The first gravity round of the Mountain States Cup was held this past weekend at the Angel Fire Bike Park in Angel Fire, New Mexico. Near Toas, in northern New Mexico, Angel Fire Resort tops out at over 10,650 feet and boasts miles and miles of lift accessed downhill trails. McKenna was registered to race both the downhill and dual-slalom on the weekend. The weather forecast for the weekend was hot and sunny, making the entire mountain super dry, loose, and dusty.
Saturday morning started off at 8:00 am with dual-slalom practice. Angel Fire was host to a round of the World Cup in 2005, and the dual-slalom course was carved out of the original World Cup 4X track. Flowing straight down the hill, the course was extremely fast, with soft and loose corners and many jumps. McKenna got comfortable with the course quickly and was up to speed by the time practice ended. It was a quick bike switch, and straight over to the chairlift for downhill practice. With over a 15 minute lift ride, McKenna knew the track was going to be very demanding and challeging. The course started at the very top of the mountain and was unbelievably steep and technical in the wooded sections. McKenna was able to get several practice runs in before she had to get back to the slalom course for
qualifying and racing. As there were no other junior women racing, McKenna was put into the 11-12 yr. old boy category. She qualified in 7th place and was up against the 2nd place qualifier in her first round. Though she battled all the way down the course, she wasn't able to win and advance.
Sunday morning started off with downhill practice and the course had gotten more blown out form all the runs done on it. After two runs, McKenna felt she was riding the course well, and was looking forward to her race run. She loaded onto the chairlift 45 minutes before her start time, making sure she would be ready when it was her turn. She rolled off the start ramp and straight into the steep and technical top wooded section. She was hitting all her lines, hammered the middle fire road section, was having a near perfect run. On the fastest section of the course (the 'speed trap' where the pros were hitting 42 mph), McKenna caught a rock wrong and her foot came off and into the front wheel, throwing her over the bars. As quick as she could, she was up and off, but that was the end of her perfect run. She crossed the line at 11:09, still good enough for the win in the Junior Women category. You can check out a run down the course here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKeZH0t7qBw
During the weekend McKenna was able to hang out with "Rockero" Preciado, the 5 time Mexican Downhill national champion. They argued who had the worst crash on the weekend, and since Ricardo was knocked out for thirteen minutes, it was decided that he won. McKenna would like to thank Keith Darner and all the staff and crew at the Mountain States Cup and Angel Fire Resort for a great event and an awesome weekend. She will be back there next year, as Angel Fire will be the host to the 2013 National Championships.
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