08/07/2008

Michelle Wins Deer Valley NORBA Commentary by Michelle Dumaresque

On July 17th the traveling roadshow (or gong show) called NORBA made its way to the Wasatch mountains of Utah - Park City to be exact. If you remember they held this other contest there called the 2002 Winter Olympics a while back. Park City is typical of many resort towns with cute little shops, lots of outdoorsy people, and a lot of multi-million dollar homes. There are also three ski hills in the valley. This weekend, the Deer Valley resort would host the NORBA national mountain bike series.

View from the top of Deer Valley.

I arrived on Thursday to register and hit the duel slalom course for practice. Yes, I did say duel slalom, and with very old school style I might add. The course consisted of several berms reaching a height of perhaps twelve inches, a bunch of ski racing gates, and a few rollers. No jumps to be seen or ridden unfortunately. It was not my style of course and I think most of the racers had a good chuckle when they first saw it.

The race was held on friday as many of the racers had to leave right after to attend the Jeep KOM race in California. Even though the course was weak it made for some great racing. Duel just has that effect, people get really into it, as it seems more personal to battle against your opponent. The men's race featured some big names but most were either hurt or in Cali. Cody Warren of Haro went on to the win over John Kirkaldie of N.Z. In the women's I went against Tara Llanes, then Jill Kintner Jill beat me in the semi's so I went against Katrina Miller from Australia and beat her for a third place. Jill went on for first with Melissa Buhl second and me third.

The podium for Dual Slalom. After her tragic cork-in-the-eyeball accident last year, Melissa always wears proper podium safety eyewear.

Deer Valley used to be one of the highlights of the circuit and many riders were very happy to be back as the last national race was in 2001. What Deer Valley lacks in height it makes up for in perfect terrain. The course features rocks, cliffs, and steep chutes, not to mention some amazing trees that many were calling the 'Jedi forest.' Riders had to use a bit of the "force" as they shot through a windy section of trees at 60 kmh (40mph) Not to worry, there was still a good couple of inches between the trees and your impending doom if you got distracted.

Probably the most interesting feature was the "gully". If any of you ever raced snowboards on the Mt Baker banked slalom course, you might know what I'm referring to. That trick has a series of five switchbacks down a steep gully where riding up the wall was not only fun but fast. A cliff near the top called the waterfall claimed many riders as the entrance was sketchy at best. The mens race was stacked as many of the worlds top pros decided to warm up for the world cup at St. Anne by stretching their legs in Utah. In the end, favourite Greg Minnaar was second to Yeti's Jared Graves, giving Jared his first NORBA win.

The course featured a few challenging rock gardens.

In the women's (for me this is the good part) it was a matter of attrition as many of the best were crashing and getting hurt. Luna's Kathy Pruitt hurt her hand but taped the crap out of it, then attached some velcro and velcroed her hand to the bars - she's nuttier than me! Japan's Mio Sumassa went down in practice, the waterfall claims yet another, so she decided not to race. Bernadita Pizzaro (Cannondale) qualified in first with me in second and April Lawyer (Intense/ Puma) third. I finished with a time of 3:24 and had to wait for Berny to descend. Berny crossed the finish line with a time of 3:29 and I had my first NORBA DH victory! I would like to thank all of my sponsors for making this happen: Santa Cruz Bikes, Denny's, Syncros, Sram, Rockshox, Truvativ, Avid, Lake, Dakine and especially the NSMB.com team. - Michelle

Michelle navigates the rock garden. - photo: Dillon Clapp