2024 Fox U.S. Open of Mountain Biking Race Show

We're here at the Fox US Open in Killington, Vermont for the final round of the Monster Energy Pro Downhill Series presented by Continental. If this weekend's race lineup was a relationship, its status would be complicated. We have a heavy mix of domestic and international pros in attendance, all fighting for a chance to win one of the largest cash purses in a sport of downhill. In the chase for the series overall, the top five men are all within reach of taking the win, but with just a few points separating our series leaders Dante Silva and Cole Suetos, all eyes are on them. In the elite women's category, Eris Van Leeuwen and Aletha Oscard have been playing musical chairs on the podium all season. It's come down to the final round to see who will come out victorious. So let's head up the hill for a breakdown on this weekend's track. Right out of the gate, our riders will be confronted with a technical rock garden that leads them into a blind step down. From there, they'll really build momentum in a flowy section that leads into the top woods. The upper woods section features dark soil littered with tricky off-camber corners punctuated by slick rocks and huge roots. There are multiple line choices and making good decisions will be crucial to find and hold momentum for the fastest line. As riders connect the dots, this section will not only set the tone for their entire run, but also be critical to take home the SR Suntour Hole Shot award. The open sections of the track really provide opportunities to gain momentum and speed as the woods will continue to deliver an onslaught of roots, rocks, and heavy compressions. There are multiple lines. It'll be really critical for riders to choose what's working best for them. About halfway through their race run, riders will face one of the longest rock gardens the course has to offer. With so many lines to choose from, it'll be clear who did their homework during practice to carry the fastest line through this section on race day. From here, riders enter a long section through the woods. The steepness backs off, so it'll be critical for riders to find momentum with every pump they can. After that, riders will be spit back out onto the ski slope into a nice flowy section that's going to pick speeds back up quickly. A shark fin left leads into a full-on sprint into a huge double followed by the gnarliest whoops we've seen in a series so far. Exit speed out of this whoop section is going to be mission critical. There's an off-camber left with nothing of consequence for quite some time on the course to slow riders down. As racers enter the last wooded section, they'll be met with one final rock garden before hitting the home stretch. And it all comes down to this. Riders exit the woods out into the ski slope, hit a shark fin to a long and low, into the last final turn before the finish line. We're standing down here in a finish line corral and I have the privilege of catching up with Andrew Needling, a former U.S. Open champion. Andrew, you had an opportunity to ride with some of the top riders this weekend, get past on the course. Tell us a little bit about what your thoughts are. What's it going to take to win this weekend? Yeah, thanks Lars. Yeah, there's an incredible track here, one of the shorter tracks here stateside, but it was wet earlier in the week and that was really tricky for the riders. I was chatting to some of them, very slippery, but what it did is it really formalized some of the lines. There's a lot of ruts that have developed, but as you said, I was passed very quickly by Dak Norton. He's going to be one of our favorites out there and what it's going to take is a really almost perfect run. So it's really critical to be smart on where you're going to be aggressive and where you're going to maybe tone it back a bit. Ride within yourself because you're going to carry way more speed into these sections. Like the whoops, you've got to be aggressive, but if you mess that up, there's a long straight after that. You're going to lose a lot of seconds to someone that gets it clean. So speaking to a lot of the riders, that is what they're focusing on is how hard do you really attack and how much flow can you keep on this track? All right, so let's kick it over to Will and Grizz for our race coverage. Thank you Lars and welcome race fans to the final round of the Monster Energy Pro Downhill Series. I am Will Washam back in the announcing booth with Sean Grizz, McClendon, and Grizz. This is the exclamation point that we're about to put on a wildly successful first season of Monster Energy Pro Downhill. Will, it has been an amazing season so far. An honor to be back in the booth with you again. Let's dive straight into this pro women's field. We've got World Cup winners, Junior World Championship medalists, and all of the fastest women from the United States here. That's right, Will. These colors don't run. As you can see, we have the best of the best for U.S. Downhill. Reigning national champ Anna Newkirk, Kaylee Skelton, two-time national champion, and Allie Oskar, current Cat One 16 and under national champion. And Allie's in contention to take an overall title this weekend. You know these ladies are all excited to line up and go to work against the best of the best in the world. Yeah, Grizz, this top five is so close. Separated by just two and a half seconds on a track where one mistake can cost you the win. And our fastest time in seating was put down by