2012 US National Champs With Team BGB/Mountain Khakis

Two big races come round every year that we each wait for with anticipation, one being the UCI World Cup Roundin Windham, New York and two the US Gravity National Championships. Yes, Windham is an important race, butit’s more of a spectacle as it showcases the best in the world. The US Gravity National Championships is whereTeam BGB-Mountain Khakis, or any rider for that matte,r gets a chance to earn there stripes. It’s what we all trainfor, gives a rider the chance to advance categories, gives you bragging rights, and sometimes can even make orbreak a rider’s career.

This year is also a special one for Team BGB-Mountain Khakis as this is the last of a two year deal that BeechMountain Resort signed with USA Cycling for the event to take place in the “High Country” of the NC Mountains.Additional pressure would be on the shoulders of each of the Team BGB-MK riders to represent the SE region infront of the “home” crowd.

Anybody recall Race Day 2011…. aka the Slip and Slide Slop-Fest? Would we have the same race conditions as2011? Leading up to the four day race weekend the weather in the region had many convinced it was in the cardsyet again for 2012. As we moved into day one other than some typically mountain fog (well, we should call themclouds at that altitude), conditions were perfect for day one of practice. Cat 2 riders Jay Guidry and Nich Ifkovitswould only get one day of practice on the Amateur course before they took the stage. Pros Robert DeMao, RyanTaylor, and Max Morgan would have four days of practice before the big show on Sunday.

As the sun set Thursday evening , the precip came down quite heavy. Leading into Friday morning, race day for theAmateurs, the knobbies came off and the spikes went on. Morning fog kept that moisture mixed in with themountain dirt just in time for the first rider out of the gate. Kicking off at 0915 and cycling through each of theriders Jay Guidry managed to secure a 4th place podium position in Cat 2 19-24 and Nich Ifkovits Cat 2 15-18 a 6th.

 

Saturday morning practice before seeding started bright and early at 0800 with more of the same…. the highcountry fog kept that moisture in place for yet another day. The first practice run down the Pro Course RobertDeMao had an incident with a pulled neck/chest muscle that would lead him to call it a weekend. That wouldleave things up to Ryan Taylor and Max Morgan. In a field of 64 riders, Max qualified in impressive fashion in 20th closely followed by Ryan in 25th.

With qualifying in the bag early riders had the remainder of the day to walk thecourse to do some last minute fine tuning on their attack plan or simply call it a night for some fuel and shut-eye.The weather for Sunday surprisingly was projected to be better than the three previous days and that forecast heldup its end of the bargain. 1500 was the time for the BIG SHOW!!! The current fastest man in the world Aaron Gwinof Temecula, CA (Trek World Racing) obviously was the heavy favorite to take it all, but as in 2011 with a crashanything was possible. Of course in the end that would not stick and Mr. Gwin would end up earning the star andstripes sleeve for the 2012/2013 season. Team BGB-MK Pros Max Morgan and Ryan Taylor each had minormistakes in their runs earning them 21st and 30th position respectively. Either way with the stiff competition andfactory sponsored riders in the field, they each deserve a tip of the hat……. AWESOME run guys!