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Cactus Hugger
St. George Green Valley Competition Area - April 6, 2013While
northern Utah sat under gloomy rain clouds, the weather in St. George was
toasty warm and bone dry. The Cactus Hugger loop was in great condition.
One of the more technical offerings of the racing circuit, this course has
rocky challenges that flattened many tires. UMB had first place wins by
Brock Jeske, Joel Quinn, and Ryan Margetts, with 2nd place finishes from Jason Sparks,
Bruce Argyle, Chad Jenkins, and Rachel Hutchings.
Left: Mitt Stewart drops over a rock
ledge on the southern downhill limb of the loop.
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The weather was sunny with a few clouds.
Later in the day,
thin high clouds moved in and a hot wind blew the dust around.
This rock ramp is the entry to the slickrock area on the south
side of the loop. |
Temperatures were in the 70s at race
time, approaching 80 in
mid-afternoon. The dry conditions raised a little dust. This
little challenge is in the open rock area on the southwest
corner of the race course. (Note bike at the top for perspective.) |
| Expert and Pro Categories |
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Left: Chris Cole tips
into a high
speed corner on the rough downhill
of the Barrel Trail on the southern
side of the race loop. Riding in Pro
Men class, Chris takes the 9th place
finish.Right: The UMB
crew assembles at
team HQ to get ready to race. Mike
makes some adjustments to Meghan's
bike. |
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Left: Meghan Sheridan comes up
the
far side of the wash to enter the rock
garden in the last section of the race
loop, taking 4th place in Pro Women.Right: Hug
that Cactus. We're looking
east over a prickly pear, with the
race loop on the right. That's Black
Hill in the background. |
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Left: Wearing his high school
team
colors, Adam Lee races in Expert Men
19-29 and takes the 7th place finish.
Right: In the morning sunshine,
Mark checks the air pressure in his
tires as he makes sure the bike is
perfect for racing.
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| Expert Men 30-39: UMB had no
riders in this category! |
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At 10 in the morning, the first race gets
underway. The
Beginner Men class lines up at the start line. |
UMB racers get to the front of the pack.
L to R that's Adam,
Russ, Tyler, and Ryan. Chad is a bit off to the left. |
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Left: Jason Sparks tips
into a high-speed turn
on the downhill, nailing the 2nd place finish in the
competitive Expert Men 40-plus category.Right:
Bouncing around a tight turn on Barrel,
Mitt Stewart races to the 4th place spot in the
class. UMB has a great group of mature expert
riders, taking 4 of the top 8 spots in EM 40-49. |
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Mark
Messer lands a little hop on the
Barrel Trail, taking the 5th place finish
in the category. |
Dropping off a sandstone ledge,
Stephan Bergen heads downhill to
grab the 8th place position.
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Mike Engberson heads up the
first
wash. Mike stopped twice to help
broken-down riders, finishing 15th. |
| Expert Women: UMB had no
Expert Women riders! |
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What a great day to race!
Three barrel cacti find growing
room between areas of sandstone along the trail. In the
background are the red cliffs of Snow Canyon and Kayenta. |
Paintbrush blooms among the
slabs of nugget sandstone
on the Barrel Trail. The Cactus Hugger loop combines bits
of the classic Green Valley loop with Barrel. |
| Singlespeed: UMB had no
Singlespeed riders! |
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Left: Sally Reynders drops
down the
technical sandstone on the way to
a podium finish with 3rd place in
Women 40-plus.Right: Kay
Hutchings takes aim at the
start line as she waits for the first group
of racers. Thanks, Kay, for the great
photos of our awesome racers! |
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Rick Morris launches off the edge of
the wash below the bottom of the
Barrel Trail as he takes 6th place. |
Paul Zimmerman carves a turn on
the
downhill on his way to 9th place in
Men 50-plus. |
On his first lap, Geno Smith is
near
the front of the pack but flats out
and has to take a DNF for the race. |
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Joel Quinn rockets down the
Barrel
trail to take another 1st place in the
Men 60-plus category. |
Bruce Argyle selects this
photo of
the climb up the wash because it shows
him temporarily not in 2nd place.
