Bourque wins women's downhill

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New York's Whiteface Mountain lived up to its billing as a wild ride this past weekend. The Whiteface 5K featured a lot of rocks and even more roll as 202 competitors in 19 classes attempted to become one of the few to crack the eight-minute barrier racing down the mountain. With the downhill portion of the Gravity East weekend also counted as the final event of USA Cycling's new Pro Gravity Tour national series, an east vs. the nation was expected but never materialized as the home field advantage saw Gravity East regulars on top of the podium.

On Sunday, things got more serious as both the speed and the consequences for failure increased significantly. Whiteface served as the eighth round of the 11-race Gravity East Series. It's also the longest downhill course in the east, and one of the longest and fastest in North America. With the inaugural Pro Gravity Tour title also on the line, it was 'game on' from the start of the day. The pro seeding runs saw New York veteran World Legend Jurgen Beneke (unattached) run an 8:18 to take the first seed ahead of Dave Trumpore (Evil Bikes) and Neko Mulally (Specialized Team America).

It was a beautiful day with sunshine and cool, autumn-like, temperatures. Throughout open practice, it was clear that the track was getting consistently better, and faster. Giant Bicycles had planned to give a bonus to fastest rider through Whiteface's infamous speed trap. Unfortunately, the speed gun broke down, causing officials to change plans and award the $200 to the best amateur time - and make just about everybody ask the question, "Why don't speed guns ever break down when they’re pointed at my car?"

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Compounding the ignominy was that the bonus was won by a rider who isn't even close to being old enough to get a speeding ticket. Fourteen-year old Gravity East regular Richard Rude Jr. (Santa Cruz Allride) had people shaking their heads in disbelief when he came down the mountain with a time of 8:17.80, two-tenths quicker than Jurgen Beneke's pole-winning pro seeding run. When the dust had settled at the end of the day, it was realized that Rude's time would have placed Richard in 10th in the men's pro field and was quick enough to win his class by over 48 seconds.

First in the hot seat for the pros was none other than the consummate Pro Gavin Vaughan (Sinister Snowfire) with a time of 8:19. Vaughn sat in the hot seat awhile before some astounding times sent him back to the pits. First to break the eight-minute mark was Jason Memmelaar (Hayes/Manitou/SunRig) with a 7:58. Memmelaar's time was quickly smashed by Jurgen Beneke's 7:52.

Then Gerrit Beytagh (Morewood Bikes) clocked an amazing time of 7:50. Finally, as all eyes watched the mountain, Neko Mulally came in with a record time of 7:48.15 to win the US$2,000 dollar first-place portion of the men's pro purse.

Series leader Chris Heath(Manitou/Hayes) from Colorado was the fastest of the visiting ProGRT riders. He grabbed sixth to clinch the overall for the men's ProGRT champion's.

Women's race

In the pro women's race, the first to sit in the hot seat was Massachusetts native and well-known northeast pro Karen Eagan (Sam Adams Brewery). Eagan held on to the hot seat as rider after rider was unable to eclipse her time of 10:05.50.

She stayed there until top seed Dawn Bourque (Rhino BikeWorks) of New Hampshire blew away the competition with a 9:41.29 to capture the win and the US$500 women's first prize. Jennifer Wolf (Vixen Racing) was the only ProGRT series regular to show for the women's race. Unofficially, Wolf scored enough points to take over the runner-up position in the final ProGRT standings as Darian Harvey had already clinched the season title following her win at Windham Mountain. Final points are still being calculated for the ProGRT women's series.

Going chainless

Following the official race, 39 riders got "pumped" and went back to the top for the chainless race. Some took the race more seriously than others; Richie Rude showed up at the start with two none-drive side crankarms, eliminating his chainring and bashguard. For the second year in a row, the win was grabbed by none other than Moorewood Bikes own Gerrit Beytagh. Beytagh grabbed the win with a time of 8:03.73, smashing second place finisher Jurgen Beneke's time of 8:24.72. Rounding out the top three was Heikki Hall with an 8:30.03.

Next Gravity East round

The next Gravity East weekend will take place at Blue Mountain Resort in Danielsville, Pennsylvania, on September 26 and 27. The double-header weekend will feature not only the Gravity East Downhill, but also a round of the Gravity East Dual Slalom series on the Neko Mulally-designed slalom course at Blue Mountain.