Fontana Allsorts

Welcome to Southridge Park in Fontana, California for the U.S. Cup #2.

Southridge has a good thing going on with swoopy cross country trails and a pretty decent dh course that has one burly section in the middle. From the top of the hill, you could hear the rumble of the NASCAR race happening just down the road.

Oh boy.

Always good to see John Ker of Mountain Bike Action magazine out on the course. During Sunday’s downhill training he didn’t mind getting quizzed for the blog while shooting and occasionally dodging riders tumbling down the rocks.

Ker started shooting long lens surf photos when he was seventeen years old and continued after that to document the moto, bmx and mountain bike scene all over California and the rest of the U.S.  John told me he turned 60 this year and for the official record does not appear to be slowing down.

Talked to Bryson Martin Jr. in the pits and he said he’s psyched to be riding an Intense M9 frame this year. He’s also riding for Marzocchi, GoPro, Oakley, Shimano and TLD.

Eric Carter was 2nd in the men’s dh. His boys Cole, 4, & Ethan, 7, were proud of their Pa.

Sabrina Jonnier of Team Maxxis Rocky Mountain was happy to get the win in the women’s dh by almost 5 seconds.

Aaron Gwin of Trek World Racing took the men’s dh race. From left: Ruaridh Cunningham (5th), Eric Carter (2nd), Gwin (1st), Jason Memmelaar (3rd) and Logan Binggeli (4th).

Monk the Mechanic and Aaron Gwin.

On Saturday Catharine Pendrel of Luna Chix came flying by on her first lap being chased by the lead moto cameraman. She took the win with teammate Georgia Gould grabbing second.

Emily Batty and Lea Davison came cruising by a few seconds later.  Davison went on to finish 3rd in the xc, 1st in the super d and 2nd in the short track to grab the overall Triple Crown title for the weekend. Batty took fourth in the xc and third in the short track.

Danelle Kabush hit the trails as a tune up for her upcoming Xterra race season.

An hour after the girls race, the lead lead moto came ripping past again… this time getting seriously chased by the pro men’s cross country field.

Ned Overend, 55,  raced with the pro men and was 40th out of 62 finishers. He still has it.

Mad Max Plaxton of Victoria, Vancouver Island won the cross country.

He also won the short track on Sunday.  JHK, left, was second and Jeremiah Bishop was 3rd.

One of the best things about this race is the close proximity to the amazing El Taco Loro.

It’s all here.

Meanwhile back at the Maxxis Rocky Mountain trailer,  Juerg Feldmann of FaCT Canada, was hooking up Kabush to monitor the engine that runs the bicycle.

Testing, testing.

Two of three computers gathering data.

The mountain bike race in Fontana seemed pretty small compared to the NASCAR spectacle down the road  but hey… that’s ok.