Over 500 DH Racers - 2021 NW Cup #1 Port Angeles - Mountain Bike Blog Post

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We are back! After 2 years since the last race at Dry Hill in Port Angeles, WA, racing has returned! And boy were people excited to have it! Beautiful weather graced us the entire weekend, leading to fast times and big smiles. The NW Cup Family came out in force to enjoy the PNW woods, and we all welcomed the visitors from all over the country that were excited to get their bikes between the tape, create some fast times, some fun heckles, and just have an amazing weekend racing bikes again!

In the end Charlie Harrison took the win in Pro Men, with Frida Ronning taking the women's win after Kialani Hines qualified first. Ryan Pinkerton and Taylor Ostgaard taking the wins in the Junior categories.

First off a Happy Birthday to half of the NW Cup crew Scott Tucker. Without him we wouldn't have these trails or these races!

Cole Suetos sucking up the King Diamond gap.

Scott Kemp crushing the Cat 1 40+ group by over 9.5s in his race run

Blake Nelson with the UCI not approved purple skinsuit. NW Cup races are always a blast!

Gunanr Shephard with the Sam Hill foot-out-flat-out technique in Cat 3. It got him on the podium!

The Grom Squad at the NW Cup starts young!

Ronan McGuire on his way to a 6th place in Cat 2 13-14.

Neal Poland getting squirly during his Cat 2 40-49 race... yes he rode it out.

Wyatt Thompson getting as flat as possible on the Pro stepdown during practice

Grace Lawson riding out some slipped pedals during her Jr. X race run

Neko Mulally on his way 7th, gapping Fairclough Falls.

Dakotah Norton pulling hard for the King Diamond stepdown. 1 of only 5 or 6 pulling this move through the weeknd.

Caden Gray on the upper road gap. He ended up 6th in Jr.X on the weekend.

Every race TLD gives out a new helmet to replace the most clapped out helmet currently being ridden. As you can Imagine it is a fan favorite, as Casey checks the crowd noise for Judging

Marc Garoutte keeping it low over the road gap in Cat 2 50+

Charlie Harrison on the way to the win on the weekend.

Evan Medcalf with an unfortunate crash during his finals run. The compression at the bottom of Fairclough Falls takes out more riders than the actual gap.

Rachel Pageau on her way to 3rd in Pro Women

Aletha Ostgaard hair flying as she finished 3rd in Jr. X women.

Luca Cometti scrubbing through King Diamond

Graeme Pitts throwing the style over the road gap

Mica Erickson ending up 10th in Cat 2 U18 women.

Taylor Ostgaard on her way to the Jr. X women's win.

Jeremiah Willson In Cat 2 19-29

Molly Blair making sure the photographer notices her during editing and getting a laugh... as a note there wasn't a series where she didn't look at the camera ;)

Ryley Lynn 5th in Cat 2 15-16.

Blake Rausch in and out of the light of the pro course. 14th Jr. X

Neal Poland keeping us old guys entertained with the RAD Racing Jersey.

Nate Thalhamer scrubbing his way to 2nd in Jr. X

Kelsey Hackem crushing her lines to a 4th in Cat 2 19-39. She was better at analyzing riding lines than most Cat 1 racers throughout the weekend!

Volcom stepping up as a new sponsor for 2021. $250 in swag per stone!

Cash Shaleen winning Cat 2 13-14.

Gunnar Shephard 2nd in Cat 3 U7 boys. Racing has a healthy future in the PNW with these groms crushing it.

Cole Suetos making the berm pay.

Buck Riggs ready and waiting to put in laps

One very happy raffle winner!

Based on the turnout for the Cat 2 and Cat 3 categories (almost 300 between those two categories) racing is alive and well in the PNW. And with younger age groups having 20+ deep categories... everybody better watch out for these kids in the future (and a couple weeks!

We can't wait to see you all at Dry Hill again in June!

#USDH