Location
Words and Photos by Kristian Jackson
With a little more than a month before race day, the construction of the USA Cycling Gravity Nationals course is nearing completion. Christopher Herndon and his trail building team of Danny Cesare and Michael Thomas have worked the slopes and woods at Beech Mountain Resort with shovels and an excavator to create one of the finest and most challenging race courses around. Recently, the build team took a break and put tires to dirt to test the course. Specialized/GROM racers Walker and Luca Shaw and local rippers Andrew Mueller and Alex LeSueur joined the ride.
This week, the crew will be back to moving dirt. Tons of it. The trucks will begin dumping soil for the sculpting of the Dual Slalom Course. Later in the week, the crew will dig in to redesign Beech’s old Mountain Board Course for incorporation into the new racecourse.
The USA Cycling Gravity National Championships will be held September 23-25, 2011 at Beech Mountain Resort. For more information, visit beechmontainresort.com.
Please note, the course is not open to the public yet.
