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Team Photo Scrapbook 08
2008 Intermountain Cup Mountain Bike Racing Series

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Snowbird Mountain Bout  -- July 19, 2008

It was a beautiful day in the mountains as the UMB team went into the 10th Intermountain Cup race of 2008. Snowbird is generally agreed to be the toughest race of the season, featuring technical singletrack, a brutal climb up the Dick Bass trail, and a spooky loose tram-road descent. Our youngsters and beginning racers were up to the challenge, and by the time the sport race started UMB already had 79 team points. And after a successful race, a great picnic. What a day! First place winners were Joshua Peterson, Jared Muir, Darren Stirland, and Rachel Hutchings, with 2nd place finishes by Dylan Tanner, Jay Griffin, Jolene Nosack, Catherine Reay, and Shawn Nielsen.

Left:  Kendra chases Jolene along Snowbird's singletrack.
Category 9-and-under:

Joshua Peterson continues domination
of the category with another 1st place.

Not too far behind is Shawn Nielsen,
grabbing a close 2nd place finish.

Mandy Clark tackles the singletrack
and gets the 7th place spot.
Category 10-12:

Left:  Brayden Nielsen heads up the mountain
on the singletrack trail, taking the 4th place
position among the age 10-12 riders.

Right:  Zachary Peterson motors across a meadow
on the way to 5th place. The 10-12 category did
a lap on the same brutal trail that the older riders
tackled.

Beginner Women:
Left:  Rachel Hutchings navigates through
the fir trees on the bird trail and gets the
the 1st place spot on the podium for her effort.

Right:  View up the mountain as the tram heads
to the top of the hill.

Beginner 13-15:
     No UMB riders in BM 13-15 category at this race.
Beginner 16-18:
Left:  Just 1/2 mile into the first lap, Jared Muir
bumps the bike over a root in the deep woods.
Jared puts in a great race to nail the 1st place win. 

Right: Dylan Tanner cranks uphill across a ski slope
as he heads toward 2nd place in the category.

Beginner 19-29:
Left:  Darren Stirland fires up the hill and
grabs 1st place in the 19-29 group.

Right:  In the BM 16-18 race, Jared and Dylan
dueled hard, changing leads as they sprinted
to the finish line. In the end, Jared edged Dylan
by a bike-length. Jared was our fastest beginner-
class rider.

Beginner 30-39:

 

Ryan Nielsen bursts out of the woods
on his way to an impressive 1st place.

Dale Hutchings hits a bit of downhill
as he gets the 2nd place spot.

Karl Parkinson rounds out UMB's
podium sweep with 3rd place.
Beginner 40-plus:

Left:  Jason Sparks powers the bike uphill on
the singletrack with Jared closing in behind.
Jason again grabs a 3rd place finish.

Right:  Brandon Balkman sums up UMB's
fighting spirit as he races to 4th place in
Beginner Men 40-plus.

Sport/Expert 13-15:
Left:  Justin Griffin heads back toward the
finish line on the Bird Trail as he gets the
3rd place finish.

Right:  UMB HQ in the Snowbird parking lot.

Sport/Expert 16-18:
Left:    Danny Van Wagoner sprints through
the woods. A flat tire on the 2nd lap puts
Danny on the trailside for a few minutes,
but he fights back to take 3rd place.

Right:  At the UMB post-race picnic. Jason
made some great dutch-oven pork, and
other team members brought side dishes.

Sport Women:
Left:  Catherine Reay cranks up the Dick
Bass Highway. Cat impresses the boys
with her 2nd place finish in Sport Women.

Right:  Jay Griffin and Mike MacDonald
enjoy the after-race picnic fare.

Sport Men 19-29:

Eric Ellis cranks up the long hill
and finishes in 4th place.

Eric Taylor pops out of the woods onto
a ski slope on the way to 7th place.

Finishing in 9th place, Ben Hutchings
heads out for his last lap.
Sport Men 30-34:
Left:   Derek Ransom takes the 4th place spot
in the SM 30-34 category. Flying through the
forest singletrack, Derek had the fastest time
of any UMB sport-class rider.

Right:  Shane Horton moves up to the sport category
with this race. Sadly, a mechanical disaster gives him
a DNF for his first sport-class outing.

Sport Men 35-39:

Left:  Bursting out of the woods into the sunshine,
Darren Harris gets on the podium with a solid
3rd place performance.

Right: Greg Meyers heads east up the canyon
on the Bird Trail as he gets the 4th place finish.

Sport Men 40-plus:

With his race bike broken, Jay Griffin
pilots an old steed to 2nd place.

Jim Jackson gets a great ride
 to the 3rd place spot on the podium.

Mike MacDonald cranks up the brutal
hill to finish respectably in 5th place.
Expert Men 30-39:

Left:  Mike Engberson puts in 4 painful laps
to finish at 5th place as our only expert rider
in this race.

Right:  Back from the mountain after shooting
racer photos, Jared enjoys a bit of the UMB picnic.

Women 35-plus:

Jolene Nosack and her 29er eat up the
roots as she grabs 2nd place.

Kendra Clark fights her way to the
4th place spot.

Sally Hutchings hits a dip in meadow
singletrack on the way to 5th place.
Men 50-plus:
Left:  John Van Wagoner powers up the hill on his
way to 5th place in Men 50-plus.

Right:  Ryan was again working his mechanical
magic for the team under the UMB canopy.

Men 57-plus:
Left:  Bruce Argyle spins up the brutal Dick Bass highway on his final lap.
You have to feel good about riding while the guy behind you is walking.
Bruce gets 3rd place for this race.

Snowbird has a well-deserved reputation as a tough race. Some race categories saw smaller numbers of total racers, so the depth of the UMB team allowed us to score big. At 135 points, it's our highest team total ever. We increased our season lead substantially -- the championship is looking very possible, largely because of the UMB racers at Snowbird. Great job, team!

More race photos are available at http://picasaweb.google.com/utahmb/SnowbirdMountainBout
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