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Desert Rampage - St. George, March
1, 2008
It was a great day in St. George. Sunny skies,
temperatures around 70. We had our share of bad luck (3 flats, a broken
seat-post, a crash with injuries), but our tough team fought its way to a
lot of points. A lot of enthusiastic newcomers made their first appearance
at this race. We saw first-place finishes by Kyle Jackson, Carlee
Hunsaker, Skyler Hancock, and Meri Bruin, with 2nd places by Shane Horton
Jim Jackson, Catherine Reay, Jay Griffin, and Mandy Clark. UMB held a free
burger-fry for team members and their families after the races. Thanks to
Ryan and Jared for the incredible team support! Left:
Brayden (front) and Zachary sprint out in the 10-12 class.
Right: One of the advantages of belonging to a team. |
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Joshua Peterson joins the UMB team
with this race and finishes 2nd place. |
Another new team member is Shawn
Nielsen, racing to 5th place.
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Jaxon Van Wagoner joins the other
Van Wagoner racers, taking 7th.
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Looking
for
photo |
Looking
for
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Mandy Clark makes her first UMB race
with 2nd place among the girls, 14th overall. |
Jonah Frederick makes his first
race
and takes 16th place.
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Also racing for the first time is brother
Mason Frederick, grabbing 17th.
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Left: Brayden Nielsen joins the
UMB team
in 2008 and grabs a point for the team with
the 7th place finish.
Right: Another promising young racer
is
Zachary Peterson, who is racing his way
to the 8th place position. |
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New to UMB this year, Kyle Jackson
takes 1st place in his first ICup race.
Looking for great things from Kyle... |
Jake Van Wagoner fights up the
wash on the way to a
great finish at 3rd place.
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Moving up to a harder, faster
category, Carlee Hunsaker is the
1st-place girl in 13-15, for 6th overall.
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Left: Skyler Hancock shows
promise for
a great racing year as he powers his way to
the 1st-place position in BM 16-18.
Right: In his first start as a UMB
racer,
Lance Jarvis powers up Keyhole Wash on
the way to a 5th-place finish. |
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Left: Andrew Youngkin fires out
from the
start line in the BM 19-29 class. Andrew
tracked off-line on the hairy descent (yeah,
you know the one) and slammed a rock.
He rode his bloody bike across the finish
line to take a ribbon at 4th. And after a CAT
scan and some stitches, he's ready for the
next race.
Right: Waiting for the wife... |
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Left: In his first start as a UMB
racer,
Shane Horton shows what he can do
by grabbing 2nd place in BM 30-39.
Right: Dale Hutchings powers
uphill on the way
to a 6th-place finish, with a ribbon and team
points. |
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Left: Jeff Frederick climbs the
wash on the
way to the 8th place position.
Right: Gabriel Sermon gets a
great start
attacking up Keyhole Wash. A flat tire
knocks Gabe back to 12th place. |
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In his first race for UMB, Jim Jackson
fights through to 2nd place. |
Scott Van Wagoner makes the final
finish-line sprint, taking 7th.
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Russ Margetts climbs up the
mountain
to grab the 11th-place finish in BM 40+.
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Left: A new rider for UMB, Jason Sparks
climbs
Keyhole Wash with Meri in pursuit. Jason rode
to 12th place.Right: Scott Hunsaker
slips between the sides
of Keyhole Wash on the way to 16th place. |
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Meri Bruin sprints toward the finish
line to capture 1st place in BW. |
Catherine Reay chases Meri up the
wash and takes 2nd place.
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In her first UMB race, Kendra Clark
grabs the 6th-place position.
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Left: Moving up early to Sport/Expert
13-15,
Justin Griffin powers up Keyhole Wash.
But on the descent to Rock Wash, Justin
had his first flat tire in over 40 races and
had to run his bike to finish the lap. After a
tire repair, Justin went out for another lap to
finish 5th in his category.At UMB
HQ, we had three bike repair-stands,
chairs, shade, Gatorade, and lots of stories
to tell (while waiting for the post-race burgers). |
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Left: Danny Van Wagoner also
moved up
to a harder category this year. Danny flatted
toward the end of his last lap and ran his bike
across the finish line for a 3rd place.
Right: A true
competitor fights to the end.
Danny runs his flatted bike over the finish line. |
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In Sport 19-29 action, Tyler Margetts
knocks off a point for the team with his
7th
place finish. |
Ben Hutchings
drops off the slickrock
as he rides to the 9th position. |
Note what Ryan Van Wagoner is
holding
in his left hand. Ryan had to ride with a
broken-off seat to take 12th. |
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Left: Dan Hutchings climbs
Keyhole Wash
as he rides to the 12th place in SM 30-34.
Right: In his first start for the
UMB team,
Jon Hall chases Dan to grab the 13th
place in this competitive category. |
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Left: Rich Bruin gets low in
preparation for the
rough rock-drop on the way to the 3rd-place
finish in Sport 35-39.
Right: Climbing up Keyhole Wash, Denmark
Jensen
shows the strength that took him to the 4th-place
spot in this tough category. |
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Left: Moving up from Beginner to Sport,
Stephen Bergen climbs Keyhole Wash
on the way to 6th place.
Right: After a long layoff caused by knee
surgery,
Greg Meyers returns strong to take
the
7th position in SM 35-39. |
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Setting aside coaching and photos,
Jay Griffin shocks the pack with a
hard-fought 2nd-place win for UMB. |
Brad Sneed moves up to Sport and
shows his strength with 9th in
this tough big category.
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Kris Nosack raises a column of
water
as he motors up Keyhole Wash on
the way to 14th.
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Left: Our only expert-class rider at
this race,
Mike Engberson leans into a power turn. Mike
came into the race recovering from an illness,
faded on his third lap and had to settle for
22nd place.The
mob of sport and expert riders gets
ready to head out. Hidden among the
many racers are quite a few UMB jerseys. |
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Left: Jolene Nosack pilots the
29er up the wash
as she takes 4th place in Women 35-plus.
Right: Sally Hutchings lowers
into the wind for
the final finish-line sprint, taking the 10th-place
finish in W 35+. |
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Right: In the highly-competitive Men
50-plus open
division, Stan Larrabee made his first race for
UMB. Stan skirts the puddle in Keyhole Wash
on the way to an 8th place finish.
Left: John Van Wagoner moves
up to the 50's
this year. John attacks the slickrock on the DH
section to finish 11th. |
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Left: Bruce Argyle rips the
downhill on the way to
a 3rd place in Men 57-plus.
Right: After a morning spent
wrenching (and saving
the race for more than one rider), Ryan Allred cooks
burgers for the team barbeque following the race. |
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Sport
Women: Expert Men
19-29: Expert Men
40-plus:
Clydesdale: Singlespeed:
The UMB race team had no riders
in these categories at this race. |
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UMB earned 96 team points at St. George,
putting us in great position for the season.
In this race, UMB saw a very promising group of
newcomers. Yes it's only one race, but the season looks very good. Our
challenge now is to grow in skill and speed as the season progresses. We
couldn't be off to a better start.
With this race, we welcomed Ryan Allred and Jared
Ferguson as team boosters. With Ryan functioning as the team wrench the depth of racer-support for the team is greater than
ever. A few disasters were averted through skilled mechanical work. Jared
shot some great photos (as you see above, with other racers and family
members also contributing pictures), and helped with mechanics and lunch.
Burgers wouldn't have been possible without our great new "support
crew!"
Thanks, everybody.
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