Video: Maxxis Gravity East Series - Timberline

It's all about the venue. Timberline 4 Seasons Resort in Canaan Valley, West Virginia delivered the goods at Maxxis Gravity East Series stop #4. It's the first time this venue has been a stop on any DH race series. The staff and crew were working hard to make everyone comfortable. They certainly delivered with amenities like free on-site camping, 10$ all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet, food served all day, fireworks allowed by night and mossy-green, sweet single track all day long.


Straight outta B.C? Timberline mountain's backside is something straight out of trails in British Columbia's backcountry. The thickest, softest moss covers rock faces so plush you'd think it was AstroTurf. There's a trail called Narnia. No White Witch to be found here, but you could get lost in the beauty all the same. Pictured here is the rock garden straight out of the gate start. The race course for GES number 4 was on the front-side of the mountain. This section borrows hints of rock and moss from the backside, but it's nothing compared to what's over yonder.


Racers had three line choices in this section; left, right or center. Left seemed to be the choice for many, as it set you up for speed out of the corner, but plenty of podiums were earned on the middle and right side lines too.


Hey, nice rack. Defiant Racing's, Eric Eitelgeorge was all stoke on the lift. The chairlifts were a rack-it-yourself scenario and the lift was non-detachable. It would slow for each passenger getting on board. Made for a 20 min + ride but the scenery and relaxation time made up for it all. Everyone was able to get plenty of run time.

Big is good. Timberline boasts a nice big lodge at the bottom with multi-tiered decks that made for great staging areas for the race announcer, DJ, and hot seat.

Red Bull girls rule. The team at Gravity East is big on promotions and making a race feel like a race. Red Bull is almost always on hand one way or another. For this race, we had the pleasure of some Red Bull girls giving out plenty of samples of brand new flavors, ice cold of course.

Baby blue skies. The weather did not disappoint. Mid 80's during the day, and mid 60's at night. Perfect tent camping and wonderful drone photo ops.

Time that lift. When it came time to race, everyone anticipated the lift time and got up to the start gate with plenty of time to spare.

It starts with Pryde. Pryde Dotterer out of the start gate and into the roots that preceded the first rock garden at the top.

Boost it. This ladder drop was only about 2.5 feet off the ground but it sent you as far as you wanted it to. Riders were landing 15+ feet forward into a sweeping left hand turn.

Full moto. The course was wide open for the most part. All speed with some roots and rocks to navigate. This step-down finished off the bottom of the woods section. Plenty of holes to navigate on this landing after two days of practice.

Hip hugger or lip booster?

After the step down, you exit the woods to a 30 foot hip jump. There was a race line to the left that enabled riders to squash it if they chose. The Gravity East held a style contest during race runs here complete with a judge posted in this area to make the call on the most steezey rider. The winners were honored on the podium. Here you see second place style winner Austin Leosewski (0-14 Boys). This photo doesn't do his air time justice. He was UP THERE. This grom's got a future in DH MTB if he sticks with it.

Raffles mean crowds.

The crowd for podium ceremonies was respectable. Plenty of cheering and lots of folks stayed around to see who would win the numerous raffles the Gravity East was selling tickets for.

Pro podiums. Justin Gregory and Amy Leishear take first place.

Cat 1 40+ loves the kids.

Cat 1, 30-39

Cat 1, 19-29

Cat 2, 19-29

Cat 2, 30-39

Cat 3, 19-29

Cat 3, 30-39

Cat 2/3, 40+

All steeze podium. Ladies and gents, your hip-jump style winners.

Groms rule! 0-14 Boys

Women's open podium. Big congrats to Liz Jones on her first race back since her crash at 7 Springs in 2013!

Cat 2, 0-18 Boys

Cat 3, 0-18 Boys

50+ Open, Men. These guys are fast!

One day license, Open.

The raffles begin.

As with every GES race this season, there were lots of raffles. Each rider is given a free ticket as part of their race fee. Additional 50/50 tickets are sold to anyone who wants to purchase " arms length" amount for $10. So much is given away that prizing the raffles takes almost as long as prizing the podiums. Here we see Jake Shortt walking away with a Fox dropper post.

Power tools rule.

Milwaukee stepped up with some pretty sweet prizing for 2015. The GES is ramping up giving out bigger and bigger Milwaukee stuff each week. Finals should have some mack-daddy tools to raffle. Here we see Daniel Brewer walking away with a Milwaukee power tool set.

Fox in socks.

Fox Racing Shox has also stepped up big with serious prizing. At the last race, the GES gave away a Fox 40. This week it was a Fox 36. Joe Shack is the big raffle winner on the day taking home a sweet trail fork. He's not that excited about it.

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JOIN US FOR MAXXIS GRAVITY EAST SERIES FINALS AT WISP MOUNTAIN!
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Wisp Resort
296 Marsh Hill Rd
McHenry, MD 21541

Schedule:

Friday - Noon - 5pm: Ppen practice DH & DS

Saturday:

08:00 am - Registration opens, open slalom practice
09:00 am - Lift opens for DH practice
10:15 am - Registration for slalom closed
11:15 am - Slalom practice closed
11:30 am - Slalom qualifying
01:00 pm - Slalom elimination rounds
05:30 pm - Last lift for DH practice
06:00 pm - DH course closed
06:30 pm - Slalom awards

Sunday:

08:00 am - Registration opens
09:00 am - Lift open for DH practice
10:00 am - Registration closed
10:30 am - Last lift for DH practice
11:00 am - Start time posted, rider meeting.
11:30 am - DH race #102:00 pm or ASAP - DH race #2
Awards to Follow

Form more info visit GravityEastSeries.com


Photography by: Mountain Soul Media
Words & Podium Pics by: Mike Karfakis

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MENTIONS: @Maxxis

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