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Red Rock Rampage
St. George - March 2, 2013The weather was perfect for the
first event of the combined Intermountain Cup and Utah State Championship
Series. The temperature bumped 70 degrees as the second race of the day
wrapped up. The course was in great shape. It felt good to get away from
northern Utah's snow to ride in the warm sunshine -- racing or not. UMB
fielded 39 racers, with first place finishes by Rachel Hutchings and Joel
Quinn, and a second place by Bruce Argyle.
Left: Brian Ressa hits the first hill
with the Sport Men 40-plus group.
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Left: Chris Cole rolls
through the bottom
of the wash before the final doubletrack
sprint to the finish line, taking 8th place in
the Pro Men category.Right: Hazy
sunshine warms the scrub
of Green Valley while the Pine Valley
Mountains meet the sky in the
background. |
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Left: Meghan Sheridan hits
the rough
sandstone on the downhill, riding to
3rd
place in Pro Women.Right: UMB
racers check in before the
race. Writing a name and plate number
on the team sign-in sheet helps your
poor web editor find all the racers
he's looking for. |
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| Expert Men 19-29: UMB had no
riders in this category! |
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Prickly Pear cactus is among
the first plants to turn green
in St. George as spring approaches. |
Checking the position of the
team water bottle table. Another
team has moved their table forward, blocking ours. |
| Expert Men 30-39: UMB had no
riders in this category! |
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Left: Jason Sparks crests
the first hill in a huge mob
of Expert Men 40-plus racers. Jason fights through
three laps to take the 6th
place ribbon.Right: Brian Jeppson hits
the rough rock plunge on lap
number two as he takes the 8th
place spot in the
category. |
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Mitt Stewart hustles across the
sandstone
wash near the end of the lap, taking 15th
place in Expert Men 40-plus. |
Mark
Messer drops off the rocks
to finish his race with the 16th place
spot in the category.
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Dave Benson bounces over the
rock
ledges on lap three to get the 21st
place finish. |
| Expert Women: UMB had no
Expert Women riders! |
| Singlespeed: UMB had no
Singlespeed riders! |
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Left: Sally Reynders launches
off the
rock ledge at the end of the steep plunge,
taking 7th
place in Women 40-plus.Right: Mike
works on John's bike while
Gene stands by. The first race is
over, and the second-wave racers
are waiting for their
race to start. |
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Geno Smith is at the front of the
Men
50-plus group as they hit the first hill.
Geno grabs the 4th place ribbon. |
Rocking the Scalpel down the rock
ledges, Rick Morris gets the 16th place
finish in this competitive group. |
Paul Zimmerman heads towards the
finish line on lap two, taking 18th
in the Men 50-plus category. |
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Joel Quinn powers across the wash
on his way to 1st place in the Men
60-plus category. |
Bruce Argyle tips through a
fast
turn on the downhill, grabbing 2nd place
for the red ribbon. |
Heading down the sandstone, Gene
Poncelet completes a podium sweep
for UMB with 3rd place. |
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Left: In the Clydesdale category,
John Twitchell drops down the
ledges to get a ribbon with 6th
place.Right: In
race two, the Pro racers line up
to begin their race. The start time is noon.
