RACING NEWS |
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Team Morewood - Good News and Bad NewsNorba #2
 This popular ski resort based deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Boone NC hosted the 2nd NORBA NMBS event for 2006. What a change from the dry dusty conditions of the 1st NORBA held at the Fontana Southridge Park location in Southern California. Downhill riders arriving for their first practice session on Thursday 8 June were met with misting rain and a course that looked more like a muddy river bed than a national DH course. Technically, if courses were rated 1 for easy and 9 for extreme, Sugar would be close to 9 and the wet made certain sections almost unridable. Crashes abounded and not a single rider came down from the mountain without bruises and grass stains. Pits were a hive of activity changing tires to spikes and dusting off the wet weather gear. All the talk was about the "waterfall", a treacherous 15ft vertical drop at the top of the course that had an almost impossible approach, an intimidating set of rocks that were bound to claim a few riders. In the wet, this was only being attempted by the most skilled or plain crazy riders. Friday dawned mostly sunny and warm and so it stayed for most of the weekend except for a sudden thunder storm that halted the pro dual slalom and sent the riders and spectators running for cover as lightning struck the nearby ski-lift. With the course drying out rapidly it was off with the spikes and back to dry weather tires for the rest of the weekend. Pro qualifying was on the Saturday and Sam Hill gave a convincing demonstration on what was to come by qualifying 1st from fellow antipodean Justin Leov. The Morewood riders did well with Cole Bangert and Joanna Pettersen both qualifying 5th in their pro classes. Now for the bad news; 2 of our top riders were out of this race, with Lisa Mykak sidelined with a badly bruised shoulder and Geritt Beytagh sadly out of this year's Norba with a broken shoulder blade from a fall on the Dual Slalom course. By the afternoon, the course had dried out and had turned from a scary-dangerous course in the wet to a challenging-fun course in the dry. The Pro women came down the mountain first with young Tracey Hannah showing great form by beating Sabrina Jonnier into 1st place with Joanna coming in with a great 4th Place. Cole was hoping for his first NORBA podium and achieved this with a faultless run to get 4th place to put him on the podium with fellow US rider Duncan Riffle. Predictably, Sam Hill absolutely blew away the competition with run that was 14 seconds faster than 2nd placed New Zealander, Justin Leov. With Joanna's 4th place in the women's Dual Slalom, Morewood had three podium places for the weekend, adding to the previous six from the 1st Norba in Fontana and the US Open. |
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