Millie Yonsett of the Canyon Collective. We'll see who can take that SR Suntour hole shot today as we go racing. Allie Oskar will be our first rider on course. She sits in the hot seat as we make our way to our top five. Grizz, she's been on fire this season. She has, and you look at the track, it almost looks like a fire came through and dried it out, looking like it's rolling super fast today. And as Needles mentioned, look at these beautiful ruts developing. Yeah, it's going to be really interesting to watch these riders paint lines. This track is taped really wide. As you heard in the course overview, it's all about carrying speed. You're going to see these little catches in places where riders are able to anchor up and make their turns. And we're already through split number one, Grizz. It's a 42.08 for Allie Oskar, and that's faster than the fastest split number one we saw yesterday. So this battle for the SR Suntour hole shot will be fierce. Well, Allie is here to win a championship and she's executing on the day very, very well. And you know what? Looking at the track, getting back to the track, it looks like it is held up great through the weekend. Bang! Look at that triple. Okay. Allie not holding back in the least bit. It is a battle between Oskar and Van Leeuwen for the series overall title. They're separated by just two points as we come into split number two. It's a 210.09, and you can see the pace of Oskar. Oh, she's on the ragged edge. You can see there's a lot of feedback going into her body, and that's not because she's riding bad lines. That's because she's riding on the edge. Look at her getting pedals. You know, that's going to be a trick that everyone needs to pull out of their sleeves today is sprint everywhere you possibly can. And the only time she stopped pedaling right there, Grizz, was to smash that whoop section. She almost crashed the tree pad. What a save. Wow. I don't think that was the line she meant to be on, but that was unbelievable. Riding from Allie Oskar, she has just really turned it up this year, Will. I've been nothing but impressed with her riding. Well, she's going to have to turn up a little bit more pace. You can see she lost the flow, and she lost the front wheel. Was able to hold on to it, though. She was first at round number one, back-to-back second places at Mountain Creek and Big Bear, and Oskar will set the standard here at 306.22. So she has thrown it down. Celebrations with her sister, Taylor, there in the finish corral. Sierras Van Leeuwen congratulating her. Oskar is going to take the title as she's going to beat that time of Van Leeuwen. Let's go back up and look at this run, Grizz. Yeah, look. She's a little offline here. Look at that heavy compression. Back end steps out. Just avoids disaster, but wow. On the ragged edge and into her first professional downhill championship. Great riding, Allie. Frida Ralling kicks off our top five for the Union, forged by Steel City Media. The Norwegian national champion getting out of the start gate. Frida hopping for some science. Looks like she's got a little science device here on her fork. Not sure what's going on there, but you know, Frida is no stranger to East Coast racing here at Willows. She's thrown down at the U.S. Open many, many times before and done pretty well. Yeah, it's her second home here. Collins, Tennessee, her home, and she would be getting into some science, Grizz, because she's going for a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering. Wonder what she's got cooking in that little percolator device on that boxer up front, but oh, she's got some lines cooking right there, Grizz. That was full-on high line coming into the hole shot. It's a 43.42, so it won't be a big hole shot money payday, but $15,000 still up for grabs if Frida can put down the win today. You know, this is a good Mount St. Anne prep weekend for a lot of these World Cup riders, and I'm wondering if Frida's maybe just not riding at full intensity today and just sort of, you know, maybe just saving it for her World Cup campaign. We can just see the intensity's just a little bit backed off from where Allie was at in his previous run, but Frida is always clean and tidy. She's having herself a nice race run. I think her intensity's just a little off, and yeah, split two. Yeah, a little bit off the pace there, 217.65, but she's such a fun rider to watch on the bike. Just really smooth, got incredible corner speed. She's going to come in through these whoops, make short work of them. That was a clean line through those whoops, and great exit speed, too. You know, Needles mentioned that this section here is critical. If you mess up the whoops, you can lose a lot of time in this section, which is critical. Yeah, and Frida clean through that off-camber where we almost saw Allie Oscar slip off on the low side, and Frida's got some points to win today, too, Grizz. She was second at Rock Creek, so stacking up some series points. She could potentially disrupt, right? If well, we already know it's going to be Allie Oscar taking the cake, but she could disrupt third. She could even make a, yeah, could be a disruptor. Well, it's a 3.16 for Frida. We're going to go back up and take a look at this outside line. I really like this line, Will. I think we're going to see a lot of racers kind of use that to their advantage going wide like that. We might see some Well, our fourth-seeded rider, Elyse Impey out of Australia riding for Synergy at 37. She put down a 3.17 yesterday. She's