Photo gallery from the first two days of competition at the Sol Vista National Championships.
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Words & photos by Patrick Branch
Wednesday afternoon, I arrived at Denver where my friend Zach Griffith picked me up. The next morning, we were off to Sol Vista. We got here at about 9:30, enough time for me to get a few practice runs on the amateur course.
"Cat 1, 2, and 3 are on one course and the pro's are on their own. The amateur course has lots of silt with rocks. The upper sections has two big drops on the upper part and the lower, a 35 foot double. The Pro course has more silt covered jumps and then three big jumps below (with a much slower alternate route). Most of the top and mid level Pro men are hitting them. Lisa Myklak, Jackie Harmony, and Jen Wolf were probably the only Pro women sending them. Today, it got windy...as if they weren't scary enough. I shot pro downhill the last two days. Tomorrow is the 4x qualifying and finals for pro's. Then pro downhill is Sunday.
Unknown rider barhumping the first of the three huge jumps.
A view of Sol Vista from the top.
Riders at the start gate to practice the course.
Riders thought they were at the beach on this step down. The lip and landing were sand. Most riders have been rolling it.
Mark Clemens didn't roll it. He threw a tabletop over it instead.
Lisa Myklak through a loose rockgarden in the middle of the course.
Phil Wheeler
Curtis Keene is looking fast as usual.
The sandy hip gap.
Pits, late afternoon on Thursday.
Melissa Buhl on the first section of the course. After two days of practice on it, it's a silty, rutted rockgarden.
TJ Sharp was wearing a skin suit today to slice through the air with minimum air resistance.
Brad Benedict comming into a rockgarden in the middle of the course.
J.D. Swanguen looks like a motocross racer straight out of the 80's.
Logan Binggeli attacking this rockgarden.
Mikey Haderer passing riders thinking about hitting the big jumps.
Michael Johnson, a recently turned pro out of Santa Barbara was hitting the first two. He'll probably be hitting the last one as well tomorrow.
Wind was quite a factor today with the big jumps. A big gust came when this Canondale rider hit the second jump. I wasn't sure if he was going to crash so I jumped down as I took this. Fortunately he rode it out.
Kyle Strait seems to be at home on these jumps.
Stay tuned for continued coverage of the Sol Vista National Championships on Ridemonkey!