AUGUST 27, 2009 ISSUE
Hawksnest Mountain Bike Race a Success
New Venue Attracting Athletes to High Country
Sean Pepin of Banner Elk placed seventh in the Masters category at the inaugural Dirty Bird Downhill race this past weekend at Hawksnest Resort.
Professional mountain bikers came from all over the East Coast to participate in the inaugural Dirty Bird Downhill race this past weekend at Hawksnest Resort, competing on a new course designed by local national champions.
The race attracted 137 professional and amateur contestants. The top five professional racers in the women’s and men’s division took home $2,000 in cash prizes and the amateur classes garnered prizes contributed by the competition’s sponsors.
“Wildly successful,” said Lenny Cottom, owner of Hawksnest Resort. “The turnout,--over 300 people including spectators—exceeded our expectations. Every pro rider I talked to praised the course. I’m happy for Liam.”
Cottom is referring to his long-time employee Liam Carey, an avid bike downhill racer who enjoyed seeing his dream of building a downhill race course at Hawksnest come true this weekend. With Cottom’s blessing in March of this year, Carey teamed with Andrew Mueller and Mike Thomas to design and construct the course. Thomas, an ASU senior from Greensboro, is a National College Downhill Mountain Bike Champion. His roommate, Mueller of Greenville, S.C., is a top-five finisher at the nationals. The two are top guns for the ASU Mountain Bike Team, NCAA Division II Champions, and will assist ASU in defending its championship in Lake Tahoe, Calif. in October.
“It’s a huge success for us,” Carey said. “Everyone praised the course, saying that it’s tough and the best around. The course held-up to a deluge of rain, it drained like we had hoped when designing it. I want to thank all the volunteers and sponsors for their dedication and long hours of work”.
Maybe the best news for Carey, the High Country tourist industry and lovers of downhill mountain bike racing are endorsing plans for additional races. On September 26, Hawksnest will host an ASU downhill race and the second professional Dirty Bird challenge is now planned for Halloween. Carey said that he was most thrilled by the prospect of having a lift-served bike park in the future.
Transition Bikes of Bellingham, Wash.; Sycamore Cycles of Ashville; Recycles Bike Shop of Greensboro; Eastern Bikes of Cary; Boone Bike and Touring; Music on the Mountaintop; Red Bull; Industry of Nine Components; Specialized Tires; and Hawksnest Resort sponsored the race.
The race course at Hawksnest is not open to the public at any time; only registered participants of an event can ride the course. For information about future races, email dirtybirddhrace@gmail.com. To view a video of the course, click to http://vimeo.com/5570547.
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