all smiles for race day today. She was just 2.45 off that top time of Millie Onset. Not a bad place to be for your first appearance on United States soil. This is Elyse's first appearance in the Monster Pro Downhill Series, and she's been having a good run on the World Cups. She's actually a byproduct. She grew up racing the Victorian Downhill Series down there in Australia, Will. That's a really, that's like downhill southeast of Australia. Well, and it's done her right. She was ninth place at the World Championships just a handful of weeks ago, and you said, Chris, she's been feeling right at home on the World Cups, going to anchor up there on that low line. She comes into the hole shots of 44.16. A little bit of ground to make up, but totally possible here on this track in Vermont. It is possible, but it's going to take precision pump and explosive pump to make up the time. You can see these World Cup riders, they're not pedaling as much as Allie Oscard was. I think these riders are used to the more steeper European trails. Vermont is steep enough, but it's not nearly steep. You got to really earn your speed here on this mountain. When we saw Impey just take an inside line, we're free to running before her, taking the outside over the big triple right there. Good work over the triple. She hung up a little bit. I don't think it's going to cost her too much, but what it might do is fatigue those legs a little bit, and you got to have all the leg strength you possibly can muster up for this section. And again, this is a great, well, split two. She's a little bit back more, deeper in the red, but again, just going back to what I wanted to say, this is a great prep race for mountain. Very, very similar terrain, maybe just not quite as fast and quite as heavy hits. Well, some big hits coming right here in the whoops. Elyse Impey, she's really kind of taking the World Cup scene by storm. It's a new name, mixing it up in the top 10. She was seventh in Loudonville, took a win in the IXS Cup in Verbier. She's been tearing it up this year, and she just tore up that section that Allie made that mistake, and I think Elyse here rode the line that Allie meant to be on, but what is the time going to tell if she makes her way to the bottom here? We'll see if Impey can knock Aletha Oscard off the hot seat. She's going to come through the finish, and it's going to be a 311.73, so five seconds off the pace currently. The pace has certainly been turned up today on race day. We take a look at this sneaky inside here from Impey. Great execution. I think this is what Needles was talking about, kind of just threading the, not going too hard, but not, you know, being too reserved. That was a great execution from her. Well, here's Anna Newkirk for Beyond Racing, our current U.S. national champ. Back-to-back, I might add. Qualified in third place, put down a time that was only 1.5 seconds off the top time from the onset. It's totally possible for Newkirk to get the win today. Well, she's going to need to find about 10 seconds of speed out there on the track today, and what I'm seeing is it's going to take the sprints in these little in-between connector sections where they're not pumping. They're going to have to sprint to make up that time that Allie just threw down. Anna Newkirk looking great through this upper wood section. Oh, look at that nice tidy inside line with good exit speed. Yes, Will, that's what I'm talking about. Yeah, this is what we want to see out of Newkirk. Oh, and it's a 40.98 on the SR Suntour hole shot. Still outside the fastest time we saw earlier today from Phoebe Gale. It's a 40.5 that would currently take home that $1,000 prize from SR Suntour. We see some dirt kicking up from that rear tire. Newkirk shredding the turns. Newkirk came out of the gate 10 out of 10 on intensity, and she has just not let off. She's building speed, keeping the rev limiter pinned. I like this run from Anna Newkirk. Stars and stripes flying strong. Oh, look at that. Greases the triple. Nice setup into that berm. How's she going to handle these woods? Looks like she's got plenty of energy. Oh, she's handling these rocks with ease. Grease, you can just see the composure in her upper body. So go to split two, two, 12.17. So she's dropped back just a bit. She's two seconds off the pace of Oscar. Wow, it's so tough to see on camera. I mean, Allie through that section in between split one and two was there was a lot of feedback going into her body. Anna is just buttery smooth, making the speed look like it's effortless. What's she going to do for us on the whoops? Oh, clean. Look at that exit speed. Oh, Newkirk checking out here. She went low line right there. Very smooth. She was sixth place at the world champs, had her first world cup podium this year in elite second at Leogang and a nice line right there, gapping those rocks. Well, you know, I'm just looking at Anna's kit and I'm noticing some dirt on the back of her left thigh. So maybe something happened off camera that cost her some speed. You know, she had a blazing fast for a split time. What's it going to be here? Well, here's Newkirk put down her bid at the Fox U.S. Open. She'll go forth. So a three oh nine point three to not able to touch that time of Allie Oscar. She gets some congratulations from a teammate, Abby Hoagie down there in the finish corral. Let's take a look at this line and a Newkirk just absolutely surgical precision diced these woods up from top to bottom. Well, Nina Hoffman is up next, qualified in