Miner’s Revenge Race Report

The SOKE Miner’s Revenge race weekend went down this last weekend at the Adventure Mine in Greenlad Michigan.

This was the first time this year the Lake Superior Gravity Series racers were lucky enough to have dry weather, but the riders sure did not stay dry. With temperatures well into the 80’s everybody was getting their sweat on during the races!

Photos by Dylan Juchemich

The weekend started off Friday night with a Whip Off on the final jump of Miner’s DH!

The Whip Off was a hit with riders and spectators alike. A lot of riders participated and many more joined in for the warms up prior to the official start of the competition.

Riders had 20 minutes to hit the jump as many times as they wanted. Going for as much height, and as much Whip as they could muster!

The whip off was a lot of fun and I’m sure they’ll be doing that again in the future!

Saturday morning, racing commenced! The enduro was up first, with 6 stages for Expert, 4 for Sport and 3 for Beginner.

Each time up the hill was a push up the ski run, with all stages coming off the same peak.

Of course the mine was involved. With this year racers having to race through the entire mine. Even having to get off their bikes to duck under the low ceiling height spot!

Racers started with the mine stage. With being an almost 4 minute stage, was the longest of the day. Some fun singletrack brought you down to the mine entrance. Where racers were greeted with cool air, lots of water, and lots of pedaling!

For stage 2 the theme of pedaling was continued with Lions Back. The second longest stage at over 2 minutes. If you navigated the slippery right hander into the uphill climb on this stage, you did well! I heard many stories of people getting caught out by that corner.

The last of the morning stages was Miner’s DH. The same trail used for the downhill course, just with a different start and the large jump in the middle of the course was taped off.

After a break for the timing to get switched around, the afternoon started with Hunts trail. The most technical stage of the weekend. Riders dropped into a couple steep rock sections, followed by some fast and rooty singletrack and finished off with a very wet road!

A new addition to this years race was Scenic Piste. Which had racers speed tucking their way down the ski slope, into some tight turns at the bottom! This was the shortest stage of the weekend with the fastest time being 30 seconds.

Finally the enduro ended with Dangerous Curves. A technical trail with, you guessed it, some dangerous curves in it!

Times were tight in the men’s field, with Mike Cortright winning by only 7 seconds. Anett Tribet won the women’s expert category by well over a minute!

The afternoon was calling for a chance of thunderstorm. But yet again racers were blessed with beautiful weather for some racing!

The race was held on the Miner’s DH course that was raced for stage 3 of the enduro. But the start line was moved back, and the large gap jump was opened up for racers to use!