A racer at the Massanutten Yee Ha! downhill.(Image credit: Matt DeLorme)
Peter Mills (Industry 9)(Image credit: Matt DeLorme)
Dennis Yurosheck, open class winner(Image credit: Matt DeLorme)
A racer descends Massanutten Mountain at the Yee Ha!(Image credit: Matt DeLorme)
Jason Memmelaar finished second.(Image credit: Matt DeLorme)
Gerritt Beytagh won the Massanutten Yee Ha!, which opened the 2010 Gravity East Series(Image credit: Matt DeLorme)
Riding the rocks at Massanutten(Image credit: Matt DeLorme)
The Gravity East season opened with 263 entries at Virginia's Massanutten Resort for the Yee Ha! downhill. The spectacular weather and the off-season improvements to the former World Cup course made for a fast and technical course with plenty of flow that showcased all aspects of a true East Coast downhill course.
Of course, downhill racing has its dangers. And those dangers were exhibited on Saturday morning when defending Gravity East Champion and World Cup competitor Neko Mulally (Trek World Racing) crashed early during his first practice run. The resulting trip to the local hospital revealed that Mulally had a fractured bone between his wrist and elbow, although he was not put in a cast pending an appointment with his personal orthopedist.
Mulally wasn't the only star at Massanutten, however, as Gravity East's best have shown that they are capable of beating him, though not with the frequency that they might desire.
One of those is Morewood USA's Gerritt Beytagh, who blistered the course with a time of 3:12.14 to take the win from Jason Memmelaar (Giant/ HBG/Smith/5TE) by nearly four seconds. Rounding out the podium was Richie Rude, Jr. of Specialized All Ride.
On the women's side, Dawn Bourgue (Chainline Cycles/Roc), started her defense of the Gravity East Pro Women's Title with a win over former cross country star Sue Haywood. But the surprise of the day came in the Women's Cat. 1 amateur class when Anne Galyean (East Coast Gravity Pro) won by over 21 seconds with a time that was faster than all of the pro women on the same course.
Round two of the 2010 Gravity East Series takes place at Pennsylvania's Seven Springs Resort on June 12-13.
Race Notes
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- The weekend started on Friday with practice during the day and a foot-down derby and kick-off party at the base of the run. A crowd gathered at the Encounters Lounge to drink beer and soda, eat bar food and watch some of America's best bike handlers try to stay on their bikes while others tried to gently separate them from their machine. The Mulallys showed why they are such a well-known commodity as bothers Neko and Logan dominated the proceedings by winning all 10 rounds, with each brother taking five rounds.
- The kick-off party also included a mini-dual slalom race with grown-up racers competing on kiddie bike. The brothers Mulally went head-to-head with Logan besting his brother and eventually even his Dad in the loosely-played "race".
- The racing went off according to plan for most of competition with one glitch. Race Director Dan McDonald tripped and accidently pulled the electronic cables out of the timing system during the Cat. 1 race. Five riders had to re-run.
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