California Golden State Mountain Bike Championships
(9/10/2009)
Words and photos by Ryan Cleek
Mammoth Mountain partnered with Southridge USA for the final round of the 2009 California Golden State Mountain Bike Championship. The three days of racing included the series finals of the RockShox Mountaincross and Downhill events, featured a Super D and Cross-country races, plus the world famous Kamikaze. In addition to the previously mentioned events, Mammoth held a "Legends of Mountain Biking" Kamikaze race featuring some of mountain biking’s fastest racers of yesterday.
DOWNHILL RECAP A view of the Golden State Champs pit area.
Mammoth Mountain's Techno Rock trail played host to pro and expert downhillers on the weekend. Downhill racing at Mammoth means loose, rocky and unpredictable terrain.
Mikey Sylvestri took home the pro men's downhill win, continuing his streak of great results in 2009.
Eric Carter won the pro Kamikaze race, but finished 11th in the pro downhill. Nineteen-year-old, first-year pro Graeme Pitts put down a good run for 19th in downhill. Graeme recently joined Kirt Voreis' Santa Cruz AllRide Academy.
Expert racer Brad Lawerence sneaks a peek at the photographer.
Mammoth Mountain has put a lot of work
into refining their existing trails. The addition of paver stones makes
for some high-speed cornering.
John Hauer rode his X-Fusion/Intense to 17th place in the field of 30 pro men.
The pro and expert downhill course featured drops, rock gardens and finished on the mountaincross course.
In the pro women's field Laura Noonan brought home fourth place.
X-Fusion/Intense rider Sean McClendon sends it off of one of the many drops on the pro/expert downhill course. Sean finished 10th in pro downhill.
Ian Odom looked fast all weekend, and his race run was good enough for seventh place in the pro men's category.
Justin Wyche is fast up-and-comer (note his jersey from winning SoCal's downhill national race earlier this summer), but didn't have his best day, finishing 14th of 28 junior experts.
KAMIKAZE RECAP Mammoth Mountain is synonymous with the Kamikaze. At the Golden State
Champs everyone from today's pros to mountain biking's legends (some
blurred the lines between the two), pulled out all of the stops for a
chance at Kamikaze bragging rights.
GT Bikes mechanic John Canepa and factory racer Eric Carter examine John's 56-tooth chainring configuration for the pro Kamikaze. It wasn't an easy setup, as the chainring didn't fit EC's Fury downhill frame, but with a little ingenuity John was able to make it work. He was the last guy to leave the pits on this night, but it paid off as Carter won the pro men's Kamikaze race.
A closer look at Canepa's creation.
For the legends category, Joe Lawwill (left) put down a fast Kamikaze run to take the win. Greg Herbold (right) finished 7th in the field of 20 racers.
Herbold, a SRAM employee, welded a larger ring to the inside of his Hammerschmidt transmission. This modification performed with the gear ratio of a 52-tooth chainring.
HB was experimenting with a plastic scoop to draw in air to cool his brake rotors.
Marzocchi's Tom Rogers had a good Kamikaze weekend, finishing eighth in the legends race, and sixth in pro.
Mike Bell en route to 10th place in the legends race.
Joy Martin utilized her areodynamic flesh-colored skinsuit to land third place in the pro women's Kamikze.
Joe Lawwill rounds the first turn on his way to winning the legends Kamikaze downhill.
JD Swanguen finished ninth in the pro Kamikaze (shown), and landed on the podium in fifth place in the pro downhill event.
Greg Herbold and his inflatable chest protector get up to speed on the windy Kamikaze course.
MOUNTAINCROSS RECAP A new permanent feature of Mammoth's bike park is the mountaincross course.
For the pro men, JD Swanguen (right) looked smooth, and jumped out to an early round win. A crash at the top of the course in the finals landed JD in the fourth podium spot.
Can you find the top qualifier Eric Carter in this photo? Try looking on the ground behind the other three racers. Unknown rider #793 sprinted through the first corner plowing into Carter from behind as he cut the turn tight protecting his inside line.
It's not a party until the guy with the Diggler shows up.
Logan Bingelli avoided being caught up in the pro mountaincross collisions and brought home the victory.
Nancy Harris won the women's open mountaincross division.
