SolVista dual slalom

/in , /by

Yesterday’s Mountain States Cup dual slalom at SolVista Bike Park was super duper fun.

I was racing and have no photos. Please send photos to lee@leelikesbikes.com. You’ll get credit, and you’ll help save the world.

The course
The SolVista crew built this beast in the past week. They have total support from the resort operators, not to mention all the dirt and machinery they want. That’s a great combination, and the result showed.

The track combined power, finesse and flow in a very fun and rather tricky way. It went like this:

– New random gate. Go on the first beep.
– Crank crank into right-left S-berms. Swoop swoop.
– Sidehill over three rollers. Hook, manual, braaap.
– 90-degree mathematically perfect right berm.
– A few cranks to a gentle double. Jump or manual, it’s up to you.
– High speed, off camber left over logs (tricky!).
– Gentle right to a drop-in to a left-right-left corkscrew of love. This was amazing. I want to build it in my back yard.
– G-out to uphill double into a sidecut right berm. So very braaap.
– Sprint down to an almost-flat left, then a flat right then an almost flat left with a little double in the middle. Ingenious. Devious.
– Hammer to a step-on step-off table.
– Cross the line and be stoked.

The course is long but fast. Anything under 30 seconds was a good time.

Hot Racing Action!
The experts and pros raced under the lights, which was so very rock star.

I would have more details and photos, but I’m proud to say I raced all the way to the end. In the round of four I discovered an air leak when I almost braaped my rear tire off the rim. POO!!! I lost that round and brought a pump to the top. I pumped until I got called to the gate, then I raced each run with a softening tire. I was too busy pumping to be nervous, and I won the small final for third in Vet Pro. It was awesome fun just to be out there racing with everyone.

Brian Lopes was out for Crankworx and decided to try some MSC action. He qualified first by a large margin, but he made a mistake in the first run of the final, and Chris Herndon beat him. The crowd erupted in applause. Could we see an upset?

No. “In the second round I decided to pin it from the top — I had to — and apply some pressure,” Lopes said. Chris held on for a while but blew up. Lopes won, and every moment was a clinic in how to ride dual slalom.

I heard Matt Thompson saying we’ll race this track again at the G3 in September. Instead of two downhills and a super D, that event might be one downhill, one super D and a dual slalom. Sweet!