Ben Reid and Dan Stanbridge aka the Dirt Norco Race Team were in action at the Pro GRT over the weekend and sent over the results and some words.
Stanny put in a storming run for 7th spot with Reidy taking 13th. Transition Racing had a great weekend too with Bryn Atkinson taking the mens win with a 2:34.39 and Jill Kintner in 3rd behind Rachel Atherton and winner Tracy Moseley.

Here’s what Stanny and Reidy said:

Please excuse me if this paragraph is illiterate, but it is 7am here and we have been driving for the last 15hours straight, from the race in Port Angeles back to California to (hopefully) catch our delayed flight home.

The race this weekend was the first round of the PRO Gravity Tour in the US which attracts a tough field of riders anyway. But with several European teams at Sea Otter the week before and unable to fly home because of the volcano, even more riders opted for a last minute entry and headed up the coast to race, packing out the field in the ‘PRO’ class.

Stanny:

After being told there would be a two week delay on our return flights from Sea otter, we were glad to be able to get some good riding in at Port Angeles. With the downhill bikes going great and a few flash new additions picked up at Sea Otter (like new Avid Code brakes from SRAM and some team edition bash rings from Gamut) I was keen to test it all out.

The track was cool, fast and plenty of and floaty jumps and there was loads of practice too, so with that combination racing was really tight. Its hard when you know a fraction of a second will lose you a lot of places but makes good racing.

I reckon the spectators seemed to agree, because there was quite a good crown on the hill come finals, shouting the best American heckles……

‘Get some Get some Yeah!’

It was cool. I had a pretty solid run down in the race, it was good to get some riding in on a fast course before the first world cup in Maribor pretty soon. Now just looking forward to getting back home to make sure we have time to get everything ready to drive to the next UK National them Maribor.

Ben:

After having our return flight home canceled we decided on round one of the Pro GRT in Port Angeles.

First things first, I gotta say the organisers of the Pro GRT really done a great job running this event. Shuttles for over 350 riders and most of them unexpected. All really good guys and so keen to help anyone who has an issue. Big shout out to Scott, Shawn, Casey and all the guys for doing a great job. Also thanks to Gamut for leading us there van to get there! For me this event was a great warm up for Maribor with the track being quite fast and similar in parts. At the Sea Otter we got some shocks tuned by Black Box technician Jon Cancellier so this race was also a great chance to test out the new settings.
The Norco bike has been riding really well and I felt that we turned another corner after riding this week end. I felt strong in practice and Quali and just rode the track over and over mostly because the fans there were so rowdy, they’d be stood in the gnarly sections every run shouting all kinds of madness like “Yea buddy”, “Get Some”, “Your my favourite rider”, I even had an “I love you Reidy” as I rode past!”
It was so funny, every time you went past they’d have something really inspiring to shout. Anyway things weren’t so hot in my finial, I pushed a bit hard and ended up blowing out some crucial corners for carrying speed onto flatter sections of the track. All in all I had a great week end and really enjoyed the time on my bike before Maribor.

Photos: Alastair Beckett

(Thanks to Jill Kintner for sending the womens results)