Durango’s Asa Vermette can’t seem to lose anywhere he goes. This time, the 17-year-old competed in the men’s pro field and the result didn’t change.
Vermette finished first on Sunday in the Pro Downhill Mountain Bike Championship event at Mountain Creek Bike Park in Vernon, New Jersey.
Despite being one of the youngest riders in the field and hurting his knee in Poland, Vermette finished the 0.75-mile track in first with a time of 2 minutes, 11.22 seconds.
“The event is sick,” Vermette said. “Clay Harper (race director) definitely puts a lot of work into making it look good and putting jumps on the trails and everything. So it was definitely more of a fun trail to ride instead of a scary, rough one, but it was definitely a rad event.”
The trail was fun for Vermette because of the berms and jumps he said. Vermette liked how there was only one line through the rock gardens so he could let it rip.
Vermette was 2.5 seconds faster than Dante Silva who finished second and Vermette was 4.4 seconds faster than third-place finisher Cole Suentos.
The top step on the podium also came with a $3,000 first-place check for Vermette. Any race he’s done in the States he’s been in the men’s pro category. It’s only the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup events where Vermette competes in the junior category.
When Vermette went on his run he had a 4.4-second lead on his competitors before Silva cut the gap but couldn’t go faster than Vermette.
Once again, Vermette wasn’t the best after the first split but dominated the final three splits
“I probably could have pushed harder in the top section,” Vermette said. “Clay (Harper) does this thing called the whole shot award, where the first 20 seconds into the trail, he gives you 500 bucks for being the fastest one. Dante Silva actually beat me in the first split. So he got that award. I could have pushed a little harder, for sure, in the beginning, but the rest of my run was great.”
Vermette said he enjoyed the competition level at Mountain Creek with some World Cup riders returning and some strong local competition.
The Durangoan will return to Europe for the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Downhill race in Saalfelden Leogang, Austria, from June 7-9. Vermette hasn’t ridden the course but has been to watch the World Cup there previously.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
