Mountain Bike Racing article by BetterRide founder Gene Hamilton
Wow, what a week! On Thursday and Friday (Jan. 17-18) I did a private skills camp the AFD Racing team who had driven all the way down from Canada and on Saturday and Sunday I videoed and did some race coaching with students from previous camps. Our students had a great weekend with a lot of state championships, podium finishes and personal bests!
Saturday was the Super D race The first race the weekend was the Super D down Boy Scout to Girl Scout, one of my favorite trail combos (a combo he use a lot in our downhill camps, including the one Merrick took from us last year). Merrick Golz was racing in his first super D so they forced him to race in the category 2 division and he crushed it! Merrick not only won category 2 but he had the fastest time of the day of all categories beating the fastest pro time by 7.5 seconds! The Pro was division was won by BetterRide alumnus Joy Martin with BetterRide coach and camp alumnus Jackie Harmony in second.
The downhill race was down Snake Back with the pros and experts doing Poop Chute and the rest of the field doing the go around. The first class to go down the course was Jr. Men 14 and under and it was won by Kendall Mclean of AFD RACING from that week’s camp! The last race of the day was the chainless race and it was won by BetterRide camp alumnus Cody Kelly (who also took third in the Pro race, his first pro race ever!). There were a lot of podiums finishes and victories for our students in the races in between too (see results below)!
Again, wow! Feels great to see so many of our students working hard and reaching their mountain biking goals!
BetterRiders results at the Nevada State Championship Gravity race:
Sat. Super D
Cat 2 Men 19-29
1. Merrick Golz in his first Super D race where they forced him to race Cat 2 (beat the fastest pro man by 7.5 seconds!)
Pro Women:
1 Joy Martin
2. Jackie Harmony Pivot Cycles
Pro men
9. Dante Harmony, Pivot Cycles
Downhill
Pro women:
1. Jackie Harmony, Pivot Cycles
3. Adrienne Schneider
4. Joy Martin
Pro men
3. Cody Kelly (first pro race!) Specialized Gravity
7. Jonny Widen TLD/5.10
11. Chris Higgerson
15. Riley Mueller
16. Christian Wright Specialized Gravity
20 Lucas Cowan
Jr. Men 14 and under
1. Kendall Mclean AFD RACING from weekends camp
Cat 2 women 15-18
1. Kirby McleAN AFD racing from camp
Cat 2 men 15-18
4. Matthew Mclean, AFD Racing
7. Tom Breadmore, AFD Racing
10. Carter Paschinski, AFD Racing
Cat 1 men 15-16
1. Tyler Krenek, SuperCross Fly racing
Cat 1 Men 17-18
1 Mckay Vezina (won by 15 seconds, would of been 3rd in pro!)
3. Matt Branney
5. Galen Carter, Transition Bikes
7 Tanner Hart, Lake Town Bikes
Open men
3 Mike Fucci, All Mtn Cyclery
9 Syd Jacklin, AFD racing
Cat 1 men 30-39
3. Aaron Polly, Gnar Gnar Tours.com
12 Joe Dodds, Neverrest
Chainless DH
Open Women
1. Jackie Harmony, Pivot Cycles
Open men
1. Cody Kelly
2 Graeme Pitts
4 Jon Widen
6 Dante Harmony, Pivot Cycles
8 Riley Mueller
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