2-12-07 // Online Exclusive: Ray's 3Ride

Alex Pro on the speed trials course Alan L. Davis

Outside it was freezing cold—in the teens—throughout the weekend, but inside Ray’s Indoor Mountain Bike Park, in Cleveland,Ohio, the riding and racing action was red hot. This year’s 3Ride event included combined results from four events: speed trials, pump track, skate park, and big air. Riders also had the option to thrown out the result from one of the four, thus helping to even out the playing field.

Speed Trials consists of riders doing timed runs on a line that begins with some fast berms and jumps, then just when you start to get tired you have to navigate across ladder bridges with extra-skinny shortcuts, a rock garden, teeter-totters, and suffer time penalties if you dab. The fastest riders were turning times close to 1:35. This event is always super exciting because there are so many places to make mistakes. Just like last year, Brian Lopes annihilated the course, but not after Kirt Voreis gave him one heck of a challenge. JD Swanguen came in third.

Geoff Gulevich and Cody Warren on the pump track Alan L. Davis

The Pump Track event is always a crowd-pleaser because the entire event happens within a space only about a hundred feet wide so spectators get to see the entire race. Pump tracks are ridden by pumping your bike with your arms and legs up and down over the roller bumps and through the burms. You can generate an incredible about of speed if you have your technique dialed; then the challenge becomes staying on the incredibly tight course. Racers start out doing timed runs then eventually everyone gets whittled down to the top 16 riders, then eight, and so on until we have the final two battling it out for all the money. The finals saw Brian Lopes squared up against JD Swanguen. Before the first round everyone figured JD was done—who could imagine anyone beating Lopes at a speed event like this? JD is only 17 years old, young enough to be Brian's son, and JD shut him down on both final heats—it was very impressive to watch. JD has been riding brakeless a lot lately, and admitted that has improved his flow, speed, and reflexes compared to last year. The third and fourth positions were filled by Cody Warren, who signed with Foes Racing for 2007, and Greg Watts respectively.

The skate and street comp gave each rider a few minutes to perform a run in the Subaru Street Park and then return to show a few more moves before trying to wow the crowd with one final trick. Brian Lopes doesn’t ride street very much so he chose to skip this event. JD made one of the biggest impressions by hitting a quarter-to-quarter transition so hard he smacked into a lighting fixture sending two eight-foot fluorescent bulbs exploding onto the ground below. After cleaning up the mess, the highlights of the event included Greg Watts doing a backflip-tailwhip (flip-whip), Phil Sundbaum performing a 360-tailwhip, and Adam Hauk tailwhiping off the wall of a bowl. In the end, Phil won followed by JD, and Adam.

Andrew Taylor tailwhips through the Subaru Street Park Alan L. Davis

The final event of the weekend was the big air jump comp which consisted of riders dropping in, and when I say “dropping in” I mean literally dropping eight feet down out of the rafters, onto a start ramp before circling one side of the building where the big jump line is situated. Many of the competitors took advantage of the drop-in to throw tables, one-footers, X-ups, and 360s. Phil Sundbaum provided the biggest thrill of the day when he landed a sick 720 over the Red Bull box jump causing a huge rear tire blow out that reverberated through the entire building. JD Swanguen repeatedly tried to land a crazy 180-to-fakie, but did not succeed. In the end Phil got first, his Black Market teammate, Adam Hauk, took second, and Omar Romero got third.

For the overall title, JD Swanguen, who just signed to ride for the Cove Factory Team, road faster, smoother, and bigger than an impressive field of pro riders and walked away with the huge $3000 bundle of single dollar bills, plus the prize money for the individual events. Second overall went to last year’s champion Greg Watts, while Phil Sundbaum took third place.

The overall podium Alan L. Davis

Go HERE for the complete photo gallery.

Overall Results - 1. JD Swanguen 2. Greg Watts 3. Phil Sundbaum 4. Kyle Strait 5. Adam Hauk

Speed Trials - 1. Brian Lopes 2. Kirt Voreis 3. JD Swanguen 4. Jeff Lenosky 5. Greg Watts

Pump Track - 1. JD Swanguen 2. Brian Lopes 3. Cody Warren 4. Greg Watts 5. Cam Zink

Street Park - 1. Phil Sundbaum 2. JD Swanguen 3. Adam Hauck 4. Omar Romero 5. Greg Watts

Big Air - 1. Phil Sundbaum 2. Omar Romero 3. Adam Hauck 4. Greg Watts 5. Kyle Strait