Diablo Series #3

8/7-8/8/2010 was the third race of the Diablo Domination series and what a weekend it was!

Saturday kicked off Giant Slalom with a 2 person battle for 1st in the Pro Class. George Ryan setting the time to beat. Memmelaar came down only .26 behind GR but unfortunately couldn't make up that time in the 2nd heat. GR taking Gold with Memmelaar going home with silver.

The Downhill track on saturday was not liked by many people, if any at all. The track was super dry and loose due to lack of mother nature (rain). There was lots of rocks and trees on the track, riders really had to pick and choose their lines and dial them in for Sundays final. I personally found myself having a hard time getting up to race pace on the track since it was so dry and loose, but I put that behind me sunday morning and came out with a new mind set. Found new lines and had to dial them in quick before my race run. Felt pretty confident going into the final so I kept those new lines!

Second rider down Diablo's rocky race course was your man... Jason Memmelaar setting the bar high with a 2:16 and change... wow! Jason had a good run but didnt think it would hold for very long, Diablo's very own George Ryan came thru with a 2:18, Jason is sitting a bit more comfy now on his SDG hot seat! Not to far after was Dennis Yuroshek with a 2:25 a solid run putting him in 7th overall. Alex Moschitti laid down a 2:26 sending him into 9th for the race. Overall Jason took 2nd in Slalom and 1st in DH putting him 1st overall in DH and 2nd in the combined overall. Yuroshek sitting in a hott 5th overall at the moment.

Big thanks to all our sponsors couldnt do it without you guys!!

Hate to say this but Chris "big higgs" Higgerson will no longer be with the Giant/HBG Team for the remainder of the season, due to breaking agreed contract.

Crankworx Colorado DS and DH

7/27-8/1/2010 kicked off Crankworx Colorado, Team captain Jason Memmelaar was the only rider from the team to represent Giant/HBG and he did in BIG ways! Jason killed it in dual slalom taking home a sweet 1st place and 1,000 bucks in his pocket live via the interweb! Later on that week was the DH race, Jason didnt have such a hot seeding run with a wreck... Come race time the skies opened up and pissed on the last few of the fastest seeded racers making the track that much harder and slower to say the least. Jason had a stellar run in the rain and put in a solid 2nd place on his Giant Glory. Jason is very stoked and said "Colorado left a sweet taste in my mouth!" What I think he meant was pocket! Taking home another $1500 for 2nd place DH, Congrats Memmelaar!

Photos by Dean Henthorn

Blue Mountain VEGG #3

July, 25 2010, Palmerton, PA. is where the racers gathered for this past weekends DH race. Blue Mountain Pa. held its 2nd DH race this year and it was a GOOD one! It had rained on Friday night and soaked the course nicely throughout Saturdays practice and remained greasy for Sundays race... MINT! Mihalick and Moschitti were rippin Saturdays practice while Yuroshek was on his way out late in the evening. With Memmelaar out in Colorado getting in some Mid season training after the US Nationals, and Vaughan setting his sights on the overall for the GES finals (currently tied for 1st) he was staying local and practicing the sugar bush race course for this weekends race. Short showing for Giant/HBG but we held it down in the pits and on the slopes! Yuroshek and Hayes Bicycle Group (HBG) teamed up and donated a pair of Answer Pedals to be raffled off to help Kathy Pruitt in her road to recovery after crashing hard at nationals and being in the hospital for the past 2 weeks. Together with other sponsors Dan at Blue Mountain gathered 600 dollars for Kathy! Get well soon!

Sundays practice was MINT, the riders were loving it, fast, loose, off camber, rocky, drops, roots, greasy, sick turns and steep.... what more can you ask for on a DH course?? Yuroshek crashed hard in his last practice run, luckily his face broke his fall, Thanks TLD for making amazing helmets!!! Come race time and our very own Moschitti was the first Pro rider on course setting the time to beat with a 3:01.... which didnt hold for long he later took a 5th. Geritt Beytagh was soon the next pace setter and would remain throughout the pro field. Yuroshek bumped a tree in his race run and went down again. He crossed the line with a 3:11 which put him in 8th, not very happy with that but he had fun regardless. Mihalick didn't play his cards right and was to conservative during his run which didn't place him on the Cat1 podium. Bummer for the boys this weekend, no podiums for Giant/HBG but as a family we had lots of fun!

