Durango might be best known on the bike scene for producing top-tier cross-country mountain bikers. The local gravity racers, however, are also making people take notice of Durango.
At the 2023 Gravity Mountain Bike National Championships over the weekend at Ride Rock Creek, North Carolina, several Durangoans won national titles and numerous others reached the podium
“It was pretty awesome, so many Durango people dominated out there,” said Ainsley Haggart, who finished fourth overall in the women’s pro Enduro championship.
The trails for the championships were steep and technical, and then rain fell and made them slippery, said Amy Haggart, the women’s 50-59 national champion.
“I was glad to finish without any injuries,” Amy said. “Once, I embraced the fact that I was not going stay on my bike the whole race, and crashing is part of the game, I had fun with it; you get up, get back on your bike, and keep racing. It is a great lesson to learn at 54.”
Asa Vermette, who is only 16 years old, captured his third and fourth national titles over the weekend.
Vermette won the men’s 15-16 junior downhill national title. Vermette then bumped up a division and competed in the pro Enduro competition against a lot of the fastest bikers in the nation and won that as well for his first Enduro title.
“He has podiumed at every race this year and has won most of them,” said Asa’s dad, Josh Vermette.
Vermette rides for Frameworks, Neko Mulally’s team, and Mulally helped design courses the gravity riders competed on.
“It was awesome,” Josh Vermette said about the courses. “Neko built it to test his bikes and train for the world cup, and they put together a great venue.”
Asa Vermette won his downhill title by 5.5 seconds, flying down the course in 2 minutes and 7.7 seconds.
In the pro Enduro, however, Vermette needed his best performance on the final stage, the pro stage, to win his title.
Richie Rude of Golden had a slim lead after four stages, with one stage having to be canceled to protect the riders’ safety.
The pro stage, meanwhile, was the same course the pro downhill bikers rode for their championship.
“It was definitely a pretty gnarly course for me,” Ainsley said. “I was able to stay on my bike and that benefited me.”
Vermette, meanwhile, was comfortable on the downhill course. He ended up beating Rude by 3.1 seconds on the stage to finish 0.1 seconds ahead of him overall and win the pro Enduro championship. Vermette’s winning time after the five stages was 14 minutes, 30.3 seconds. Rude finished second in 14:30.4 while Russell Bobbitt placed third in 14:40.6.
Several other Durango bikers also raced in the pro men’s Enduro. Ben Mackenzie finished 10th in 15:29.6, Shane Ellis placed 24th in 16:54.6 and Gunnar Ensign finished 32nd in 18:37.7.
Ainsley, who is 20 years old and has been racing U21 in the Enduro World Series this summer, also bumped up to race in the pro field since there wasn’t a U21 category. Haggart finished fourth in the nation with a total time of 19:39.8. Amy Morrison won the title in 18:03.4, followed by Kathryn Lawrence (18:32.2) and Isabella Naughton (18:40.7).
“It was pretty sweet,” Ainsley said about reaching the pro podium. “I definitely didn’t expect to be up there with how difficult the terrain was. I’m one of the younger (pro) riders and that’s one of my best pro results. It definitely felt good to be up there because the top-three are girls I’ve looked up to.”
Opal Barber won a pair of medals at the championships. Competing in the 13-14 girls category, Barber finished second in the Enduro championships, just 19 seconds behind Kallie Stewart’s winning time of 18:06.4.
In the downhill championship, Barber finished third in 3:12.70, just 1.74 seconds behind the winner, Ainsley Wolf.
Nainoa Love also returned with a first-place finish. Love’s closest competition was another Durango rider in the men’s Cat 2 downhill championship, Milo Deem. Love, however, won the race in 3:03.7, followed by Deem in second (3:04.1). William Albert finished sixth in 3:14.3.
In the junior men’s 17-18 Enduro, Albert led the group with a 20th-place finish in 15:00.9. Love finished 22nd (15:08.7).
Deem raced in the men’s 15-16 Enduro championship and placed 11th in 14:49.8.
Amy Haggart, meanwhile, finished almost four minutes ahead of Mishelle Tischler to win the women’s 50-59 Enduro national title.
“It was sweet winning the start and stripes,” Amy said. “I am most proud of just competing in gravity sports at my age. I hope I inspire more ladies to get out and shred. Watching these kids race and thrive is the best part of coming to the gravity nationals for me. They are all amazing athletes and put much on the line to race Enduro and DH.”
Asa Vermette will next compete in the Crankworx Whistler Mountain Bike Festival, July 21-30 in Canada. He’ll then race at Purgatory Resort Sept. 10 in the third stop of the Dowhnhill Rockies series. He won the first two stops.
After that, Vermette will wrap up his season at the U.S. Open Sept. 24 in Killington, Vermont, where he finished third last year in the pro field.
Ainsley Haggart said she made a last-minute decision to race in the Big Mountain Enduro this weekend, July 22-23, in Brian Head Resort, Utah. She’ll also race in the final BME in Big Sky, Montana before moving to Bellingham, Washington and competing some in the Cascadia Dirt Cup.
