With only a few short weeks left before the World Championships in Mont Saint Anne, a small contingent of RPM riders headed to one of the last qualifying events for the U.S. Junior squad in Northstar-at-Tahoe, California. The RPM crew consisted of Andy Proctor, Evan Chute, and Trevor Trinkino, and our posse was rounded out by Evan Powell from the Yeti Support Team and former RPM rider Teddy Benge, now riding for Team Geronimo . After an "uneventful" all-nighter drive, we arrived at the resort just after noon on Thursday and were greeted with clear blue skies and the bustle of an event getting underway.

First item on the agenda: a track walk with Yeti rider and Northstar local shredder Tyler Immer. As we expected, Tyler knew every turn, rock, jump, root, and obstacle on the track and the fastest way around or over each one. Although Tyler was out with a broken wrist, he was a great help to the race effort and got us dialed in on the track quickly. Second item: Pit space. Yeti Cycles styled us out with a couple of 10x10 tents and a bike stand, and although we missed the comfort of the RPM trailer it was awesome to have a place to wash and work on bikes, as well as chill out in the shade under the hot Cali sun.Once we were all settled with that, we checked in toour cond, just above Northstar's new village, and got some rest for the long weekend ahead.

Qualification runs were Friday afternoon, after a full day of practice, with finals to go down on Sunday. Friday morning saw the best track conditions of the weekend, with an overnight rain turning the otherwise dry, dusty track to hero traction. Although not extremely technical, the track offered lots of great turns, some really fun jumps, and a fair bit of pedalling. By the time quali's rolled around, Andy and Trevor were feeling pretty solid on the track and headed up to give 'er heck. Both of themn posted up solid qualifying results, Andy with an 8th and Trevor with a 4th, both less than 15 seconds off the fastest qualifier. In Trevor's words...

After qualifying, Andy and Trevor knew they both had some work cut out for them to find some time out on the track, so first thing Saturday we were back out there dialing in lines and running laps. Our plan was to use Evan Chute's GPS to time some laps, but an unfortunate slip of the finger sent the unit hurtling Earth-ward off the chairlift. Ah well, more laps for Andy and Trevor, and some bushwacking under the lift for Evan. Good thing this was a JUNIOR qualifying event, eh?

When Sunday rolled in, the track had really been ridden hard and was getting pretty blown out. The rain showers of Friday had not repeated since, so there was no moisture holding the dry soil together. A dusty, loose track combined with the elevation and a blazing sun made us feel right at home, everything seemed quite familiar to our regular Colorado stomping grounds. Both Andy and Trevor slayed their finals runs and took several seconds off their qualifying times, despite the slightly slower conditions of Sunday. Although both riders went faster in the finals, Andy slipped into 14th overall, while Trevor managed to squeak into the top 10 with an 8th place finish.

While these weren't quite the results Trevor and Andy were looking to get, both riders came away with a great experience of racing "on the road" against a stacked field of local racers shredding their home terrain. Solid qualifying runs from both RPM'ers show that the pace is there, and we're learning from the experience and moving forward to the next qualifying race, the National Championships in SolVista, CO.