error at speed had Neko over the bars, uninjured but finishing down in 25th.

Neko said: "All weekend I felt that I'd found the flow that I was riding with at the beginning of the season and I was really pushing myself here today. I attacked the track the way I wanted to on all my runs and was really enjoying it. However, I went over the bars pretty hard in my race run but managed to come away from it unscathed and I'm totally OK. That happens sometimes when you're trying to ride at your limits. I can take a lot of positives out of this weekend, and I'm looking forward to taking on the next r ace with the killer attitude that I had this weekend."

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Monday

Jun182012

Mitch Ropelato To Fill In For The Injured Troy Brosnan

Monday, June 18, 2012 at 4:18PM

With Monster Energy-Specialized racing’s Troy Brosnan at home recovering from a training injury sustained in Austria, Mitch Ropelato is ready to step up to the opportunity to fill-in for Brosnan. Ropelato has been racing in the U.S. for Specialized Racing-USA gravity onboard his Demo and will now debut for the Monster Energy-Specialized Team at both the Mont Saint Anne, Canada and Windham, New York World Cup rounds.

“Mitch was our first choice when we thought about a possible fill-in rider and we look forward to having him onboard. He’s a talented rider and I think he’ll have a good time on the program.” Said Team Manager Sean Heimdal. “It’s a shame to have Troy sidelined and we hope his recovery goes as planned!”

''Im happy to see Mitch filling in for myself and glad that he will be getting a factory ride at the next world cup rounds to show what talent on a bike he really has!'' says Troy Brosnan.

Mitch Ropelato says: “I'm super excited that I get the opportunity to ride with Sam Hill, work with Jacy and Sean under the Monster/Specialized tent. It’s really just a dream to be able to work with one of the top MTB teams in the world and really thankful that Specialized has lent me this opportunity to work with Monster Team. So, these next two weeks I’m just sitting on Cloud 9 without a worry in the world and just go out and have some fun riding my bike.”

Specialized Bicycles says: “This is a wonderful opportunity for Mitch while Troy recovers. He is a very talented rider and we couldn’t be more excited about the move. At Specialized we strive to develop riders and help them achieve their goals. To have Mitch come from one of our domestic teams and go to our global team is great for the program! We hope this move will be inspirational to other riders out there who have dreams of making it to a professional world cup team.”