Downhill ripper Asa Vermette picked up another win on his mountain bike over the weekend. Vermette (Frameworks enve Renen bc 2nd Ave Sports) bested the men’s pro field at Purgatory Resort’s Big Mountain Enduro stop.
Vermette, the defending U16 downhill national champ from Hesperus, has had some big wins this season at his age level and in the pro field. For his hometown race at Purgatory, however, he opted to race the pro men and ended up still being the fastest biker over Saturday and Sunday.
After finishing sixth, 12th and eighth on the first three stages, Vermette then won four of the next five stages and finished second on the other one to score the fastest overall time: 37 minutes and 42 seconds.
Colton Peterson (Maxxis Factory Racing) finished second in 37:56, followed by Nikolas Nestoroff (Fezarri Bicycles) in 38:25 and Mitch Ropelato (Cannondale-Forge and Bond-Monster Energy-SRAM-Rockshock-TLD) in 38:29. Nestoroff won two of the BME’s first three stops while Ropelato won the other with Vermette not in the field.
Vermette has some other big wins this year. At the Round 2 of the Downhill Southeast series, held at the Rock Creek Bike Park in North Carolina, Vermette finished first in a stacked pro men’s field including Aaron Gwin, Luca Shaw, Ryan Pinkerton and Austin Dooley. Shaw, Dooley and Pinkerton were all recently named to USA Cycling’s world downhill team.
Vermette also won the U17 Crankworx downhill race in Innsbruck, Austria, the Downhill Rockies’ Angel Fire stop and the Downhill Southeast’s Snowshoe, West Virginia, competition.
Gunnar Ensign (Pedal the Peaks) of Durango also competed in the pro men’s field at Purgatory, but didn’t race Stage 8 so he didn’t post a final time.
In the pro women’s competition, Durangoan Ainsley Haggart (Cannondale Farm Team) finished fifth in 47:13. Haggart had her best result on the first stage, where she placed third, and scored three more top-five finishes to place fifth overall.
Fiona Dougherty of the Mountain Marauders, who won a dual slalom national title for Fort Lewis College her senior year this fall, finished ninth in 54:40.
Kathryn Lawrence (93 Yeti/Fox) won six stages and the pro title in 43:34, followed by Isabella Naughton (Liv Racing) in 44:49 and Porscha Murdock (Specialized) in 45:25.
Other Durango riders also competed and posted strong results.
Milo Deem (Durango Devo) won Stage 2 finished sixth out of 44 bikers in the advanced boys 15-16 division in 42:20. William Albert (Durango Gravity Race Program presented by Pedal the Peaks) finished 18th in 45:54.
In the men’s U21 race, Ben Mackenzie (Devinci/Fox) won stages one and eight and finished second on the rest to place second overall in 39:35. Alden Pate of Crestline Bikes finished 10 seconds ahead of him. Eoin Blackburn (GoGreen Cannabis) placed sixth in 41:29
Other division winners included Nathan Kindrachuk (boys 15-18, 41:32), Yannick Pontal (men’s E-bike, 40:15), Pella Ward (girls 15-18, 50:41), Calen Ripplinger (amateur men, 44:11), Madeleine Myall (amateur women, 1:00:00), Dylan Lewis (boys 13-14, 44:15), Jason Tullis (expert men, 41:50), Ben Craner (master men 40-49, 45:23), Tate Graves (master men 50+, 46:20) and Maylei Leaneagh (U21 women, 52:09).
