Vail – It’s difficult to keep up in Jeff Lenosky’s world.
Truth be told, it’s pretty hard to do much of anything.
Lenosky’s is a two-wheeled world of balance and blur, arguably with its own laws of gravity. Wheels roll perpendicular to the ground, up walls and over domes. Bicycles bounce vertically within its atmosphere, or walk a wooden tightrope. The impossible becomes routine, the remarkable mundane. And it all happens very fast.
Lenosky, 36, is the reigning king of Freeride Challenge mountain-bike racing at the Teva Mountain Games, outdueling the world’s top free- riders Saturday in the head- to-head competition formerly known as “speed trials” for the second straight year, clinging to the keys of a rapidly expanding empire.
“An event like this, you don’t practice it. You just build some stuff that you think is going to be hard to ride over but not impossible, and then you just have to be a good bike rider,” Lenosky said. “It used to be more trials riding, a lot of slow, technical riding, sort of picking your way over stuff. But when you look at this event, it’s more of a full-blown sprint and the reason for that is freeriding is so popular these days.”
As the freeride side of mountain biking rapidly gains on the traditional disciplines of cross country and downhill, fat-tired jibbers in a perpetual search for new challenges are taking their skills to the next level, combining the vertical ramp and dirt-jumping skills of BMX with the gravity-fueled, big- wheeled appeal of mountain biking.
The result is a sort of designer breed of freeride disciplines that showcases the sport’s most difficult stunts via speed events like the Freeride Challenge or gigantic mountainside aerial displays borrowing from ski and snowboard slopestyle.
“What’s cool is that there are different disciplines emerging that are unique to mountain biking,” said Lenosky, from Sparta, N.J. “Our forte on mountain bikes is riding over gnarly courses like this urban Freeride Challenge, or slopestyle courses where it’s not as manicured and has bigger jumps and whatnot. So speed trials and slopestyle are two events that are really cool because they are unique to mountain biking. And as freeriding grows, I’m pretty sure these will be two of the events that continue to grow with it.”
As events like the Teva Games promote opportunities to spread the gospel of freeride, folks like Lenosky and Teva Games runner-up Ryan Strait of Orange County, Calif., are making careers of a sport that until only recently didn’t even exist. Top riders credit advancements in bike technology – improved suspension, disc brakes and better frame geometry and materials – for helping make the sport more appealing to mere mortals. And like the advancements in snowboard technology in the past two decades, bike improvements are making the sport more acceptable to ski resorts nationwide, Lenosky says. Colorado is keeping pace.
“There are pockets everywhere, but it tends to be where there’s some mountains,” Lenosky said. “Ski areas are a huge part of it, even for recreational riders.”
Two-wheeled thrill-seekers formerly forced to find inspiration solely in jaw-dropping magazine covers and videos from the mountain-bike Mecca of British Columbia, Canada, are now discovering Colorado for its freeride potential. As evidence, the highly regarded Crankworx Freeride Festival – the most popular annual event at Canada’s Whistler-Blackcomb Resort, winter or summer – is expanding to Winter Park for the first time on July 5-7.
“Colorado is great because there’s so much here. Between the ski resorts, the Teva Games, the Dew Tour that used to come through Denver and everything else, people here want to see something cool that’s athletic,” said Brian Gavagan, a Free- ride Challenge competitor from Denver who also performs in aerial bike shows with the Yellow Design Stunt Team. “I don’t know if it’s possible to have a show team that’s full time gig in another state.”
Like Lenosky, Gavagan, 35, never dreamed as a young rider that he might someday get paid to pursue his passion for jumping a bicycle. But with the exploding popularity of freeride, he’s found that he can not only make a living as a rider, but he doesn’t even have to leave his home state. Yellow Design performed 30 times last year in Colorado alone, with gigs ranging from the Pepsi Center to area high schools.
Scott Willoughby can be reached at 303-954-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com.
RESULTS
AT HOMESTAKE CREEK
Vail
WHITE WATER
DOWN RIVER SPRINT
Men
1. Tao Berman, 20:48.7
2. Jason Beakes, 20:58.3
3. Jules Campbell, 21:02.6
4. Geoff Calhoun, 21:05.1
5. Brad Ludden, 21:07.1
6. Pat Keller, 21:11.7
7. Matt Walker, 21:13.4
8. Andrew Holcombe, 21:17.2
9. Charlie MacArthur, 21:19.7
10. Josiah Middaugh, 21:23.9
Women
1. Nicky Kelly, 21:30.3
2. Stepan Kate, 22:32.9
3. Kristen Podolak, 22:34.2
4. Danelle Ballangee, 23:09.1
5. Keri Nelson, 23:24.7
6. Christina Moon, 23:40.0
7. Kate Chapman, 23:43.1
8. Lisa Isom, 23:45.8
9. Mary Skowron, 24:17.0
10. Megan Michelson, 24:33.0
KAYAK PRO FREESTYLE FINALS
Men
(With best run listed)
1. Eric Jackson, 127
2. Stephen Wright, 123
3. Dane Jackson, 107
4. Ed Smith, 99
5. Daniel Krummach, 50
Women
1. Emily Jackson, 59
2. Ruth Gordon, 49
3. Devon Barker, 43
CYCLING
MOUNTAIN BIKE CHAMPIONSHIP
1. Mike Hogan, 1:44:08
2. Cam Winn, 1:44:55
3. Josh Nota, 1:46:20
4. Russell Kappius, 1:47:18
5. Kurt Refsnider, 1:47:31
6. Zach Bingham, 1:47:36
7. Nicholas Saucier, 1:49:36
8. Brennan Stege, 1:50:38
9. Evan Elliott, 1:50:54
10. KC McCuiston, 1:51:54
FREE RIDE CHALLENGE
1. Jeff Lenosky
2. Kyle Strait
3. Jamie Goldman
4. George Ryan
5. Joe Perrizo
6. Kyle Ebbett
7. Hacksaw Severt
8. Tyler McCaul
9. Carter Holland
10. Ross McMaster
CLIMBING
PRO BOULDERING FINALS
Men’s open
1. Daniel Woods
2. Paul Robinson
3. Robby D’Anastasio
4. Charles Fryberger
5. Sean McColl
6. Ryan Olson
7. Nick Sherman
8. Ty Landman
9. Ethan Pringle
10. Brian Antheunisse
Women’s open
1. Alex Puccio
2. Paige Claassen
3. Angie Payne
4. Laura Griffiths
5. Natasha Barnes
6. Tomoko Ogawa
7. Lizzy Asher
8. Emily Harrington
9. Gabby Bigras-Masse
10. Shannon Forsman
10. Sydney McNair