Pros will do four seven-mile laps. |
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Left: Sporting a new beard for
the new season,
Dallin Hatch hits the first hill with the Sport Men
19-29 category, taking the 13th place spot.Right: Steve
Bonney rolls down the ledges near the end
of his second lap to finish with the 16th position. |
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Christian Burrell powers up the hill
on the way to the 14th place finish in
Sport Men 30-39. |
Ben Hutchings rolls
around the ledgy
sandstone drop on lap two, taking
16th
place in the category. |
Tipping through a turn on the rock,
Michael Dodge grabs the 17th place
spot in Sport Men 30-39. |
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The Expert Men 40-plus group
hits the first hill on the
shakeout doubletrack, 1/4 mile from the start line. |
The first choke point is
Keyhole Wash, where riders must
maneuver the tricky wash-bottom while dodging the fins |
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Brian Ressa heads down the
sandstone
on lap one of two, for the 11th place
position in Sport Men 40-plus. |
Denmark Jensen drops the
ledge on
lap two, heading toward the finish
line and 18th place. |
New to the team this year, Tim Wagstaff
sacrificed his race to help a racer with
a medical emergency. |
| Sport Women 19-34: UMB had no
Sport Women riders! |
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In Rock Wash (also called
Cow-pond Wash), racers face
a series of tricky spots. Hit this step-up head on! |
The Plunge is a steep and
loose section starting with a
one-foot drop-off. Sally is third in this series of riders. |
| Sport Women 35-plus: UMB had no
Sport Women riders! |
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Left: As one of the youngest in
his
category, Hunter Ransom
races hard,
flying off a drop-off on the way to
18th place in Junior Men 12-15.Right:
The last challenge is a turn to drop
a series of small ledges. Jason passes
a rider with bike trouble. Even racing
tubeless, the rock edges can easily
claim a tire. |
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Left: Kyle Leiendecker has
joined the
UMB race team for the 2013 season.
Here Kyle is making the final finish-line
sprint to take 7th
place in Junior Men
16-18.Right:
A sight we don't want to see.
A rider with suspected heat stroke is
airlifted off the mountain. Tim dropped
out of the race to assist. |
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Left: Tackling the main race
loop,
Hattie Ransom
rocks an impressive
4th place finish in Junior Women
12-15.Right:
Doing the tech stuff with speed.
Mitt (front), Brian (second), and Mark
(fourth) blast through the turn below
the ledge drop. |
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| Junior Women 16-18: UMB had no
riders in this category! |
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Left: Joining the UMB team, Chad Jenkins
gets
his lap finished for the 5th place finish in the new
combined Beginner Men category.Right:
Adam Reynders launches out into air at the
bottom of The Plunge as he fights to 7th place
in the category. |
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Left: Corey Spencer
cranks out more speed
near the end of the race as he approaches the
rock drop. Corey takes 10th place.Right:
At the bottom of The Plunge, Devin Spencer
eyes the rough rock coming up as he rides to
16th place. |
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Left: Sprinting away from the
start
line, Rachel Hutchings claims the
front spot to nail 1st place in Beginner
Women. Right: Rachel gets
her spot at the top
of the podium. |
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David Ressa launches into the air as
he hustles into the 6th place position
in the Youth 10-12 category. |
Joseph Dodge powers across the
kids'
desert loop to take 11th place
after multiple laps.
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Standing on the pedals for speed,
Sawyer Ransom nails the 12th place
finish in the category. |
Billy Goat:
Note: Finishing order is not reported for the Billie Goat and Millie
Goat (9-and-under) categories this year. Photos appear in the order they
were taken. Parents, we really want get your child onto the web page. Let
us know if we've missed anybody.) |
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Draeden Jensen is on the return side
of the kids loop as he sprints back
across the desert dirt. |
Joshua Nielsen is wearing an
awesome
shark-head helmet that must be seen
from all angles to be appreciated!
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Faster and tougher, Pierce Ransom
is back for another season of racing
as he sprints out from the start line. |
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Left: Sydney Nielsen cranks
her bike toward the finish line. Looking fast, Sydney!
Right: Katie Dodge powers
across the desert in the
"Millie Goat" group. Welcome back for another season,
Katie!
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Kay seems to have mistakenly photographed
a couple of recreational riders on the race loop.
No mocking allowed, however.
Derek and Mike helped others race at the
Rampage, rather than enjoying the pain themselves.
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It was a good start to a new season. The
category changes, and the combination of ICup with USCS, make it hard to
predict how this season will unfold. Quite a few of us realized that we've
slipped a little. Not as fast, not as lean. But it was a great day to be
outside on the bike. And the over-60 racers want you to know they're doing
their part. More pictures:
Bruce photos
(first race only)
Kay
Hutchings photos (Thanks, Kay!!!)
GPX track of Rampage
course
Race course Trail Page on
UtahMountainBiking.com
Left: Bruce (2nd), Joel (1st), and Gene (3rd) sweep the podium for
UMB in the Men 60-plus category.
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