THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Big Bear: Carter doubles up with downhill win
Quick, in the long illustrious mountain-bike racing career of Eric Carter, how many big-time downhill races has the American won? Got your answer? Well if you said anything but zero before this weekend, you would have been wrong. But Carter changed that on the steep slopes of Snow Summit Resort on Sunday, earning the first major downhill victory of his career.
In doing so the Hyundai-Mongoose rider ended a long slump for U.S. riders that dated back to Myles Rockwell's win at the 2000 world championships. The last NORBA DH win for an American male was at round No. 2 in 2000 (also Rockwell).
Carter’s win came at the expense of Steve Peat (Royal Orange) and Chris Kovarik (Intense), who were both less than a second back of his winning mark of 3:22.77.
“I thought for sure I had a chance in the mountain cross, but I had no clue I could come in here and win today,” said Carter, who became just the third man (Brian Lopes and Mick Hannah are the others) to sweep both gravity races at a NORBA national weekend.
Carter had a lengthy list of reasons for his recent success, the primary being marriage to his longtime girlfriend Laura last fall and the impending birth of their first child in November.
“It’s helped really put things in perspective for me,” said the 33-year-old. “I’m a ton more relaxed right now, just having fun racing my bike.”
Peat, who injured his wrist in his final practice run of the morning, settled for second, with Kovarik, Sam Hill (Iron Horse-MadCatz), and Mick Hannah (Haro-Lee Dungarees) rounding out the top five.
Over on the women’s side it was Tracy Moseley grabbing victory at the NCS season opener. The Kona-Clarks’ rider had been the second fastest qualifier behind Luna’s Marla Streb, but came back in the final to beat Aussie Tai-Lee Muxlo by just 0.61 seconds.
“This was a tough track for me,” said Moseley, adding that she prefers the muck and mud of here native England to the dusty, loose conditions in Southern California. “It’s a real confidence boost to pull out a win on a course that’s not suited for me.”
Fionn Griffiths (Foes-Azonic), Missy Giove (Foes) and Tara Llanes (Giant-Pearl Izumi) completed the top five.
For all the women, the day’s racing had a black cloud hanging overhead, following the death the day before of Japanese downhiller Haruko Fujinaka, who died after crashing hard during a training run.
“I’ve never been at a race where something like that has happened,” said Moseley. “It really made you reassess the risks we’re taking out here. But we all knew we had to take it out of our mind to do this. It’s the game we choose to play.”
Trek-Volkswagen’s Mio Suemasa, who was good friends with Fujinaka, turned in one of the day’s most courageous efforts. Despite being very broken up about the tragedy, the 20-year-old Japanese rider finished a commendable ninth at Big Bear.
