UNR - Sky Tavern

Results are posted. Another great race weekend, keep it up!

Crossing the border into Nevada, heading towards Reno, the elevation gain begins to rise rather quickly. At 7,000 feet we arrive at the quaint sky park called Sky Tavern and check out a bit of the cross country course before settling in for the night. After some very late arrivals (UCSB and a broken down team van) it was an early rise to the brisk morning air.

Photo courtesy Will Scheel

The day opened with cross country hitting the course with Men A’s. The course starts with a long accent up the fire road with sweeping views of the “Biggest Little City in the World”. After reaching the top of the ski run, riders snaked down through a mixture of narrow single track, sandy descents, and fast fire roads to the finish line. UNR’s own Trevor DeRuise (Men’s A) took an impressive 1st place followed by Steven Pearl from HSU in a grueling three lap finish, While Cal Poly SLO’s Maren Cosens placed 1st for Women’s A.

Dual Slalom was next on the list in the afternoon, accompanied with a nice increase in temperature. Aren’t those of us on the West Coast so lucky? Just a short walk from the top of the peak was the very newly made slalom course. With tight turns the course opens at the bottom making for a race to middle of the slalom for the best position. The right side of the course proved to be a bit more of a challenge for some of the riders with a banked turn with a lot of wash out, taking with it some of the competition. UNR’s own team President Casey Coffman (Men’s A) wiped out the competition in an impressive show for first place, followed by team mate Trevor Thomassen and the infamous Bobby Zidek from Chico for third. Ariana Altier (Chico) and Laura Brayfield (CSUS) displayed an impressive battle for 1st and 2nd, respectfully.

Sunday, the conclusion to an awesome weekend opened with Short Track, a mix of road and dirt making it a fast, fast competition. Men’s A Steven Pearl (HSU), Paul Summers (Stanford) and Ben Palmer (UCD) took the first three places respectively while the women’s A field, small but strong, was lead out by Eileen Mazzochette of Stanford followed by Erica Greif (UNR) and Elizabeth Solomon (UCB). Last up we ventured back up the ski lift to the start of the Down Hill course, proving to be a challenge. “It’s like a double black diamond run at Northstar” one rider stated as he headed back up the mountain for one last pre-ride. The very fast, steep and sandy course left many riders stepping out of the competition. Regardless it was a very impressive show from Alfonso Garcia (SDSU) and Casey Coffman (UNR) finishing a close 2.8 seconds apart.