Silver Star Mountain Resort hosted the penultimate stop on the BC Cup Dowhnhill circuit on the weekend.
Close to 200 of Canada’s top riders competed in the event along with seven Seven Summit Gravity Racers taking to the starting line of the newly revamped course for Round 5 of the BC Cup DH.
Changes to the traditional race course on Dag’s Downhill, which is Silver Star’s most technical double black diamond trail, made the event even more exciting and challenging for expert and beginner racers.
“We have been racing the Dag’s DH course for a number of years,” Cam Sorensen, bike park manager, told the Vernon Morningstar News. “It is still one of the favorite race courses out there, but it was time for a little change.”
Sorenson added a brand new upper section and connected it to the existing track just past the half way point. In the lower section, the Silver Star trail crew opened it up along with other updates.
“We’ll be keeping it wide open and fast, which is the new age style of DH racing,” said Sorensen.
The final BC Cup Downhill event goes in Fernie on Aug. 28.
Results:
Rossland racer Caroline Rouselle led the way, racing to first place in the women’s 30-plus category, while in the boys U15 Ryder Eagleton cruised to an 11th place finish. In the U17 category Fruitvale’s J.T. Bjarnason had another strong race placing seventh in a time of 3:19.54, missing the podium by two seconds and first place by a mere four seconds. Gavin Patterson was not far behind in 10th place, with Logan Merringer finishing 12th in spite of a spectacular crash, and Aiden Brummelhuis in 14th.
In Sport 17-18 boys Max Nutini raced to sixth place, and in Expert U17 Keegan Fry finished in a respectable seventh.
Enduro Series:
The Red Mountain Resort also hosted the Osprey Canadian National Enduro races over the August long weekend. The goal of the series is to promote more competitive, technical, and prestigious races, ultimately, giving Canadian riders a stepping stone to the world-stage. The Rossland race pushed the intensity and the technical aspect running close to 50-kilometres over the rugged Seven Summits terrain that included Whiskey, Cherry Poppins, Crown Point, Redhead, and Paydirt.
Rousselle maintained her strong pace finishing first in the open women, while Ryder Eagleton also topped the podium in Short Course Men U21. Josh Solman came second in the pro Men category, and Ryan Kuhn placed fifth in the 40-49 men. Logan Merringer placed ninth overall in the U15 Men, and Keegan Fry was eighth in the U21 men.
