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Sherwood Hills -
May 10, 2008 This was a mud-fest ride that tested
skill and strength. In the 24 hours before the race, over 2 inches of rain
and hail fell at the monitoring station on the hill above the race. For
the first race of the day, racers arrived to find frost on the grass and
soil absolutely saturated with water. The trail got a little better for
the Sport and Expert races, but still tested the spirit of our riders. 1st-place
winners were Kyle Jackson, Derek Ransom, Jim Jackson, Stephen Brown,
Joshua Peterson, and Zach Peterson. Lance Jarvis, Rachel Hutchings, Justin
Griffin, and Jay Griffin came away with 2nd-place finishes. Left:
As the last rider of the day to race for UMB, Mike crosses the finish line
after four laps. |
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Joshua Peterson rounds the corner
to
begin his second lap as he grabs 1st place! |
Mandy Clark heads downhill on
the
slippery trail and gets the 3rd place spot.
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Shawn
Nielsen sprints his gummed-up
bike toward 4th place in 9-and-under.
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Got a picture of #570? |
Zachary Peterson powers
through the
muddy new singletrack toward 1st place. |
Brayden Nielsen heads back
uphill
for a 5th lap, winning 5th place.
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Mackenzie Nielsen joined UMB for
this race, getting the 6th-place finish |
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Left: Rachel Hutchings returns
to the UMB
team this season and gets
through the muddy
lap to take 2nd place. Welcome back!
Right: As the
early-morning sun clears the
frost from rain-soaked ground, young
UMB riders warm up in the 34-degree chill. |
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Left: Kyle Jackson fires
into the singletrack
with the 13-15 age group, scoring another
1st place finish. Right:
With the ground still squishy and the
air heavy with cold, the Beginner Men 30-39
group sprints out of the starting line at 9 am. |
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Left: Lance Jarvis is in
the final stretch
before the lap/finish course split, on the
way to winning 2nd
place. Right:
Joshua Peterson's bike shows the effects
of the soft mud and grass. There's a six-inch
ball of crud caught on the brakes and another
big pile of muddy junk on the chainring and
front derailleur. Gonna take a while to get
this bike clean! |
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| UMB had no Beginner 19-29
riders in this race. |
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Derek Ransom leads his group out
into
the race loop, fighting the mud to 1st place. |
On the northeast corner, Dale Hutchings
rolls downhill towards 4th place. |
Gabe Sermon hits the final
muddy stretch
as he nears the finish line and 6th place. |
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Jim Jackson hustles
with a smile as
he scores another 1st place victory. |
Jason Sparks gets his best
placement
of the season with a 4th-place position. |
Russ Margetts slimes his way up
the
hill for another lap, catching 6th place. |
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Left: Justin Griffin turns into
the steep
downhill on the loop return. Justin took
2nd place in his tough category.
Right: Waiting
for the race to start,
UMB's team members catch up on news,
share strategies for the mud, and check
the equipment. |
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Left: Out of the trees and into the
brush,
Danny Van Wagoner drops into a wash
on the loop's back side as he scores
another 3rd place finish. Right: Ryan
pops a wheel into the truing
stand to get another racer cycling smoothly. |
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Left: Catherine Reay charges
up the hill
in the Sport Women pack, riding to an
8th place finish.
Right: Darren and
Greg fall in line as the Sport
35-39 group heads up the hill on their first
lap of a long hard race.
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Stephen Brown crests the hill
and prepares
to drop into the wash, making a great
ride to score 1st place. |
Tyler Margetts pilots the bike
into the
S-turn of new singletrack as he grabs
podium with 3rd place. |
Ben Hutchings leans into a tight
turn
in the trees as he rides to the 6th place
spot in Sport 19-29. |
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Left: Dan Hutchings cranks on
damp twisting
trail, dodging trees, as he takes the 10th
place spot in his category.Right: Jim
Jackson leads the BM 40-plus
riders out of the starting gate. |
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Left: Greg Meyers
makes a strong ride in this
tough category to get a ribbon and team points
with a 6th place finish.Right:
Darren Harris digs the tread into the
slimy trail sidewall to carve a sharp wet turn
on his way to the 10th-place position. |
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Left: Jay Griffin cranks hard past a snowbank
as he makes another strong ride and gets
the 2nd place win.
Right: UMB's SM
19-29 riders line up at the
starting gate, getting ready to grab 3 of the
top 6 spots.
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Left: Mike Engberson leans
into a turn during
four long laps on this tough course, finishing
with a team point at 7th place.
Right: Shawn
Nielsen's bike shows a few pounds
of the reason this race was so tough. With the
crud rubbing on the wheels and gumming the
chainrings, our young racers had to drag all
this stuff up the hill with them.
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Left: Kendra Clark finishes
a painful climb out
of the wash and is now only 1/4 mile away from
a nice 3rd place finish. Right: Sally Hutchings recovers
from an
unplanned "trail slime" detour to get her wheels
back on the trail as she hurries to 4th place. |
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Left: Climbing technique demo --
pulling the
handlebars towards the hips, body low and
forward, spinning circles so the rear tire doesn't
slip in the mud. John Van Wagoner does three
tough laps to take 8th place.Right: Joshua
and Shawn get their ribbons
for one of the toughest and trickiest races
of the season. |
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Left: Bruce Argyle returns from
a
two-race
"medical leave" to suffer his way to 4th place
in Men 57-plus.
Our Beginning-class racers really showed
their stuff at this race, fighting through the worst of the mud to grab team points and
several important wins. Despite smaller numbers of racers, our team points
gave us another convincing victory. Our team depth helped a lot with this
race, as the unpleasant riding conditions changed the usual line-up and
let some of our racers score big. Thanks again to Jared Ferguson and Ryan Allred for their
valuable help, and to the many photographers who provided a nice variety
of race photos. More race photos are available at http://picasaweb.google.com/utahmb/SherwoodHills |
Beginner Men 19-29: 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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