Neko Mulally Belatedly Awarded The 2011 US National DH Title

During this past weekend in Vermont, many people saw Neko Mulally (Trek World Racing) was wearing the US National Flag on his left sleeve, as is required under UCI rules for National Champions in DH racing. This, despite the fact that in earlier races this year American Logan Binggeli was wearing that sleeve.

In the forthcoming issue of Decline Magazine, Neko goes into detail, in his Trek World Racing column, on just how this came about but essentially the UCI have declared Neko the 2011 US National DH Champion and informed USA Cycling about this decision.

The confusion stems from the fact th at even though Neko rode the fastest time on the day at the US National Championships, he was told to ride the junior category as per his age in 2011. He was awarded the Junior National Title by USA Cycling and Binggeli the Elite title. However the UCI does not, at National Championship level, recognize the junior category and as the results were awarded UCI points based on scratch results (irrespective of category), Neko, as the fastest rider, is the National Champion under UCI rules. This is also the case in Canada and Norway this year.

This means for the next 2 World Cups in Mont-Sainte-Anne and Windham, Neko will proudly be running the US National Champion sleeve, alongside Justin Leov in his New Zealand National Champion sleeve. Neko will also run this at the Highland Park US Grand Prix, before going to Beech Mountain, North Carolina on July 21 and 22 where he will be hoping to defend his two 2011 National Titles, Dual Slalom and the recently acquired Downhill.

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Team BGB/MK Beech Mountain Race Number 1

With the light at the end of the tunnel shining ever so brightly for the biggest race in the US, the US Gravity Nationals, Team BGB-MK returned to what we like to call our “home track” for the first DH race of the season at Beech Mountain Resort. Over a 150 riders would also make the trek from as far away at Illinois, Texas, and Florida to get some invaluable track time for that race we all see in the horizon.

Rolling into Banner Elk, NC, weather conditions for the weekend looked great with a slight chance of precip forecast for just about the time the last Pro would make his way through the course. Track conditions on a chilly Saturday morning course walk looked dry, but those of us that have been there before know better. The water hides and just seems to come out of the ground on this mountain. She didn’t disappoint with just enough to make those rock sections a bit slick and have a number of rider’s ask, “Cut mud tires or DH tires?”

All racers would maneuver the amateur course of which is extremely technical for the inexperienced and filled with tight twisty sections which kept one on their guard. The weekend started out for Team BGB-MK with lots of “stop and go” trying to find that elusive smooth line in a very rocky course. I’d bet that each of our riders took at least three minor spills (if not more) over the course of the weekend.

After a day of getting into the groove, Nich Ifkovits, our youngest rider, put in a clean run placing third overall in Juniors and 3rd in category. Nicely done young gun! For the team, the weekend would belong to team Pro Rider Ryan Taylor who put in an impressive run after a huge crash during early morning Sunday practice where he introduced himself and his bike to a tree. That meeting didn’t go very well and each left on bad terms. Shaken, but not spoiled Ryan was able to muster up enough mojo to finish on the podium taking home the bronze behind two previous National Champions, Ethan Quehl of Chainsmoke Racing (Silver) and Gerrit Beytagh (Gold). Congrats Mr. Beytagh for winning the Pro class! Finally a must mention, Jay FAST-perman (Fesperman – GROM Racing) laid down the fastest time on the mountain beating Gerrit’s time by a HUUUGGGE 0.01 sec. Running JrX, this is turning into the year of FAST-perman….. expect to hear this young man’s name quite a bit this season. Individual Team BGB-MK results are summarized below.

Pro Men:
3rd – Ryan Taylor
10th – Rob DeMao

Men Cat 1 Master 35-39:
3rd – Matt Haynes

Men Cat 2 Senior 19-24:
7th – Jay Guidry

Men Cat 2 Master 30-34:
4th – Nick Frantz

Men Cat 2 Master 35-39:
7th – Brook Buckelew

Men Cat 2 Junior 15-18:
3rd – Nich Ifkovits

Women Cat 3 Master 40-49:
DNS – Heither Schultz (Injury)

Overall USAC Official Results. Thanks to Talia Freeman, Chris Herndon, Danny Cesare, the Beech Ski Patrol, the rest of the Beech Mountain crew and all of the racers for making it such a great time. We look forward to the 2012 USAC US Gravity/DS Nationals in just four short weeks, in which all will fight to make the claim, “The Best in the US!” The countdown BEGINS!