June 12th Video edit

Check it out! Newest video from DFY and friends shredding at Diablo Freeride Park!

Riders:

Carolynn Lavigne

Dan and Joe Carmia

Myself using the GoPro HD helmet cam!

http://www.vimeo.com/12572712

Diablo Video 6/6/2010

Sunday June 6th was a weird one... went from beautiful sunny skies to DARK gnarly lookin clouds, 40mph winds and rain coming in from every angle, back to beautiful sunny skies.

Check out the video I filmed with my GoPro HD mounted to the top of my TLD lid.

http://vimeo.com/12367700

2010 US Open Of Mountain Biking

Vernon, NJ- The US Open of MTB just went down on Memorial day weekend at the wonderful Diablo Freeride Park. The 5 day event was huge, starting on Wednesday May 25th and rolling all the way thru to Sunday the 30th. The US Open brings people and top level riders from around the world. Many world champions where in attendance this past weekend and so were the riders from Giant/HBG trying to take on some of the fastest. 140 riders signed up for the PRO class and only the top 50 would make the show. Jason Memmelaar and Gavin Vaughan were top dogs from the team that made it to sunday, Jason Qualified 39th and Gavin tied in 23rd. Alex Moschitti placed 53rd and Chris Higgerson took 55th just missing the 50 cut a mer 2 seconds.

Sunday... Race day, the weather was beautiful, bright sunny skies and 80 degree temps to make some amazing race weather. Sunday qualified riders are run in reverse order from slowest quali time to fastest. Jason was the 11th pro to drop in on the course and crossed the line with a 2:27.26. Jason said he had a "stellar smooth" run which put him in the hot seat for the next 18 riders putting him in 13th!! Gavin didnt have much luck ripping his derailleur off during his run and leaving him to coast and pump his way into 38th, sorry Shooter!

Overall Giant/HBG had a great weekend and would like to thank all of our sponsors. Giant Bicycles, Hayes, Manitou, Sun Ringle, Wheelsmith spokes, Answer, Diablo Freeride Park, Freelap, Troy Lee Designs, GoPro.com, SDG, KMC, 5.10, Works components, Smith optics, E.13 components and ODI Grips.

West Milford, NJ- May 8th and 9th kicked off Round #1 of the Diablo Gravity Series in Vernon, New Jersey. Saturday morning started off with a 25 minute rain shower which watered the Downhill and Giant Slalom track perfectly for us! Thanks rain! Downhill and GS practice is ripping till about 12:45pm for the GS start.

Our Captain Jason Memmelaar was competing in PRO. Jason had a solid 1st run on his Giant Trance X but wasn't happy with his time. For Jason's 2nd run he opted to give his trusty Giant Glory equipped with his Manitou Dorado a shot at the GS track, bike ripped but still couldn't lay down a top 3 time so Jason took 4th in PRO slalom for the day.

Yuroshek dislocated his thumb during a training accident on thursday evening. Spent friday icing it for the big weekend... Saturday rolled around and he only did about 3 practice runs and was taking it easy, "hurt just holding on to the handle bars" said Yuroshek. No Giant Slalom for him this year, he wants to concentrate on DH instead.

Mihalick showed up a bit late for saturday practice and by the time he showed (1pm) the Winds were so strong they shut the lift down. So no practice for Mihalick on saturday.

Chris Higgerson and Gavin Vaughan spent their weekend up north practicing on local tracks and dialing in their suspension even more for the PRO GRT coming up in the next few weeks at Plattekill Mountain.

Alex Moschitti twisted his right ankle pretty good while doing some DH training runs with Yuroshek on Wednesday afternoon. "My ankle feels pretty good but i want it to be 100% for the PRO GRT and the US Open in a few short weeks" said Moschitti.

