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Sundance
May 11, 2013. ICup Race 4The weather was sunny and warm for the Call to Sundance Intermountain Cup race. The Sundance trails had dried out nicely from Wednesday's rainstorm. There were some sections where dried ruts made the riding less than butter-smooth. A single snowbank near the bottom created enough water to splash brown spots on the white of the UMB jerseys. UMB was represented by 36 racers. First-place wins were scored by Mitt Stewart and Joel Quinn, with second places going to Bentley Vanderwel,
Katy Nafus, Bruce Argyle, John Twitchell, Adam Lee, and Meghan Sheridan.
Left: Mitt crosses the lower ski slope
after three laps, riding in the #1 position.
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Even at the early morning check-in at 8
am, the weather was
shorts-and-shirt warm. The UMB canopy is ready for racers. |
Check-in was in the upper parking lot,
with the east side
of the lot converted into the finishing zone. |
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Stop for a skier? No, I don't
think so!
It's a race after all. |
Sally checks out her new Rocky
Mountain.
Did you know the UMB shop sells them? |
The race loop had two minor
alterations from previous years. |
| Professional Racer Results |
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Left: Chris Cole rockets
through a turn
on the downhill of his second lap, finishing
with the 10th
place spot in Pro Men.Right: A
small pond on the Upper Liftline
trail, with Mount Timpanogos in the
background. What a perfect day to
ride a bike! |
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Left: Carving one of the tight turns on
the Center Isle trail, Meghan Sheridan
heads down the ski slope to take the
2nd
place Pro Women podium.Right:
First time racing, and full of energy.
Taylor waits impatiently at the back of the
staging area, ready to ride the half-lap
race with dad Mike. |
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The race staging and start was on the
lift road along the
upper parking lot. The Expert Categories get ready. |
The shakeout was a brutal sprint up the
paved road, then
a short bit of very steep gravel. The singletrack felt good. |
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Left: The aspens unfurl their
leaves for the summer
as Corey
Spencer zips down Upper Liftline toward
the 3rd place finish in Beginner Men.Right: John Young rocks
a turn on the downhill on the
way to 5th
place in the category, after successfully
dodging the fir trees in the Sherwood Forest section. |
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Left: Joe Benson rolls
over a ski slope on the Boneyard
Trail as he climbs up the hill, finishing his lap with the
6th place spot. Joe is new to the team with this race.Right:
Rolling a turn on Upper Liftline, Kevin Casto
heads toward the 7th place finish in the beginner
men group. All beginner men are in the same race
group this year, regardless of age. |
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Brian
Vanderwel gets to do part of the
course twice, as a wrong turn makes him
start over. Brian fights back to 9th place. |
Ben Buhler cranks through the fir
trees of the Boneyard Trail, finishing
the race in 10th place. |
Almost finished with his lap,
Spencer Neeley rolls over some
roots on the downhill, taking 12th. |
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Left: Joining the team since the Five Mile Pass
race, Katy Nafus rocks down Upper Liftline on the
way to a podium spot at 2nd place in Beginner
Women.Right: Rachel
Hutchings rolls the berm of freshly
compacted trail on the Boneyard Trail, finishing with
4th place. |
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The trails were dry and in
good shape overall. Some had fresh
cuts. Joel closes in on Brian on Boneyard. |
The aspens were just setting
their leaves, but it was still
nicely green. Denmark rocks down Center Isle. |
| Junior Men 13-15: UMB had no
riders in this category! |
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Left: Harrison Christensen gets
low as he flies
down Upper Liftline on the way to the 6th
place
position in Junior Men 16-18. Right:
Cranking uphill on the Boneyard Trail,
Kyle
Leiendecker follows with the 7th place
finish in the category. |
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Left: Maggie
Ressa heads downhill
at the end of the first race, nailing a
medallion and a podium spot with
3rd place in Junior Women 13-15. Right: Dodging
the trees and roots was
the limiting factor for the downhill
sections. Joel heads into a dark grove
on Boneyard. |
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| Junior Women 16-18: UMB had no
riders in this category! |
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Left: John Twitchell
rocks through a
dip on the Boneyard Trail on the uphill
half of his race, grabbing 2nd
place in
the Clydesdale group.Right: A
ground squirrel checks out the
action, ready to pop back into its burrow. |
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Left: Sally Reynders carves
a turn
on the downhill, taking the 5th
place
finish in Women 40-plus.Right: The
young racers did surprisingly
well on the half-lap. No little baby lap --
they did the big-kid half-lap. Here's Taylor
on Lower Liftline, almost finished with
his race. Well, there's that brutal climb
back up the road yet to come. |
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Left: Geno Smith carves
hard on the turns of
