Recap: Pro GRT 5 - Beech Mountain

It's rained at the every big race at Beech Mountain for the past three years, this year was no different.

The rain was only one of the difficulties that racers faced. The entire mountain was shrouded in thick fog for Friday and Saturday. Visibility could be measured in feet at most times.

Out of the start gate and into the fog.

Ben Furbee over the hip. You could hear riders coming across the ski hill for quite a while before a silhouette would come into view.

The roller into the hip. You just have to trust that it didn't get up and move as you could hardly see it from this point.

Walker Shaw slipping through the s turns towards the bottom of the track.

Shane Leslie and Charlie Harrison during Friday practice. The woods here are super dense, add in the fog and you get almost no light hitting the ground.

I think this picture pretty much sums up how the woods sections of the track looked and felt on Friday and Saturday.

Shoutout to Pennsylvania local Nikolas Dudukovich who had impressive seeding and final results this weekend. 2nd in seeding and just off the podium with a 6th place finish on Sunday. This is the same hip he threw a flip on when National Champs was held at Beech a couple years back.

The mud on Friday and Saturday was thin as it was consistently raining both days.

Which is good for these guys.

Dylan Conte just before the finish line. Literally the last 500 feet of the track was the only part clear of fog.

The Muddy Creek National was two weeks ago. I think someone's confused. Matt Osman foot out flat out in the slop.

Shane Leslie in practice before seeding. Shane seeded first on Saturday but came out with a third place finish just behind his teammate Charlie Harrison on Sunday.

Charlie over the jump leading into the sloppy lower corners.

Luca Shaw ended up taking the win for the juniors a little less than 4 seconds up on Charlie.

Jr.X Podium: 1st Luca Shaw, 2nd Charlie Harrison, 3rd Shane Leslie, 4th Andras Simon, 5th Matthew Branney.

For Sunday the fog had cleared and the rain had stopped which meant the mud became thick like peanut butter and the rocks got greasy.

Team Intense / TLD's Alex Willie and Luca Cometti, stoked and not stoked. Roles reversed on Sunday.

Luca Cometti on his way to his second top five finish in a row. Tires as packed as can be. Cut spikes seemed to be the tire of choice.

Amanda Batty had a bad crash in practice coming up short on a double over a rock. OTB on to the landing, then got landed on by another rider that couldn't stop in time.

She still came back for her race run on Sunday after a hospital visit though. Amanda ended up 4th for the weekend.

Elinor Wesner in the upper woods. Elinor seeded first on Saturday and was on a good run on Sunday. Unfortunately for Elinor she washed out in the lower s turns which put her in 3rd.

The top spot for the women went to Vermont native Alison Zimmer by over 12 seconds.

Women's Pro Podium: 1st Alison Zimmer, 2nd Rae Gandolf, 3rd Elinor Wesner, 4th Amanda Batty, 5th Abigail Hippely.

Neko Mulally seeded first on Saturday but slipped out coming in to the rock garden and ended up in some trees.

Logan Bingelli was another one that had a good seeding run but was claimed by the rock garden putting him just outside the top ten.

Logan's teammate Kevin Aiello was able to keep it upright in the greasy rocks. 2nd overall.

Ryan Burney in the rock garden. Beech had one of the better spectator turnouts of the tour.

Somebody placed dollar bills in different places throughout the rock garden. Brendan Looby gets off track and takes advantage.

Catman's lip fur makin' him look fierce.

Marcelo Gutierrez was in town for the upcoming World Cup rounds. His side trip netted him a 3rd place finish.

Georgia native Max Morgan took the with in the Pro class with a time of 2:22.23. This was Max's first ever National round win after an impressive result at Snowshoe last weekend where he placed second in an equally stacked field.

Men's Pro Podium: 1st Max Morgan, 2nd Kevin Aiello, 3rd Marcelo Gutierrez, 4th Michael Daniels, 5th Luca Cometti

Max in his 5th place qualifying run. Max found a full 16 seconds in the woods on Sunday.

Stay tuned to the East Coast as we gear up for the Mont Sainte Anne and Windham world cups in a few weeks.

The 2014 Pro GRT will be back for its final round at Mammoth Mountain, California on September 20 during the Kamikaze Bike Games.


Beech Mountain Bike Park
www.trailforks.com

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Racing and Events Pro Grt