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Congratulations to the following BetterRide athletes who have made the US Team for the World MTB Championships! In the pro downhill Jackie Harmony (who is BetterRide athlete and coach!) earned her automatic nomination by virtue of being ranked 11th in the UCI rankings! Mitch Ropelato was chosen for the team for his high placings at many of the World Cup races in his first year as a pro! In the Jr. Cat 1 Downhill Trevor Trinkino was the fastest among a qualified pool of athletes at Colorado Crankworx to earn his automatic nomination. Christian Wright was selected to the team for his overall performances so fa this season. In 4 cross, Lear Miller was selected as one of three men to represent the US. Making the US Team is quite an honor, congratulations! Create a great World Championship and we will be cheering for you! For the whole story click on this link: http://www.usacycling.org/news/user/story.php?id=6910
In 12 years of coaching mtb skills I still cannot get over how closed minded mountain bikers can be! "Oh, he is a single speeder, they always...", "damn downhiller's with 8" of travel, of course they can ride that section, no skill, the bike does all the work, bet he can't climb to save his life", "look at that idiot on that fully rigid bike doesn't he know...", etc. Well, we are doing the exact same spot! Riding bicycles off road and guess what? The Core, Fundamental Skills are All The Same no matter what kind of mtb you are riding! Why is this important to you? Because if you want to improve you can learn a lot from riders that are different from you. The skill it takes for Greg Minnaar and Mitch Ropelato to corner so well is the exact same skill all mountain bikers need, regardless of the bike they are on or the label they give themselves. So open your mind and stop labeling people/riders/things. You can learn from our examples/videos/coaching even if the example we us is on a much different bike that yours. We are fortunate enough to coach many of the best races in the world in all disciplines of mtb racing and we teach them all the same core skills (although in our downhill camps we don't teach climbing skills as climbing on a 40lb bike isn't much fun!). Yes, we taught singlespeed World Champions Ross Schnell and Sue Haywood the exact same cornering skills we taught World Cup downhill racers Mitch Ropelato and Jackie Harmony.
Check out this video from the Dual slalom at Crankworx! Great to see 3 BetterRiders in the finals and one of them winning the event! Bummer to see two of them going up against each other in the first round, Cody Kelly is a ripper and he had to face Mitch Ropelato in the first round! They are good friends and I have had the pleasure of coaching both of them, great kids as well as great mountain bikers.
Great weekend of racing at the Triple Dip at the Sol Vista Bike Park! Three fun and challenging tracks, tight racing, great organization (stats and timing went off perfectly) and great prizes (thanks to the town of Granby and SRAM). Three downhill races on three separate tracks made for a great weekend of racing. In the Pro Women's class BetterRiders Julie Olsen and Jackie Harmony earned 3d and 2nd place overall behind US power house Jill Kitner! [Julie, Jackie] Julie, Jill, Jackie In the 15-18 year old open class BetterRider Luca Cometti won the final race with BetterRide alumnus Alex Willie in second and BetterRider Matt Branney in 3rd! Luca earned a second place overall finish and Alex finished 4th overall. [Matt, Luca and Alex] All BetterRide Alumni Podium, Luca on top, Alex in second and Matt in 3rd! In the old guys class, I managed to place second in all three races and earn 2nd overall behind Quentin Splauding of KHS. Shawnee Mac won the second race and finished just behind me in third. BetterRider Joe Dodds earned an 8th place overall finish and Jason Krause race to 10th overall. I am already looking forward to next years Triple Dip! What a great event for BetterRide racers! BetterRider Mitch Ropelato finished 3rd behind Needles and Sick Mick Hannah and just ahead of 3 time World Cup Overall Champion (and BetterRide assistant coach) Greg Minnaar in the final race to secure 5th overall in the 3 race format.