Thanks to all our sponsors: Mountain Khakis, Billy Goat Bikes, Rocky Mountain Bicycles, Loaded Precision Components, Black Market Bikes, Feedback Sports, Smith Optics, Zerode Bicycles, POC Sports, Suspension Experts.

Mitch Ropelato To Fill In For The Injured Troy Brosnan

With Monster Energy-Specialized racing’s Troy Brosnan at home recovering from a training injury sustained in Austria, Mitch Ropelato is ready to step up to the opportunity to fill-in for Brosnan. Ropelato has been racing in the U.S. for Specialized Racing-USA gravity onboard his Demo and will now debut for the Monster Energy-Specialized Team at both the Mont Saint Anne, Canada and Windham, New York World Cup rounds.

“Mitch was our first choice when we thought about a possible fill-in rider and we look forward to having him onboard. He’s a talented rider and I think he’ll have a good time on the program.” Said Team Manager Sean Heimdal. “It’s a shame to have Troy sidelined and we hope his recovery goes as planned!”

''Im happy to see Mitch filling in for myself and glad that he will be getting a factory ride at the next world cup rounds to show what talent on a bike he really has!'' says Troy Brosnan.

Mitch Ropelato says: “I'm super excited that I get the opportunity to ride with Sam Hill, work with Jacy and Sean under the Monster/Specialized tent. It’s really just a dream to be able to work with one of the top MTB teams in the world and really thankful that Specialized has lent me this opportunity to work with Monster Team. So, these next two weeks I’m just sitting on Cloud 9 without a worry in the world and just go out and have some fun riding my bike.”

Specialized Bicycles says: “This is a wonderful opportunity for Mitch while Troy recovers. He is a very talented rider and we couldn’t be more excited about the move. At Specialized we strive to develop riders and help them achieve their goals. To have Mitch come from one of our domestic teams and go to our global team is great for the program! We hope this move will be inspirational to other riders out there who have dreams of making it to a professional world cup team.”

Justin Leov Wins Vermont Round Of US National Series

The latest round of the US National Series visited the new venue of Sugarbush Resort in Vermont on the US East Coast, where the sun shone, and the track was dry and fast. The event saw Trek World Racing's Justin Leov setting the pace, as well as Neko Mulally making his return to racing after suffering a fractured ankle, which x-rays confirmed is fully recovered.

In Saturday qualifying Justin was fastest aboard his Session 9.9 with Neko close behind in 2nd. Justin did 3m 32.31secs and Neko 3m 33.96secs. The weather was again perfect for Sunday's race with blue skies and a dry track. The course was reall y fast up top with typical Vermont style sections and some good woods sections that could catch a rider out if not paying attention. Just took nearly 8 seconds off his qualifier to win with 3min 24secs, with Mitch Ropelato (USA) in 2nd and Neko finishing 3rd, 4 seconds ahead of his quali.

Justin said: "My goal for the weekend was to work on my speed for Mont-Sainte-Anne next weekend. I was pretty disappointed after the European World Cups so I was motivated to really work on getting my speed up. I was happy with both my quali and race runs this weekend, both felt fast and definitely in the right direction for the racing coming up in the next few weeks. It was also great to have Neko back racing this weekend, good to see him back on the bike and also riding well. Good prep for him leading into MSA."

Neko said: "My goal this weekend was to get comfortable on my bike again and build up speed for next weekend. My ankle is feeling pretty good and I'm glad to be back r acing."

The guys drive north to Quebec this week and join the rest of the Trek World Racing crew for the all important Mont-Sainte-Anne World Cup Round 4.