Project 529 Rides Angel Fire

June 2, 2009 on 1:11 pm | In Mountain Biking | 5 Comments

It was a long trip, but Eric Loney, Darrell Jamieson and Chase Jamieson made it worthwhile.

The trio – supported by Ryan Hicks and Sam Loney – traveled to Angel Fire, New Mexico, to compete in the Chile Challenge, one of three qualify events in U.S. Cycling’s pro gravity series. The Chile Challenge is also part of the Mountain States Cup Championship Series. The event took place from May 21-24.

Chase competed in the Junior 12 and Under 4X and finished 3rd.

Riding the same course that was used for the 2007 World Cup, Darrell finished 3rd in CAT 1 Downhill, which saw riders descend from 10,000 feet to 8,000 feet in just over five minutes. “The course was gnarly,” he said. “I can’t believe my bike came away unscathed.”

During his DH run, Jamieson caught the rider who had gated 30 seconds ahead of him. “I screamed for him to get out of the way until it finally turned to cussing.” 

He made a move near the end to finish in the third position, four seconds behind the second-place finisher.

Jamieson also raced Super D but ran into a small problem. “I fell down as we ran to our bikes off the start and took off dead last among 28 riders,” he said. ”I worked my up and finished 8th. When I reached the finish, Eric said, ‘Good job – but you raced in the wrong class.’”

It was actually the 19-29 CAT 1 group. “I thought those guys looked young.”

As tough as the CAT 1 course was, the pro course was even more vicious. “It was a rock minefield,” Darrell said. “I’ve never seen so many guys carried off on stretchers.”

Eric crashed during the qualifying run and was 55th. He had a solid run in the finals and finished 40th out of 112 pro DHers.

“To tell you the truth,” Loney said, “I rode like a 12-year-old school girl. I think I got my skirt caught in the chain. I have some things I need to work on before we go back.”

Great vid - production credit to Ryan Hicks – below the photos at the bottom of this page.