 |
| Who is the team with the biggest space? Oh, that's us...Team iXS Unique. |
Dual Slalom Woes...
 |
| Mikey's DS ride. Check out all the Slalom bikes on VitalMTB |
In the dual slalom, Sick Mick qualified 1st, Fabien 12th, Mikey 17th, and Jackie in 5th.
Fabien’s 8th
final was against Kyle Strait. Fabien
was on a very good run, they were elbow to elbow but on the last jump,
Fabien’s derailleur broke. Fabien was then ready to fight on his second
round. He
finished in front of Kyle Strait but it wasn’t enough.
Sick Mick on the other
hand won his 16th and 8th finals. He looked very fast.
The quarter finals were against Cedric Gracia. Mick was leading when, on the
last jump, his derailleur broke too. He then had to make quite a lot of time on
the second round. He finished in front of Gracia but the time lost from the
mechanical issue wasn’t enough.
Mick and
Fabien were disappointed since they had the speed and felt very good on their
bikes. Finally it’s Kyle Strait who took the win of the race and it’s too bad
when we know that Fabien was able to beat the winner without a mechanical.
Mikey
ran into some shifting issues out of the gate and was knocked out in
the first round. Mikey than moved on to help the announcers.
Jackie, "Saturday was a full day for Dual Slalom, we had practice, qualifying and finals all in one day. I was riding a new bike, which has a secret name, winning practice as usual. I nailed all the lines I wanted and struggled a bit on the climbs back up the hill, due to the extreme heat of the day. I qualified 5th, knowing I botched the blue course and was ready to redeem myself during finals and advance to the top four. I won both tracks on my first heat and was excited to win the next. However I was not so lucky on my next heat, I lost the first run and won the second, but it was not enough. Steffi beat me by .01 and was able to advance to the semi-finals."
| Place | Name | Team | |
| 1 | Kyle Strait | ||
| 2 | Troy Brosnan | MONSTER ENERGY-SPECIALIZE | |
| 3 | Cedric Gracia | BRIGADE/SANTA CRUZ/FOX/SHI | |
| 4 | Danny Hart | GIANT FACTORY OFF ROAD TEA | |
| 5 | Michael Hannah | HUTCHINSON UNITED RIDE | |
| 6 | Greg Minnaar | SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE | |
| 7 | Brendan Fairclough | SCOTT SPORTS | |
| 8 | Luke Strobel | PIVOT KENDA | |
| 9 | Mitch Ropelato | SPECIALIZED GRAVITY USA | |
| 10 | Josh Bryceland | SANTA CRUZ SYNDICATE/FOX/S |
| Place | Name | Team | |
| 1 | Jill Kintner | TEAM NORCO INTERNATIONAL/R | |
| 2 | Melissa Buhl | KHS/AZONIC | |
| 3 | Manon Carpenter | Satasen Madison | |
| 4 | Steffi Marth | TREK GRAVITY GIRLS | |
| 5 | Jacqueline Harmony | TEAM IXS UNIQUE | |
| 6 | Wendy Palmer | ||
| 7 | Eva Castro | SPECIALIZED/MAMMOTH | |
| 8 | Katie Holden | SPECIALIZED/SRAM/CAMELBAK | |
| 9 | Joanna Petterson | MAXXIS/NEMA | |
| 10 | Andrea Napoli |
DH Action...
Sunday
morning was foggy and a bit cooler. Mick’s start was pretty early and he did a
time of 2:03 which put him in the hot seat for a while. The last riders were
pretty fast but only Jared Graves, specialist on this track, beat Mick’s time
by only 0.5 seconds. Fabien did a good
run considering his mistake and finished 13th.
It was the
first time a rider of the team went on the podium at Sea Otter and with a 2nd
place, Mick Hannah finished just
in front of Aaron Gwin, the 2011 world cup champion.
Mikey whipped big for the crowd, they were still whooping when he drifted a corner. Next corner the same...opps, too much. A crowd favorite Mikey ended up in front if Team iXS Unique's enduro specialist Jared Hobbs.
Jackie, "Sunday, Sunday, Sunday my favorite day was foggy all the way through the women’s Downhill race. My name was on the top of the start list and I was excited to be the first one down. Race morning practice was a little frustrating, due to the change in weather my suspension felt a bit sluggish. I am glad I did not change anything because I knew the weather would be changing and the more I rode my bike the better the suspension would feel. The Sea Otter Downhill has been known for smaller travel bikes to do the best, however I decided to race on my trusty Orange 224 and just pedal as hard as I could. The race run went smooth and I charged all the way to the finish, definitely feeling all the off- season training taking affect. The end result put me in 6th, 0.6 seconds off of 5th and 1 second off of 4th place."
 | |||
| When a jump comes around, you must whip it. Whip it good! |
 |
| Fabien charging. |
 |
| Mick rocking the short travel bike. |
 |
| Podium for Mick |
Mayhem
On the first day the sidehack was mauled by Fabien Cousinie and Lance Tueller. Look for footage of that in the upcoming Hutchinson UnitedRide footage. Mikey Haderer and Matt Condrashoff headed over to our friends at COC and backflipped the sidehack into the bag.
Mikey also hit up the Speed and Style in a speedo which we are going to spare your eyes the photo evidence.
Up next...
This weekend Fabien is off to France for the Avalanche Cup of Lyon and Mick Hannah
rejoins Jackie, Dante, and Mikey (Team iXS Unique) for the Pro GRT/NWCup #2/US Grand Prix in Port Angeles, Washington.
We are stoked to share some sponsors with the Hutchinson UnitedRide Team like; iXS Sports Division, Morewood Bikes, and Hutchinson Tires.
We would also like to thank VP Components, Cane Creek, MRP, Deity, White Bros., Feedback Sports, and Solar Sense PV.
 |
| Dante's Whip on display at Deity. The DS bikes made their way to most every sponsors booth. |
For now Jackie, Dante, and Mick are about to hit up Mt. Ashland in Oregon...see you on the trails!
