Announcing the 2013 Pro Gravity Tour

[downhill mike]

2013 Pro Mountain Bike Gravity Tour
01) March 15-17: Reaper Madness Downhill & Super D —Bootleg Canyon NV
http://www.downhillmike.com/

02) March 30-31: Fontana City - California Golden State — Fontana, CA
http://www.southridgeusa.com/

03) April 21: Sea Otter Classic — Monterey, CA
http://www.seaotterclassic.com/

04) May 19: Mountain Creek Spring Classic 2013 — Vernon, NJ
http://www.mountaincreekbikepark.com/

05) May 26: 2013 Plattekill Gravity Open — Roxbury, NY
http://www.plattekill.com/

06) June 7-9: Chile Challenge — Angel Fire, NM
http://www.angelfirebikepark.com/

07) June 22-23: California Golden State — China Peak Ski Resort, CA
http://www.southridgeusa.com/

08) June 30: Windham Downhill — Windham, NY
http://racewindham.com/

09) July 13-14: Snowshoe Mountain Pro GRT — Snowshoe, WV
http://www.snowshoemtn.com/

10) Sept. 4-8: Mammoth Kamikaze Bike Games — Mammoth Lakes, CA
http://www.mammothmountain.com/Mount...ark/BikeGames/

Full Press Release:
http://www.usacycling.org/announcing...-mtb-tours.htm

[Transcend]

How the mighty national series' have fallen. Canada down to 2 or 3 rounds and the US has such stunning venues as Plattekill, Fontana and Sea Otter.

[gemini2k]

What the plan for China peak? They gonna build new stuff? Or just use existing trails? Anyone know what trails mammoth is gonna run? Please say Bullet or Upper Velocity to Techno Rock/Velocity/Chainsmoke/Twilight zone.

If they run the race on UV it will single handedly return legitimacy to US DH racing.

This could be a good year for California racing

[jnooth]

How the mighty national series' have fallen. Canada down to 2 or 3 rounds and the US has such stunning venues as Plattekill, Fontana and Sea Otter.

no love for plattekill? there are a few venues on this list that I question but platty is not one of them. I have raced all over the country and feel like platty has always done a great job with course. sure its not in a huge resort and lodging can be a pain but they have held a number of large races and I dont think people are usually dissapointed.

my peoblem with the series is the amount of travel needed to race a full series. to race the full series you have to cross the country 4-5 times. they could have grouped them a bit smarter

[ScooterBlastoff]

hate all you want but I'm going to go a ahead and say it...

I miss norba

[Transcend]

no love for plattekill? there are a few venues on this list that I question but platty is not one of them. I have raced all over the country and feel like platty has always done a great job with course. sure its not in a huge resort and lodging can be a pain but they have held a number of large races and I dont think people are usually dissapointed.

my peoblem with the series is the amount of travel needed to race a full series. to race the full series you have to cross the country 4-5 times. they could have grouped them a bit smarter

When I was racing, I raced at plattekill frequently on off weekends. (thing mid to late 90s thought mid 2000s) The venue is a gigantic hole. It does not compared to park city, crystal mountain, vail, mammoth, big bear, mount snow etc. It may have gotten better, but it's still in the middle of nowhere with next to no facilities or civilization near it.

This is a national level event, the course itself is important to be sure, but it isn't the only thing to consider. There's been a major changing of the guard recently, a lot of people racing were not around or even thinking about bicycles back when some of us here were racing. Many of us are now deeply embedded in the bicycle industry (and have accounts on RM) and mourn the loss of epic national series' in north america.

The travel schedule has almost always sucked, save for one or 2 years where it was bigbear, then a flight to the east coast and a long trek back across stopping at 4-5 events along the way.

[fortenndu]

Fraser hates fun.

Just to clarify that's about his sentiment towards Plattekill. I think this national series is insulting, whoever made it must be an oil lobbyist on the side.

[jnooth]

and plattekills finish line jumps

I will agree. plattekill isnt the most ideal place to get to, or stay but you cant argue its history of putting on good events.

[gemini2k]

Whatever, who cares about the sh*tty venues it has. It has mammoth (FINALLY), which is probably the best resort in the country. And China Peak, which has serious potential.

[Cant Climb]

Big resorts are expensive and the average Racer is poor (from racing).

[Transcend]

Whatever, who cares about the sh*tty venues it has. It has mammoth (FINALLY), which is probably the best resort in the country. And China Peak, which has serious potential.

Completely agreed about Mammoth. Best track was Crystal (2001?), best venue was almost certainly mammoth.

[gemini2k]

Completely agreed about Mammoth. Best track was Crystal (2001?), best venue was almost certainly mammoth.

This course?

Crystal Mtn. Pro Downhill - YouTube

Crystal Mtn. Pro Downhill - YouTube

You're right, does look cool. Very raw. I wondered what happened to riding at that place?

[daisycutter]

"When I was racing, I raced at plattekill frequently on off weekends. (thing mid to late 90s thought mid 2000s) The venue is a gigantic hole. It does not compared to park city, crystal mountain, vail, mammoth, big bear, mount snow etc. It may have gotten better, but it's still in the middle of nowhere with next to no facilities or civilization near it."

Platty has been supporting the sport for 25 years and is 2 and a half hours from NYC. Big Bear views us as a liability risk. Mountian creek has had three different owners in the past ten years. Most of these other venues "Park City" that you love are corporate real estate plays and could give 2 ****s about the sport. I would rather reward a small operator who helped keep the sport alive then the Vails of this world.

On another note Frasier, that platty crash was brutal. You must be made of rubber to have walked away from that.

[Transcend]

This course?

Crystal Mtn. Pro Downhill - YouTube

You're right, does look cool. Very raw. I wondered what happened to riding at that place?

I think that was a purpose built track for the NCS event, I'm not sure that there was ever normal riding there? That was the track though. So good. Brutal rock gardens at high speed, high speed fireroad corner and then a really tight tree section at the bottom. Amazing track. Best after party of all time as well.

[W4S]

"When I was racing, I raced at plattekill frequently on off weekends. (thing mid to late 90s thought mid 2000s) The venue is a gigantic hole. It does not compared to park city, crystal mountain, vail, mammoth, big bear, mount snow etc. It may have gotten better, but it's still in the middle of nowhere with next to no facilities or civilization near it."

Platty has been supporting the sport for 25 years and is 2 and a half hours from NYC. Big Bear views us as a liability risk. Mountian creek has had three different owners in the past ten years. Most of these other venues "Park City" that you love are corporate real estate plays and could give 2 ****s about the sport. I would rather reward a small operator who helped keep the sport alive then the Vails of this world.

On another note Frasier, that platty crash was brutal. You must be made of rubber to have walked away from that.

FYI, rumor has it that Big Bear will be re-entering the downhill market soon. apparently they've signed a deal with Gravity Logic to design and build a bike park and I would bet that racing will be a part of that, as well.