| Sundance Spin!
Sundance Resort, North Fork of
Provo Canyon
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May 31, 2008 |
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Sundance was very close to the perfect race
day. Temperatures were not too cold in the morning, yet still pleasantly cool at
mid-day. The trail had enough moisture to keep down the dust and provide
great traction in the downhill turns. Our legs may have been hammered from Wednesday's Draper race, but the UMB faithful came to
do battle. And it was an outstanding effort! |
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Darren Stirland, Derek Ransom, Brian Beck, and Joshua Peterson scored first-place wins. Second-place
finishers were Jared Muir, Shane Horton, Jim Jackson, Justin Griffin, Jay
Griffin, Kendra Clark, and Todd Neumarker. In this race, we edged Mad Dog
for the team victory. And we scored enough points to take back the season
lead from Revolution. |
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Left: Joshua Peterson edges hard into a
corner
as he gets yet another 1st place in his
first race of the day (see below).
Right: Shawn
Nielsen makes a good
sprint
to keep ahead of the competition
on the way to a 3rd place finish. |
|
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Left: Mandy Clark stands to head uphill
on the grass of Sundance and gets
the ribbon with 6th place.
Right: A future champion,
s ix-year old Sydney
Nielsen pedals
the 9-and-under course with dad
Ryan running alongside. Sydney finished in 13th
place. Next week, she'll be in uniform as an official
team member. |
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Zachary Peterson pedals along
the
Boneyard Trail for another great
finish at 4th
place. |
After taking 1st in 9-and-under, Joshua
Peterson heads to the singletrack and
gets 7th place in the 10-12 category
|
Brayden Nielsen takes 10th place
in
10-12, then heads up to the main race
loop to race the big guys (see below).
|
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Left: In her first race on a mountain
bike,
Marsha Sparks joins husband Jason on
the UMB team. Marsha cranks around the
loop to take 5th
place in Beginner Women.
Right: Pre-race
hydration at team HQ. |
|
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Left: Having already raced in the
10-12
category, Brayden Nielsen powers
across the
ski slope, racing against the 13-15 age group.
A final climb up the pavement to close
the 7.6-mile loop, and Brayden has a nice
3rd place finish.
Right: Ryan
Allred repairs a tire to get
another UMB racer ready for the mountain. |
|
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Left: In his first race with the team, Jared Muir
delivers big with a 2nd place finish. Welcome to
the team, Jared!
Right: Waiting for the
race to start. Some are
warming up, others are hanging out, and others
are making last-minute tweaks to the bike.
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| Two days before this race, Dylan Tanner (one
of our Beginner 16-18 racers) crashed while jumping his bike at Sundance. Dylan broke 5 ribs and punctured his lung.
(He should have
stuck to pre-riding.) He should
be fine, but it looks like he'll miss the rest of the season. |
 |
Left: Darren Stirland sets
the tires and nails
a hard turn as he rides to another 1st
place
win. That's three #1's in a row for Darren.
Right: Andrew Youngkin
powers around
a turn in the aspens and grabs the 4th place
spot. It's a long way from St George for this
dedicated racer. |
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Derek Ransom fires through the
Boneyard
and gets the 1st
place finish. Derek's
planning to move up to Sport next week. |
Shane
Horton sprints across the meadow
under the ski lift. Shane chases Derek
over the line to get 2nd place.
|
Brandon Knotts shows his
high-speed
turning technique as he rockets toward
the 3rd place spot on the podium. |
 |
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Dale Hutchings takes air off a
bump in
the trees and nails 6th place. |
Evan Christensen is back for
his first race
this year, grabbing a 7th-place finish. |
Ryan Nielsen
cranks out into the meadow
to round out a great UMB showing at 8th. |
 |
|
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Brian Beck tips into
a tight turn and
speeds to 1st
place in his 2nd race. |
Jim Jackson flies downhill in
the shade
of the firs and takes 2nd place. |
Jason Sparks hits the back
half of
the loop, flying downhill to 5th place. |
 |
|
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Scott Van Wagoner is carving a hard
turn on his way to 6th
place. |
Brandon Balkman heads down
the hill
and nails 7th place. |
Dominic Bria pedals through the
trees
to 9th place in this category. |
 |
Left: Justin Griffin fights
to stay ahead
of his competition in Sport-Expert and gets
the 2nd place podium.Right: Brian
does a little magic with the grill. |
|
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Left: Danny Van Wagoner cranks
out a
little more downhill speed as he hustles
to 4th
place.Right:
In the UMB jerseys, Mandy, Joshua,
and Shawn celebrate their ribbons. |
|
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Left: Catherine Reay pedals
against the
strong Sport Women category and gets
the ribbon and team points at 6th place.Right: Liking
the odds for UMB. In the BM
30-39 race, our team racers grabbed 6 of the
top 8 spots. They also swept the podium by
taking 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Way to dominate
the mountain,
guys! |
|
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Left: Ryan Van Wagoner gets
a team point
with UMB's best finish in this tough category
at 7th place.Right:
Eric Ellis whips the bike around a turn
on the ski slope on the way to 11th place. |
|
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Left: Stephen Brown hits a
turn on the first
downhill of the race loop and rides to the 12th
position.Right: After
experiencing total-body-failure near
the top of his first lap, Ben Hutchings gets back in
the race and finishes at 13th. |
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| We had no
riders in this category at Sundance. |
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Left: Darren Harris gets
a little downhill rest in
the trees as he fights to 10th
place in this fast and
tough category.
Right: Dan Broadbent is
a blurred rocket as he
launches out of the trees. Dan grabs 11th place. |
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Left: Jay Griffin gives his usual all-out effort
and gets another bow on the podium at 2nd place.
Right: Lots of
beautiful singletrack, then the race
ends with a sprint up pavement. Brian
hits the finish line as Ed calls the action.
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Left: The EM 30-39 category features
the fastest
racers who aren't professionals. Todd Neumarker
shows what's possible if you work hard enough
as he gets 2nd
place. Right: Mike Engberson takes
some air on the downhill
as he gets 20th in the finishing order.
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Kendra Clark keeps getting faster
as
she holds off Jolene to nail 2nd place. |
Jolene Nosack makes her usual
strong
showing to make podium at 3rd place. |
Sally Hutchings speeds down
the hill
toward a 7th place finish. |
 |
Left: John Van Wagoner cranks
through the
Douglas Fir trees on the Boneyard, taking the
9th place spot in the Men 50-plus Open
category.Right: Cat
and dog. |
|
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Left: Bruce Argyle tips
into a turn near the
bottom of the hill. Two big laps for the over-57
group, same as the Sport riders. Bruce chases
three Mad Dogs across the finish line to come
in at 4th place.Right: Kendra
and Jolene grab 2/3 of the Women
35-plus podium. Our tough ladies are scoring well
in every race. |
|
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We scored 108 points in this contest. Young team members Brayden
Nielsen and Joshua Peterson raced twice -- each scoring team points in a
tougher category. These two riders gave us the 6 points that was our
margin of victory over Mad Dog. Way to go, guys! Left:
Marsha and Jason hang in the shade as they wait for the awards to start. More race photos are available at
http://picasaweb.google.com/utahmb/Sundance |
Clydesdale: Singlespeed: Expert Men
19-29: Expert Men
40-plus: Expert Women: Pro:
The UMB race team had no riders
in these categories at this race. |
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