By Max Beard

Round 4 of the 2008 National Mountain Bike Series was held at the Deer Valley Resort, one of Park City’s three resorts. Park City is one of the major resort towns in Utah. Residing about thirty miles east of Salt Lake City, this old mining town is one of the wealthiest cities in the U.S. It has been a classic Mountain Biking destination since the 90’s. The Skiing and Snowboarding events from the 2002 Winter Olympics were held there as well, so this town is a big deal!  Mother nature greeted us with clear blue skies everyday and hot, hot heat! The event brought gravity racers to race their classic downhill course, and a Dual Slalom course for the gated racing event.

The downhill course was very interesting. If I had to describe it in one word, it would be “LOOSE!” Racers wound through slippery gravel trails, to the constantly changing “Barney Rubble,” and “Bam-Bam” rock sections, a crazy “Bedrock Drop,” and finally, a traverse through steep switchbacks covered with inches of sandy topsoil. The trail sections all had a Flintstone theme name, which was very cool! Clip-less pedals were a rare sight. Most racers were running flat pedals because they were constantly planting feet in the loose conditions. As the days went on, more racers were spotted outside the Shimano tape in arm slings, braces, with swollen limbs, and even sporting the classic “band-aids!” However on a lighter note, it was a blast! As risky as the track was, it was a lot of fun! That is how Downhill should be, right? Kudos to the guys that made it happen this year!

The Dual Slalom track was…. well… after all a slalom track! Berms, flat turns, doubles, and an awesome Moto-style whoops feature on the last straight. We all had a chair lift view of the Yeti factory boys KILLING IT in practice during our downhill runs.  The track was short, so the finishes were close. Bergen and I could not stay to watch the finals due to our conflicting schedule, so the cowbell stayed in the gear bag.  However, I am sure the racing was super sick!

“It was for sure a new experience. There aren't any courses like Deer Valley in the Mountain States Cup. I had an ok race run, mainly trying to just survive and make it through without any broken bones or internal bleeding. I'm glad I went though for sure; I learned a lot.” –Bergen Tjossem

“My race run was good and bad. I hit the top stuff the best I ever have like Little Niagara, but I went over the bars in Barney Rubble and again in the first turn in those steep ones at the bottom. In the left-hander that was all rooted out. I hit a root clod funny and got pitched about thirty feet down the hill and had to hike/climb back up the hill and find my bike and the trail again. I lost a lot of time there. I hit everything else fast and clean. I crashed my way into 21st, not the greatest finish. That’s about it for that. You could say it was ridiculously gnarly and scary, but I though it was fun. Yeti had a good weekend with Kevin Aiello winning Jr. X by 12 seconds and Leov winning by 6 seconds with Sam and Aaron scoring 3rd and 4th.” –Sam Stevens

What a weekend! I had a pretty clean race run and ended up in 4th place! The results seemed confusing at first because my run didn’t feel quite fast enough to make the podium, but oh well that’s racing. I really enjoyed my first visit to Park City, and hopefully they will have more races there in the future. Many thanks to Bergen’s parents for all the food and hospitality! You guys are awesome! What a great experience and a great ride! See you guys at the next race!

–Max Beard