Sunday May 9th the riders showed up to a lift that was not running... The Winds were still rippin thru the mountains causing the lift operators to keep the lift off. The parking lots were full of egger bike riders, Diablo's staff told us to sit tight... Around 1pm the winds died and the lift started up. Riders had 2 hours to dial in their race lines since race started at 2:45 sharp! Jason Memmelaar had a clean run and held down another 4th place in PRO. While his Team Manager Dennis Yuroshek came in 9th place PRO. PJ Mihalick got held up in his race run by a lapped rider, luckily the top 5 riders got re-runs. Mihalick took a 5th place and is not to happy about his run, he feels like he should be up on the podium box and not watching from the crowd.

GES Round #1 Massanutten, VA

May 1st, 2010 was the first round of the Gravity East Series (GES) in Massanutten, VA. It was the first time the whole team got together at a race and for the first time the pits/bikes/jerseys were all put together... We have created a monster team. Everyone on the team gets along amazing and we all have awesome personalities (one of the big reasons why I picked the riders who that I did).

The Bikes worked awesome, besides all the flats that we got this weekend, not just the team but all 263 people that raced. It was great to see all the East Coast racers again and they were all stoked to see Jason and I back on the East Coast where the real racing is at.

Jason Memmelaar took 2nd in pro behind former 2008 national DH Champ Gerrit Baytagh. Jason was lookin fast all weekend coming from his first race at the ProGRT race in Port Angeles WA. Jason finished with a 29th there, not what he had in mind but thats racing.

Gavin Vaughan took a solid 4th place this weekend and really opened peoples eyes! Kid has pure talent dripping off him like the syrup dripping off the trees in vermont. SICK! Be on the look out for this kid, he is going to do big things.

Alex Moschitti and Chris higgerson were looking fast in practice but couldn't lay down a good time come race.

PJ Mihalick took a solid 3rd in the Cat 1 class.

Dennis "Ironman" Yuroshek Raced both OPEN and Pro. In Open He pinch flatted at the top of the course but kept the wheels turning and some how air held till the end for a 1st place finish (17th fastest overall in the day). Pro run was not so hot, went off course and crashed, and just had nothing left in the tank. The 90+ degree heat soaked it all up on him and on everyone else as well.

Overall 4 out of 6 Giant/HBG riders on the podium!

check out some of the pics of the team.

* Alex Moschitti took the front page of Declinemagazine.com

* Jason Memmelaar has pictures on Pinkbike.com and Declinemagazine.com

*Team got GREAT exposure this weekend and we are going to keep it rolling all season.

Thanks to all the amazing people that helped put this stunning team together!

Self edited film from DFY

check out the newest video I created today. Filming by DFY, riding by DFY, editing by DFY. enjoy.

http://www.vimeo.com/10363688

5.10 shoes are RADD

Check out the new 5.10s that the team just received!! Most amazing riding shoe in the world, if you dont own a pair of 5.10's get some STAT! Super comfy, stylish, strong, durable and most importantly grippy!!

69'ing with friends video

Here is a video I put together of the east coast crew (besides matti the SDer) riding a local spot here in SoCal.

enjoy.

http://www.vimeo.com/10289860

April Issue of Decline Magazine

Check out the April edition of Decline Magazine where you will find a nice write up on Diablo Freeride Park and a photo of yours truly Dennis Yuroshek on page 66.

Check out this new video project that six3events put together

Mike Lord of six3events is starting a new project, Mike had 5 HD video camera's out and recording the Final Fontana race this past weekend. I had helmet cam footage of my race run and sent it to Mike for his project, and this is what it looks like!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGmFYukrEAQ

Video came out awesome and really shows the whole entire race course! Good job Mike and thanks for the unique race video!

Secret 69 teaser

Watch Secret 69 teaser in HD!

http://www.vimeo.com/10096702

Fontana Race 5

This past weekend was the 5th and final race of the Fontana winter series. Team mate Jason Memmelaar decided to join in on the festivities. The top half of the course was pretty rad, nice flowly sections with rocks. The 2nd half was less than desirable with a few uphill sections and long pedally parts. Memmelaar dug deep and pulled out a respectable 5th place with only 2 weeks of riding before hand, can you say natural? or is he just good? or both??? Yuroshek held down 25th place again, ready for some real DH and not super D.

Photos by Dale Hernandez