Neko Mulally, Specialized Team America's 16-year old phenom, is the 2009 Gravity East Series pro men's champion in both the downhill and the dual slalom divisions following this past weekend's Gravity East Finals at Plattekill Mountain New York.
"We have seen the future, and it's scary fast," said Gravity East publicist Ken Getchell of Mulally. "He's fast and smooth and picks uncanny lines. Just think what's he's going to be like as his body physically matures over the next couple of years."
Jason Memmelaar (Hayes/5 ten/Manitou/Smith), the winner of the Seven Springs round, was runner-up in the season standings. Alejandro Ortiz (Nema/Morpheous - Ecuador) finished the year on two podiums, as runner-up to Mulally in the dual slalom points championship and as third place overall in the downhill standings.
Mulally finished the season with five Gravity East downhill victories and never finished lower than fifth (one race). On the dual slalom side, he finished with a perfect score of five victories after dropped races were calculated. Only a crash in the semi-finals of Saturday's dual slalom kept him from sweeping every race.
After missing the first three races, Bourque went on to win every other downhill on the Gravity East schedule, with the exception of the new venue at Eastern Pennsylvania's Vertical Earth Mountain Bike Park at Blue Mountain, where Karen Eagan of Samuel Adams Brewery took the victory. Eagan had what many riders would consider a dream year in the Gravity East this year, winning the dual slalom title and finishing second in the downhill standings. Overall, Eagan won three times in Gravity East competition this year; twice in dual slalom and once in downhill.
In Sunday's downhill final, Bourque, Eagan and Stephanie Gubernat (Cutters Bike Shop/VerticalEarth) finished one, two, three for both the race and the season title. Bourque's time of 3:19.15 was over seven seconds faster than runner-up Eagan.
In the men's race, Mulally blazed down the course with a time of 2:32.33. Memmelaar raced home second in 2:36.00 and Ben Moody (Rhino Bike Works) rounded out the podium with a 2:38.39
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Results
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Men
#
Rider Name (Country) Team
Result
1
Neko Mulally (Specialized Team America)
0:02:32.33
2
Jason Memmelaar (Hayes/5 ten/Manitou/Smith)
0:00:03.67
3
Ben Moody (Rhino Bike Works)
0:00:06.06
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Women
#
Rider Name (Country) Team
Result
1
Dawn Bourque (Rhino Bike Works)
0:03:19.15
2
Karen Eagan (Samuel Adams)
0:00:07.48
3
Stephanie Gubernat (Cutters Bike Shop/VerticalEarth)
Sue George is an editor at Cyclingnews. She coordinates all of the site's mountain bike race coverage and assists with the road, 'cross and track coverage.
