Downhill Southeast Kicks off Season in Sequatchie, Tennessee

Racers were treated to a fast course filled with loose rocks.

The Southeastern portion of the United States is home to some of the countries best downhill mountain bikers, including the likes of the Shaw brothers, Walker and Luca, and Neko Mulally, famous for his chainless World Cup run in Hafjell back in 2014. The region is also home to the Appalachian mountains, which run like a jagged scar across Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. The trails here are often wild and untamed, containing sharp rocks, boulder drops, and little room for mistakes or recovery. It is no wonder that the Downhill Southeast race series is a rider favorite year after year, and acts as a fantastic training race series for the UCI sanctioned races that happen a bit later in the summer and fall.


The first stop for 2018 was last weekend at the Trials Training Center in Sequatchie, Tennessee. The day began with a relaxed atmosphere as experienced pros and excited amateurs all rubbed elbows to grab spots in the large Uhaul shuttles that would take them to the top of the rocky and lightning quick course for practice runs, which started at 8:00 am and ran until 3:00 pm. All categories of competitors would be riding the same track, with nothing off limits to the Amateur class like in some other series. It was incredibly inspiring and a fantastic reflection of the mountain bike scene as a whole to see pro riders mentoring and talking to both young and old upstarts about line choices and bike setups as everyone took their first feeler runs.


The trail itself challenged riders to adapt to a very rocky top half filled with loose shale rocks that rode like “loose dinner plates”, to a smoother and faster paced lower half with well worn in lines and sharp corners with brutal g-outs. This variety meant that riders would have a tough time dialing suspension and tire pressure in perfectly and likely had to go for middle ground settings in order to put down a good time. At the end of the day, one person stood on the top step of each category.







The next stop for the Downhill Southeast Series will be as Massanutten Resort in Harrisonburg, Virginia, before moving to Windrock Bike Park, and finally Beech Mountain Resort. Congratulations to all racers for a safe day of racing and to the winners in each category for leaving it all on the course. A big thank you is also in order to all those who put in man hours making sure that the trail would be ready for racing, including but not limited to: Troy Roberts, who along with series founder Neko Mulally, were two of the driving forces behind these events; Sean Leader, Matt Henderson and his excavator and David Morgan who helped pick the layout of the course and layed down blazingly quick race times as well; Vince Fast, Wendell Hatton, Ian Mathis, Michael Harrison, and many others. It is always exciting to see a community come together from far and wide to put together a series of races that bring out the best in riders and builders each and every year.

Full gallery of the race will be available at www.mattjonesphoto.com and here on Pinkbike.


U-14:
Jack Sharples
Eric Willets
Caden Hill

Masters:
Clealan Watts
Tim Key
Barry Page

Amateur Men:
Chris Grice
David Morgan
Zack Mehuron

Pro Men:
Neko Mulally
Max Morgan
Seth Hanson

Pro Women:
Frida Roenning