Today was the first day of the USA Cycling Gravity Nationals at Beech Mountain in North Carolina. The weather stayed nice and sunny for most of the day with highs in the low 80's, that all changed around dinner time though as the skies opened up and a serious amount of rain came down. It only lasted for a few hours though, so hopefully it was just enough to keep the dust down for tomorrow.
Day one of the event, registration and racer package pickup opened at 11AM and everyone was waiting...
The downhill track is mostly the same as last year, really all thats been done are some small changes, and there's a lot less mud. Chris Herndon has been busy fine tuning however, and the track looks awesome! The grassy pedal out of the start.
After you come out of the start stretch the course cuts under the lift and then splits into the pro course and the amateur course, The pro track is the blue tape.
Mitch Ropelato, Brad Benedict and Cody Kelley check out the first real obstacle on the pro course, a small rock drop.
Shortly after the drop on the run, the course drops into the trees and a small rock section
In the trees the course is mostly fairly wide with lots of different line options.
after a right berm there is a small creek gap. A lot of people were just riding through it in practice, but there were a few people jumping it on both the left and the right side.
The dirt was perfect today...
The top tree section ends in a hard right that drops onto a road, and then drops into the rock garden section.
Cody checks out the tree that took out Gwin and Ropelato last year. It's a fine line between the rock and the tree, and in the wet things can get pretty slippery here.
Lots of different line choices through the rocks, but two basic ways through. High on the left, or low on the right...
The rocks continue... The fastest line of the day seemed to go up and over a few different rocks.
As you exit the trees and go back onto the run there's a gap over a rock. Most riders were doubling it, some were tripling it to a further landing. By the time the end of the day came around the landing of the double was turning into a bit of a crater.
a few off camber turns on the grass later and the track drops down and then up into a right step up hip.
There are a lot of these off camber grass corners, and course workers were constantly replacing the tape. This is the section after the hip, mach chicken...
after the hip there is a section of dirt jumps, rollers and berms under the lift that ends in a long table going into the finish area. This year the finish has been moved up the hill a bit, and you pretty much gap into it.
looking down at the finish jump, it's a short jump to dirt tranny, then a very quick scrub over the road and onto the off camber grass pitch for the last 50 feet to the line
The finish gap from the side...
Neko Mulally is the other official US National Champ now, even though he raced as a junior last year. He's going to have some work to do to keep that title, but he's more than up for it, spending most of the day on the track trying to find every possible second.
The small rock drop at the top of the course...
There are a lot of really nice turns in the top woods.
By the end of the day there were some serious ruts forming...
Cole Picchiottino takes the high line through the rocks. He was looking really fast through the course today. (we reported yesterday that he had crashed, however we've since learned that he actually only flatted)
Luke Strobel somehow ended up with the number two plate here at Beech. KHS' Logan Binggeli is the USA Cycling National Champ and has kept the number one that he earned here last year when he won the pro men's DH.
Neko Mulally raced as a junior here last year, and even though he had the fastest time he wasn't originally given the national title. The UCI changed their rules part way through the season however, and a Stars and Stripes jersey became his.
Arthur Babcock was looking fast all day. Here he triples out of the woods and onto the ski run.
Eliot Jackson, always a contender and tons of style, don't ever count him out.
Kevin Aiello boosting over the hip.
There is always someone riding in jeans and a t-shirt, today there were several. No idea who this is, but he's going pretty high over the step up hip.
Next year it's going to be a genuine Bike Park so I'm looking forward to it. I drove up there on an off weekend (no races) and it's a gorgeous area. It's going to be sick next year.