Mock Orange Bikes Pro Mountain Bike Team

Mock Orange’s Alex Ryan reports: This weekend wrapped up another US National Mountain Bike Championship at Bear Creek Resort, Macungie, Pennsylvania. The Mock Orange Boys assumed that it would be a wet and rainy weekend but the result was anything but, hot weather and dry dusty trails met all the riders.

Bear Creek and their staff had created one of the toughest courses to ever hold a National Championship. The trail was a short three-mile loop with plenty of climbing and descending and enough rocks to build a small country. Classic east coast riding that was rewarding the people who could ride it smoothly and destroying the ones who could not.

Race day was a bit cooler than the rest of the week, but the temperatures were still in the nineties. Since the weather was going to play a big part of the race Tristan started hard to gain ground on the other riders who were pacing themselves in the heat. After settling into the top twenty he started to pick off riders every lap on the technical course. Stay cool and avoiding the wheel eating rocks was the name of the game. Tristan finished in 13th place. A great weekend and a very well organized event made for some spantabulous racing. The King Kahunas were ripping up the climbs and smashing berms on the descents.

Alex had a great start sitting in the top 30. After the first climb, the race began to break apart. In the first wooded section, riders had to deal with a few bottleneck traffic jams. On the second and third lap, Alex began to fade due to the increased heat while Tristan picked off riders left and right.

After a hot Cross-country, Super-D was up next. On Sunday Morning, Alex took part in the Super-D National Championships. The course consisted of a 3.3-mile rocky descent with a small climb in the middle of the run. The race started at 9 am with temperatures in the low 80′s. Alex had a clean run in the upper rock garden section. After the small mid race climb, the trail descended into the lower portion of twisty single-track that had riders traversing even more rock gardens. After the final section of rocks, the final small climb sent riders into open ski slope then to the finish. Alex rolled the King Kahuna and grabbed 10th.