2018 Gravity Season

Ian F

Well-Known Member
I plan to ride a Blue a few times as well as Mtn Crack. Otherwise, I have a feeling this year will have me road riding more.

I'm still miffed at the Eastern States Cup crew for screwing us older Cat 2 racers for 2018, so racing is probably out.

To be honest, I really don't care for enduro racing over DH racing, not that I'm any good at either these days.
 

Ian F

Well-Known Member
Well... I must have missed a revision in the classing. While I'm still don't completely agree with it, at least now guys in the late 40's won't be racing against 30 year olds.

DOWNHILL CLASSES
CLIF Kids U12 (12 and under)
Open Youth U15 (15 and Under)
Open Masters 50+ {(cat 1/2/3) and 45+ (cat 2/3)}
Amateur 16-29 (cat 2/3)
Amateur 30-45 (cat 2/3)
Expert 15-18 (cat1)
Expert 19-29 (cat1)
Expert 30-39 (cat1)
Expert 40+ (cat1)
Female Amateur (Cat 2/3)
Female Pro/Expert Open (pro and cat1)
Male Pro (pro)
 

mattybfat

The Opinion Police
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I can deal with that classification if I were racing but I have no more recovery time for my day job. Dh racing was fine when you can miss a couple weeks because well you get hurt. But when your easy Pickens to be replace or just old everything has to be safe. Lol.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
This year I would like to go to these 3 parks:

* East Burke
* Highlands (or whatever it is called in NH)
* Thunder Mountain

I am not a huge DH guy but I have enjoyed it recently. I guess I DH as much as I ski.
 

02camaro

Well-Known Member
thunder mtn is amazing, love that place

Let me also direct you south to snowshoe too!
Sounds like you should get a mtbparkspass.
i got the mtb parks pass around christmas when they were doing their special and they still havent released a list..
 

Ryan.P

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
This year I would like to go to these 3 parks:

* East Burke
* Highlands (or whatever it is called in NH)
* Thunder Mountain

I am not a huge DH guy but I have enjoyed it recently. I guess I DH as much as I ski.
All good choices , says he's not a dh guy but busts out a huge wall ride on a scalpel
 

02camaro

Well-Known Member
actually just checked looks like creek is signed on for parks pass. i got my pass around christmas when teh ran a special for $140, with 50% off weekday tickets i think this pass is going to pay for itself pretty quickly.
 

Robin

Well-Known Member
@Norm Highland. No s. I laugh that @2Julianas calls it Highland Park.

I really liked Snowshoe - I got to ride a lot of the stuff during the enduro and would definitely go back sans Nationals chaos. It was about a 6-6.5 hour drive from central Jersey.
 

2Julianas

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
This year I would like to go to these 3 parks:

* East Burke
* Highlands (or whatever it is called in NH)
* Thunder Mountain

I am not a huge DH guy but I have enjoyed it recently. I guess I DH as much as I ski.
I would want to visit these again this summer as well! And @Robin ... a place of many names!
 

Ian F

Well-Known Member
2018 Clif Enduro East Series:

June 30-July1 - Mtn Creek, NJ
July 28-29 - Thunder Mtn, MA
Sept 15-16 - Burke Mtn, VT

The Eastern States Cup dates have also been announced:

2018 MAXXIS ESC ENDURO SCHEDULE

April 22 Glen Park, PA
May 6 Plattekill, NY
May 20 Binghamton, NY
June 3 Thunder Mountain, MA
June 17 Blue Mountain, PA
July 15 Sugarbush, VT
Aug 12 Victory Hill, VT
Aug 26 Mountain Creek
Sept 23 Killington, VT
Sept 30 Wilmington, NY
Oct 21 Thunder Mountain, MA Finals

MAXXIS ESC DH SCHEDULE
7 events count best 5

May 6 Plattekill, NY
June 3 Thunder Mountain, MA
June 17 Blue Mountain, PA
July 15 Sugarbush, VT
Aug 26 Mountain Creek, NJ
Sept 23 Killington, VT
Oct 14 Mount Snow, VT Finals

MAXXIS Eastern States Cup DH Series Plan:
USA Cycling rules apply except no license requirement and no class/category restrictions
Race is permitted by an onsite USAC Race Director
Race is officiated by an onsite USAC Race Official

NO Annual or Day License is Required:
NO USAC or any other license is required to practice and race.

So far - no news on if there will be a 2018 Gravity East Series. Their events tend to be held in the Mid-Atlantic region, with Blue Mtn, PA being about as far north as it goes. Last year the schedule was posted later than the other series, perhaps to reduce overlap.

I'm a bit torn on this schedule... other than the Oct 14 Finals, all of the DH events are combined with Enduro events, which tends to mean long-ass lift lines during practice. I've already received word from some friends west of the area they are not planning to attend because of this. Of course, I remember the old days racing at Plattekill when there could be 300 racers at some of the early season events and the lift line for the triple chair (double chair didn't exist yet) could stretch past the lodge to the upper parking lot. If you got 5 practice runs on Sat, you were lucky. Maybe one on Sunday.

The last time I was at Snowshoe was for the NORBA National in 2003. I'd definitely like to get back there as I've heard the number of trails has increased a lot. I really only rode the Pro/Expert course, although I might have ridden the Beginner/Sport course once with a couple of teammates who were still Sport racers at the time.
 
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Ryan.P

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Hmmmm cliff enduro east three of my favorite parks , sounds like my 2018 targets just got confirmed
 

chemgirl

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
This year I would like to go to these 3 parks:

* East Burke
* Highlands (or whatever it is called in NH)
* Thunder Mountain

I am not a huge DH guy but I have enjoyed it recently. I guess I DH as much as I ski.
We plan to go to these as well. I've been to Highlands but not the others.
 

Soundguy

#SenditGuy
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I've been tossing it around but I think I've decided to do the Clif series as an Amateur. Should be a fun change from XC. Never raced Enduro or taken DH very serious before.... this might get interesting.
 

Ian F

Well-Known Member
I've been tossing it around but I think I've decided to do the Clif series as an Amateur. Should be a fun change from XC. Never raced Enduro or taken DH very serious before.... this might get interesting.

If you've never ridden at Mtn Creek before, definitely spend a couple of days there before the event. While I understand the enduro courses don't use the most insane trails at Creek, if you've never been there before or have limited DH experience, it may be an eye opener.
 
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