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Showdown at Five Mile Pass -
May 5, 2007 Five Mile Pass was cloudy and windy, with
a 9 a.m. temperature of 39. Snowstorms hung on the mountains to the north.
With winds howling at 20 mph along the Wasatch Front, it took major
courage just to aim the car towards the west desert. But the wind eased at
the race site. And despite the rains of recent days, the
trail was in great shape. At Five Mile, the UMB team welcomed several new race team
members, many of whom contributed team points in their first outing. (Photo:
Travis Millward and Vincent Bria) |
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In early action, Justin Griffin gets
the UMB
team off to a good start as he takes 1st place. |
Carlee Hunsaker rides hard to grab
a
team
point with her 7th place finish. |
Samantha Bria drops into the wash
at
the finish line on her way to 10th place. |
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Heading back out on the trail, Justin
Griffin locks up another 7 team points
as he rides the big race loop and finishes 1st in the Beginner Men 13-15
category.
Justin earned 14 of our total 73 points for this race.
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Left: Jordan Petersen, a solid
performer in
2006, returns for his first 2007 race. Here Jordan fires away from the
starting line onto the race loop,
hammering to 1st place in BM 16-18.
Right: Skyler Hancock makes
his first ride
for the UMB team, catching 2nd place.
Almost done, Skyler is attacking the last
ugly hill of the big loop. |
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Left: Vince Bria stands to
attack a stiff
steep on the front side of the mountain.
Jamming to the Ipod, Little Vinny fights
to 5th place.
Right: On his way to 6th place,
Colin Hunsaker sprints with
the pack as they spread out
onto the trail. |
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Left: In Beginner Men 19-29 action,
Travis Millward rides to 9th place,
climbing the first uphill after the
starting line.
Right: Mark Ludwig, in his first
race
for the UMB team, flies through the
wash before the finish line on his way
to 13th place. |
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Left: Stephen Bergen fights over
the top
as he rides to 6th place in Beginner Men 30-39.
Right: Scott Reynolds takes a
hill on
the mountain's north side on the way
to a 9th place finish. |
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Left: Jeff Frederick stands and
attacks
the hill. Jeff finished 14th.
Right: Dale Hutchings, a
member of the
the "Incredible Hutchings Racing Clan,"
makes his first UMB start, riding to 18th. |
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Bill Foster gets low as he powers the
bike
up and over, taking 8th in BM 40+. |
Just getting started in this photo,
Russ Margetts chases Bill to take 9th.
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Scott Hunsaker cruises the flats on
the
mountain's north side, taking 15th place.
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Left: In his first race for the UMB
team,
Chad Waldron rides to the 16th place
finish in UMB's biggest category, the
Beginner Men 40+.
Right: Chasing close behind is
Matthew Greene, also making his first
start for the UMB team, taking 17th. |
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Left: Meri Bruin flies through
the big wash
on her
way to a 4th place finish in Beginner
Women.
Meri switched teams to join us with
the
Five Mile race.
Right: Here is Catherine Reay in
front
( #325), riding to 5th place in her first
start
for the UMB team. This is the first race
this season in which we've had BW racers.
Good things to come! |
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As the sole UMB rider in the Sport-Expert
13-15
category, Danny Van Wagoner powers up the
hill on his way to 2nd place. |
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Kellie Williams again shows Girl Power
as
she drops the UMB boys to take 3rd place. |
In his first UMB race, Trevor Beard
rocks his way to 4th in Sp/E 16-18.
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Dave Larsen stops to fix a flat
tire, then
motors on to the 5th-place finish.
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Left: Powering past other riders in the
"passing lane," Ben Hutchings races
to the 8th position in SM 19-29.
Right: Moving up from his 2006
category
of 16-18, Eric Taylor fights his way to 12th
place in his first race this year. |
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Joining UMB with this race, Rich Bruin
shows his stuff with an 8th-place finish. |
Matt Flygare makes the trip from
Idaho
and fights to 10th place.
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Dan Hutchings attacks a steep one
on the way to 15th.
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Left: Starting out hard onto the first
of
two laps, Mike Engberson rides to 4th
place in SM 35-39.
Right: Denmark Jensen makes
his first
appearance as a UMB racer, battling
the large pack to take the 10th position. |
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John Van Wagoner blasts the bike up
the
hill while others walk, on the way to 9th. |
In sprint mode, Kris Nosack flies
across
the sagebrush hills, taking 13th place.
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Dominic Bria gets it done, cresting
the
hill on the way to 21st in this huge category.
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Amber Hatfield, our only current Sport
Woman rider,
flies through the big dip and corners hard to climb
out toward the finish line. Amber took the 7th place
in Sport Women at Five Mile Pass.(Amber has a
tiny bit of her jersey showing from under
the jacket. Thanks to the Hutchings for recognizing a
team member and getting the photo.)
You know the drill -- show the jersey, get your picture
taken.
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Left: Evan Christensen shows his
faster
stronger body on the way to finish in
the ribbons with 4th place in Clydesdale.
Right: Richard Williams gets
an encouraging
word from Justin as Richard climbs the
hill, still 10 miles away from 7th place. |
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Left: Also new to the UMB team is Brian Oliver.
Here Brian spins his one-gear bike up the hill
towards
6th place in Singlespeed.
Right: Chad Hunter, shown
here in a "good moment,"
flats his tire, and after other troubles, takes a DNF. |
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Jolene Nosack crests the hill on her
29'er, fighting to take 5th in W35+. |
Powering up the steep of the hill,
Sally Hutchings grabs a point with 7th.
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Catching her breath at the top,
Juli Hunter speeds in towards 9th place.
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Lynn Stephens attacks the hill. On his
second lap, with only a couple of
miles to go, Lynn took a high-speed crash that dislocated the
sternoclavicular joint, broke some ribs, popped a lung, and bashed
his head nicely. A short time later, he was in the ICU...
...but not before he'd gotten back on the bike and pedaled
it
across the finish line to finish with the 9th position in Men 50+.
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Bruce Argyle brushes by the juniper
branches on the
way to 3rd place in the oldest-of-the-old category.
At the Five Mile Pass race, an incredible 43 racers
rode for the UtahMountainBiking.com team, with one of them (Justin) riding twice.
With this effort, we won the team competition, taking a chunk out
of Revolution's season lead. We had three first places (two of them by
Justin) and two 2nd-place finishes.
Thanks once again to Jay
Griffin for nabbing our race photos!
High-res downloadable photos of the UMB team in action
at Five Mile:
http://picasaweb.google.com/1mtnbiker/UMBFiveMile2007
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