Center Isle, racing to the 4th place position in
the Men 50-plus category.Right:
Flying down Upper Liftline, Rick Morris
finishes his two laps with 13th place. |
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Left: Paul Zimmerman
carves a hard turn on the
downhill of his last lap, good for the 18th
place
spot in this fast group of older guys.Right: Adam
Reynders moves up from Beginner Men
with this race, doing the brutal long climb twice
on his way to 21st place in his new category. |
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Notice something different
about our regular racers' number
plates? Adam installed names on them. Now we're famous. |
The course spent most of its
distance twisting through the
trees, only occasionally coming out onto ski slopes. Here's Chris. |
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Left: Joel Quinn hustles down Upper
Liftline, with
only an occasional glance backward to see who was
chasing him. Joel nails his 5th 1st place of five races
this season.Right: Flying out
of Sherwood Forest, Bruce
Argyle
heads downhill to the 2nd place finish. |
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Left: Brock
Jeske tips a turn on the grass of
Lower Liftline, finishing two laps with the 5th place
spot in Sport Men 19-29.Right:
Dallin Hatch zooms down the Upper Liftline
trail on the way to the 8th place finish in the
category. |
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Left: Christian Burrell
rolls the tricky
tight turns of Center Isle, where quite
a few racers slid and dumped. Christian
gets 15th place in Sport Men 30-39.Right:
Wow. What a photo. Give Kay
a big Thank You! This belongs on the
front of a brochure. Of course, Dave's
hard-core riding adds to the ambience. |
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| Close-up of Mount Timpanogos.
Limestone. |
David heads for the finish
line. |
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Left: Greg Sironen is enjoying a
good race
through the trees of Upper Liftline, finishing
with 5th place in Sport Men 40-plus.Right:
Carving a hard turn on the downhill,
Brian Ressa grabs the 6th place finish
in the category. |
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Denmark Jensen rolls a turn on Center
Isle on the way to 9th place. |
Also on Center Isle, Tim Wagstaff
takes the 14th place finish. |
Jeff Kingsford moves to the
younger
group for this race, taking 15th place. |
| Sport Women 19-34: UMB had no Sport Women riders! |
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Brian Vanderwel takes over the
grill as Bruce runs to
get his medallion and take a few pictures. |
Katy, Ben, and Joe get their
burgers at the post-race
picnic -- while the second-race riders are on the mountain. |
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Left: Bentley Vanderwel rolls
down the ski slope
of Lower Liftline, finishing his half-lap with the
2nd
place finish in the 10-12 age group.Right:
David
Ressa pedals over the ski slope, looking
toward the road that will take him uphill to the finish
line and 5th place.
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Left: Draeden Jensen rolls
a turn on Lower Liftline
to finish his half-lap race in the Billy Goat (9-and-under)
category.
Note: Finishing order is not reported for
the younger category.
Right: Taylor
Engberson cranks up some more speed
as the trail crosses the ski slope on the lower
mountain. |
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| Millie Goat: UMB had no
riders in this category! |
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Left: Adam Lee rolls a turn
on Upper
Liftline as he rides to 2nd
place in
Expert Men 19-29.Right: Mmmmm.
Burgers. And salad
and fruit and chips and cookies...
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| Expert Men 30-39: UMB had no
riders in this category! |
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Left: Mitt Stewart rocks
an impressive pace as he
leads the Expert Men 40-plus group, finishing three
tough laps with 1st place.
Right: Cranking
through a turn on Upper Liftline,
Stephan
Bergen races to the 8th place position
in the category.
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Left: Dave Benson rocks
the downhill on his second
of three laps, taking the 9th
place spot.Right: Jason
Sparks has an attack of bronchospasm
on his first lap and is forced out of the race with a
respiratory DNF.
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| Expert Women: UMB had no
Expert Women riders! |
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So many great riders on the
UMB team... See the photo
links below for more podium pictures. Here's Katy. |
And here's Maggie, winning
third after racing the full big
race loop at Sundance. |
| Singlespeed: UMB had no
Singlespeed riders! |
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Sundance featured great racing in a beautiful setting. The prolonged aerobic climb affected many of our racers' lungs, with more post-race coughing at the UMB canopy than a tuberculosis ward. It might have been a combination of dry air, the altitude, intense deep breathing, and the aspen pollen. UMB did well at this race to continue domination of the team competition, with many racers giving outstanding individual effort.
More pictures:
Kay
Hutchings photos (Thanks again, Kay!!!)
Bruce photos
Resources:
GPX track of
Sundance 2013 course
Satellite view Sundance
2013 Race Loop
Left: The Billie Goats have finished their race. Ribbon Time!
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