Words and Photographs by Eric Cook

 

 

Riders and filming – JJ Squires and Ulysses Yarbrough. Thanks guys!

 

Angel Fire Opening Day – Done and Dusted

On May 18, Angel Fire Bike Park opened the lifts for their 2018 season! There was good rider turnout and everyone was stoked for some 2,000ft lift served downhill! Big shoutout to the trail crew at Angel Fire for having trails in good shape and ready to shred. Everyone I talked to had the same consensus, trails are running fast, dry, dusty, and loose! I wanted to capture the excitement of the day, the people who were here, and what bikes they were riding.

A recent shoulder injury prevented me from riding my bike, and that made getting into shooting positions a bit difficult. I made the most of the situation and got where I could! If you know the names of people in the following photos, tag them and let me know too so I can update the article with names.

With a full slate of races this year, including the Fire Five DH series and Enduro races from the Rocky Mountain Race Series and the Scott Enduro Cup, it is going to be a big year at Angel Fire! Looking forward to the rest of the 2018 season!

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All Aboard!
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100%
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Ulysses Yarbrough brought the Transition Patrol out for shredding!
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Ulysses Yarbrough leans it over.
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Light conditions were variable throughout the day, the woods could be quite dark!
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Daniel Rhodes leads Ron Cura down the start of Chillin’
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Donna Cura and her appropriately colored Transition Patrol.
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Ron Cura testing his Specialized Stumpjumper in the rough today.
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Ron sending the wood feature at the Chillin’ entry.
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Chasing your friends at the bike park, pretty hard to beat that!
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Going up!
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There were lots of ladies tearing it up on Friday!
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Daniel Rhodes popping and skipping on Ziggy.
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Dave Weinzimmer showing off his Santa Cruz Hightower.
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Dave with a big smile flying down Ziggy. He came down from Salida, CO for opening day!
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Keep er pinned!
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Lots of DH bikes out there today!
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Lots of trail bikes too! JJ Squires coming in hot.
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JJ floating in the chunk.
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Nick Rastas, and Australian native currently residing in Canada came down to shred AF!
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Everyone who rode by had a smile on!
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You can even see the smile through his full face helmet!
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Zigging and zagging through the trees.
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Leaning mean.
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Tyler Dickson brought his Jamis Defcon 1 out for a thrashing today!
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Getting drifty.
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Daniel keeping it low and fast through the Ziggy pumps.
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Brap slap!
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Don’t stop til the top.
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Getting on the pedals!
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JJ Squires proudly displaying his Rocky Mountain Slayer.
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A rare photo of JJ’s wheel actually on the ground.
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The focus is real.
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Hovercrafting.
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I heard New Mexico is just an empty brown desert.
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Daniel fitting into some tight spaces.
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Santa Cruz shining through.
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Ryan Kempfer Reigning supreme. 26 ain’t dead!
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Ryan keeping it smooth! He also came down from Salida, CO to be here for opening day.
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Sunny and Beautiful is right!
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This guy was doing a solid 30mph throwing the shaka. I love it!
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Patrick Manning opting for speed!
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Another form of speed tuck.
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Ulysses Yarbrough keeping the hype train rolling.
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Bonus line popping!
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Aiden Bond with the high speed manual stare down!
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Blue ranger keeping it fast through the trees.
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Emergence.
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Mark Laird enjoying his new Specialized Stumpjumper!
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Daniel coming into upper Devinci’s Code with some speed!
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The trails were just a little dry.
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Face full of dust, soul full of stoke.
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Foot out, flat out!
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Patrick Manning, tight and fast through the Devinci berms.
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“Do a Brosnan tuck for me bro”.  Daniel delivers.
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JJ Squires inhales Ulysses Yarbroughs’ berm dust.
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Ron Cura leaning into the loose berms on Devinci’s Code.
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Daniel leading the charge.
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Until next time.

Thanks for looking! Mountain Bike New Mexico will have photographers at the Scott Enduro Cup race at Angel Fire Bike Park on June 9-10, hope to see you there!

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