Jim Winterer posted this to the UMTA discussion list yesterday. I thought he summarized the last weekend’s US Nationals at Duluth (Rounds 4, 5, 6) well so it’s now a blog post.
Mr. Bear, how’s your back today?
For those on this list who weren’t able to make the nationals in Duluth this weekend, Mr. Bear had a most amazing adventure on “elephant rock” on the second day. It was a long, long way to fall, but somehow he didn’t get more hurt than quite a few extra-large ibuprophens couldn’t cure, and he came back to finish the third national event on Sunday. Bear’s tumble was every bit as spectacular as Dougie Lampkin’s famous get-off during the ’05 world round.
Maybe we should rename “elephant rock” to “Bear’s rock,” like we have named the “my leg, it’s flopping” rock in honor of David McLuckie.
On Sunday, Ben, Brad and Bear wound up riding more or less as a group, with Bubba minding Bear and me minding Ben, and we had a major fun day. After the second loop on the third day, Brad was in a dead tie with another rider, not just for that day, but for the national title for the expert-support class. I never saw Brad ride that well; he pulled off some incredible rides for an amazing 10-point loop and won the national title with a few points to spare! Way to go Brad.
Despite riding in pain, and with a lot of heckling (including many “you idiot” and “you loser”) Bear had some great rides on what was a very challenging support line. Gordy had a great weekend, too, and had a third-place podium finish on Sunday.
Ben found his groove on Sunday and moved up on several riders who had better scores on Friday and Saturday. There was one very large rock at the top of a hill Sunday (Section 8 where Will and Willie were scoring), which was on the expert and pro line. Ben got up it on the first loop, and we learned later he was the only rider (expert or pro) who did that all day.
The Kimmicks were well-represented on the podium for the youth trials!
Dale from Gas-Gas told me at the end of the day that the three-day national at Duluth was one of the best national events he has ever ridden, and Dale has ridden plenty. That is a major compliment. So congrats to Steve and Diane and Sara and all those who put in so much time and effort to make it happen. My brother Mark got a special award for all the time and effort he put into helping with the sections, and on top of that he and Laurie checked sections all three days.
Lots of UMTA members were up there helping or riding. All in all it was a pretty amazing weekend. The Aerostich company in Duluth celebrated its 25th anniversary with a rally that was held right at Spirit Mountain, so there was this very interesting mix of road riders and trials riders. There were hundreds of road riders at the rally (not sure exactly how many, but maybe 1,000 over the weekend), and many were camped up on the top of the ski hill. Some of them pitched tents like six inches from the loop trail. I didn’t hear that anyone got run over, so that was good.
The only gripe I had was that at the end of the national awards ceremony, Bear didn’t yell out: “It was another great day for (men, women, girls and boys) in tights.”