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Bumping over the rough sandstone,
Gene
Poncelet rounds out the UMB
old-guy domination with 3rd place. |
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Left: John Twitchell gets
up and over
a ledge on the first climb of his two
laps, grabbing a podium spot for
3rd place in the Clydesdale class.Right: To
get the Cactus Hugger
underway, the Junior Men class takes off. |
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Left: High-school racer Brock
Jeske joins
the UMB team for the Cactus Hugger and
outsprints the competition at the finish line
to take 1st place in Sport Men 19-29.Right:
Dallin Hatch is jazzed to be on the final
downhill, about a mile from the finish line and
in command of 8th place. |
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Left: Ben Hutchings heads
up the ledges of
the little wash below the Cow Pond, taking
9th place in Sport Men 30-39.Right:
After a crash while riding Zen for
a warmup, Christian Burrell has more
bad luck. A double flat ends his race
and Christian hikes out for a DNF. |
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The course starts on the Green
Valley doubletrack then heads
up this little wash to Rock Wash, then over to the trail on the
ridge. (See the map link below.) Geno leads the Men 50 group. |
The race loop climbs the
"downhill race course" then veers onto
the Barrel Trail. Gene is looking good as he bangs down this
rough and technical downhill. |
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Brian Ressa turns into the rock
garden
at the bottom of the race loop, taking
12th place in Sport Men 40-plus. |
Tim Wagstaff climbs the
ledges in the
wash to finish with the 24th place
position in this huge category. |
Another victim of the rough sandstone,
Chad Horman gets a good start on the
race before walking back DNF. |
| Sport Women 19-34: UMB had no
Sport Women riders! |
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Mark (right) and Mitt (middle)
move into the "passing lane"
on the last leg of the Barrel Trail. |
At least 7 UMB riders flatted,
but some were able to finish
their race. Chad is walking his bike back. |
| Sport Women 35-plus: UMB had no
Sport Women riders! |
| Junior Men 12-15: UMB had no
riders in this category! |
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Left: Riding in Junior Men 16-18,
Kyle Leiendecker zips downhill to
finish his lap with the 6th
place
position.Right:
Christian displays his damage.
And his race hasn't even started yet.
Meantime, Jason and Mark warm up
on their road bikes. |
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| Junior Women 12-15: UMB had no
riders in this category! |
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The dry conditions made the
shakeout sprint a little
dusty for the larger groups. Up on the mountain, a light
breeze kept the dust from being a problem. |
This is one of the roughest
races of the Intermountain Cup
series. Lots of ledges and sharp rocks. Jump if you dare.
Joel is flying over the wash before the rock garden. |
| Junior Women 16-18: UMB had no
riders in this category! |
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Left: Ryan Margetts fights
for the lead as
he and Chad duke it out in the final stretch
of the downhill. Ryan gets there in 1st place
for the Beginner Men category.Right:
In competition for the win, Chad Jenkins
heads into the rock garden to finish his lap
with 2nd place. |
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Tyler Margetts rounds out a UMB podium
sweep with 3rd place in Beginner Men. |
Adam Reynders rolls
into a fast turn
on the way to 12th place. |
Russ Margetts joins his sons for
this race and nails 17th place. |
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Adam enters the speed trap /
choke point at the end
of the race. 100 feet to the finish line. |
Rachel crosses the finish line
at the end of her race. |
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Left: After a fall on the
Barrel Trail
downhill, Rachel Hutchings gets
going again to take 2nd place in
Beginner Women. Right: A
prickly pear cactus opens
its first blossom of the year. |
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Left: Heading toward the finish
line as he
finishes the smaller youth lap, David Ressa
is our first finisher in the kids' category.
Note: Position and finishing time are not
being
reported for the kids' categories this year.
Right: Maggie Ressa pedals
toward the finish line. |
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One advantage of being on a
team that provides great racer support. Free bandaids. Bruce fetches the
team first aid kit to patch
up first Rachel, then Christian. For once, Bruce wasn't on the receiving
end of the first aid supplies. |
| Billy Goat:
UMB had no
riders in this category! |
| Millie Goat: UMB had no
riders in this category! |
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A top-three sweep. Our
Beginner Men warriors at the
finish line after their race. That's Ryan, Tyler, and Chad. |
Bruce gets the burgers cooking
while Mike checks his tire.
Bruce ripped his tire but rode to the finish line flat. |
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This race course was hard on bikes and
riders. Fortunately, there weren't any serious injuries. We dominated some
categories but were missing racers in many others. It remains to be seen
how the new categories and policies (such as no official results for kids
and no team points for beginners) will affect race turnout at ICup events. More pictures:
Kay
Hutchings photos (Thanks, Kay!!!)
Bruce photos
(first race and miscellany)
Resources:
GPX track of
Cactus Hugger course
Satellite Cactus
Hugger Course Map
Left: Another advantage to being on our team.
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