Sun Valley rocks, rolls and rides
Local rider and blogger (runjunkie.net) Hank Dart posted this picture of his Galena Grinder ride on Lockerz.com
The second annual Ride Sun Valley Mountain Bike Festival rode hard and fast into Central Idaho this weekend. Day 1, Saturday, featured the grueling Galena Grinder. One of the longest running gut-wrenchers in the country, the race has been a showcase of the area’s great mountain biking for over twenty years. A 45 mile cross-country marathon, the Galena Grinder Whit Henry Memorial was the official kick off to the festival, which runs through Sunday, July 8, culimating in the USA Cycling Mountain Bike Cross-Country National Championships.
For those who couldn’t be here to join in Saturday’s fun VisitSunValley turned around this amazing video of highlights from the day, almost as good as being there:
And here’ another great video with the skinny on Sunday’s Super Duper D: Super Duper Downhill 7.1.2012 from Visit Sun Valley on Vimeo.
The big news on Saturday, according to Shannon Boffeli at MTBracenews.com, was the presence of California-based team Sho-Air at The Grinder. “Several of the Sho-Air riders chose the marathon event as part of their national championship preparation,” he wrote in his detailed review of the day’s riding and results. “The men’s race included Sho-Air teammates Brendon Davids and Eric Bostrom as well as other national-level big hitters like Jason Siegle (SDG) and Drew Edsall (Kenda/Felt).” Team Sho-Air posted some great pictures of the day on their Facebook page and USA Cycling also posted this review of the day’s race.
Team Sho-Air turned up from California to sweep the Grinder and posted this picture on Facebook
Grinder winner Pua Mata (of Team Sho-Air) broadcast her thoughts on twitter:
@moniquepua Just finished the Galena Grinder and was able to take the win! It was definitely a grinder…but such gorgeous country and great race!
While Sun Valley locals haven’t been the quickest to jump on the social media bandwagon, there are some forward-thinking ladies and gentleman who are broadcasting the fun to the twitter-sphere and facebook-verse and the Festival picked up a fair amount of activity this weekend. Sun Valley’s unofficial social media maven and current Master’s XC mountain biking world champion, Rebecca Rusch (@TheQueenOfPain), kept her followers up with the details on The Grinder and Sunday’s Super Duper D on Baldy:
“Galena Grinder XC by rebarusch at Garmin Connect – Details:http://bit.ly/MmeLJ1 Our local XC race in Idaho. Hard and fun.”
“EPIC weekend planned with Galena Grinder and Super Duper D. Full suspension, Reverb and fat tires. FATE has the weekend off”
“Sun Valley Super Duper D by rebarusch at Garmin Connect – Details: http://bit.ly/MmeANV Tall socks, Reverb seat post and baggies! So FUN”
“Smooth is fast! That’s my mantra for today’s super duper D in sun valley.”
We also got a glimpse of the Queen on her way up the mountain:
Pro mountain bike racer Yuri Hauswald tweeted "Hanging w/ @thequeenofpain on the Christmas Lift, on our way to #sunvalley Super Duper D." pic.twitter.com/9SZIDNyq
Facebook was busy after the day’s energies were expended, with competitors such as Matt McCourtney, Drew Edsall and Michael Shaw taking the site to dish on their day. See their posts and other tweets on this Storify I whipped up.
The Festival is well underway and there’s a slew of events and activities to keep competitors and spectators busy this week. The Sun Family will be diving in too. This evening we’ll check out the Idaho Pump Track State Championships at the Ketchum Bike Park. Mr. Sun might try his brand-spanking-second-hand mountain bike out at some Local Stoker Rides (starting tomorrow), and we’ll all head up for the Fat Tire Criterium Tuesday evening. I’m pondering signing Little Sun up for the Kids Race on July 6 (that is if I can teach him how to ride a bike with pedals by then). But the Sun Valley Shakedown on July 7 sounds like more my single-speed (and keeps me on two feet rather than two wheels).
For a complete rundown on everything happening visit Ride Sun Valley.
Happy trails!
Mrs. Sun