second place yesterday, back to back U.S. Open champion, and she is back for another go trying to make it a three piece. I can't remember off the top of my head if any riders have repeated the U.S. Open. This could be history. Well, well, you know, Hoffman would love to make history today. She's been searching for a big result. She's fifth in the World Cup overall to podiums at Fort William and in Poland. But that big major win has escaped her so far this year. Well, what a race to get a win. There's a lot of cash on the line. This could be a big payday for Nina Hoffman. Here's the S.R. Sun to her whole shots of forty one point five. So not enough to best the time of Phoebe Gale. That is up on our Sometimes, you know, let the pennies and the nickels go away. She's after a big fat prize purse. Nina Hoffman is looking to get a race win today, Will. Well, the syndicate rider on rails across that berm didn't even look like she had to pull up for the triple. No, catching clean back side and look at the pace difference that that made for Nina as she attacks these rocks. Oh, and a mistake right there, a dab, a dab, a quick recovery. She's clipped back in two seconds back, though that cost her. Yep. If anyone can ratchet the intensity back up, though, it's going to be Nina Hoffman. You can see she just punished that turn changing direction. Look at that set up. Here she goes. She's building her pace back up. Well, like you said, she can do this. A tuck into the whoops, a quick touchdown in Hoffman's out. That's blazing speed through the whoops. Great exit speed. Look at the stars and stripes flying in those backwoods. Nina Hoffman taking a bit of a different line through there. Good exit speed. Slowed down. Nice, cautious entrance. Oh, look at that nice gap. What's she going to do here? Keeping it low. I think this section is going to get more and more exciting as this race evolves today, Will. Will Hoffman needed to make up about two seconds if she wants to take over the hot seat. Did she do it down here on the bottom of the course in Killington? Nina Hoffman will go into the hot seat at three oh five point nine seven, a quarter of a second faster than Ali Oscar. Nina Hoffman. Wow. Is that going to be enough to hold it down? She did have that big bobble. What a recovery and what a race run. Yeah. And here we're going to get a firsthand look at that. Yeah. She dabbed the left hand foot in the gnarliest part of the track going into the rock garden. And we've got one final rider left to go to try to knock Nina Hoffman off that top step. It's the Canyon Collective's Millie Jansett out of Norway. She put down a three fifteen yesterday. We've already seen that time go way by and the pace ratcheted up today. Here's Millie Jansett on her bid for U.S. Open glory. Well, Millie's going to have to find about nine seconds if she wants to get a race win here today. And look at that sprint. She knows she can't pump her way down this track. She's going to have to earn her speed. Good execution. Can't see any mistakes through there. Well, well, Jansett, 23 years old, but tons of experience in world class racing from her junior days and her five seasons in elite. She's just letting the bike loose, looking where she wants to go. This is looking like a great run. We'll see the split right here. So forty one point seven two. She's a little bit back, but gaps out of that turn. Jansett is looking absolutely comfortable in Vermont. And you know, well, she's only raced at Snowshoe. This is her first monster pro downhill appearance. This is her first appearance in Killington, Vermont. And she looks at home. Yeah, taking that inside line and again, getting a nice pump out of it. Well, her energy looks good, hangs up on that triple just a little bit. Nina Hoffman was so clean on that triple. I think that made a big difference for her. Yeah, we will see Jansett navigating these rocks here. A little bit more woods to go before we hit the whoops. Oh, and she's lost major time, Gris. Ten seconds. Something happened off camera because this has been a electric race run. I haven't seen many mistakes from her. So, yeah, something absolutely happened off camera. She lost a ton of time. Yeah, there's still air in both of the tires, but this run has been a little bit deflated. Ten seconds back, but Jansett still giving it. She just, she went the deepest into the whoops so far. That was impressive. Basically gapped the whole section. Yeah, I'm going to have to go back and count it. I think she jumped into the last three or four. That was like, that was unreal. Yeah, she's still pedaling. Jansett still giving it everything she's got. There's just a few more pedal strokes and one more jump left. Is it going to be Nina Hoffman's day? It looks like it is, Gris. As we come down to the finish line, our final rider, Millie Jansett. She's going to break the beam with a 310.74 and it's going to be Nina Hoffman going back to back to back with a huge three-peat here at the Fox US Open. Nina Hoffman was due and what a race to go and get that tasty victory. What a ride, ladies. Let's go hear from Nina in the finish corral. Nina, we just have to catch a word with you really quick. I mean, I can see it on your face. You're super stoked. What a performance. You've done it before. What does it mean to you to come back here and back it up? It's such a good race. Just so much fun with all these people here. To be honest, I didn't enjoy the track in the wet. Super sketchy. Really stoked going on this track this morning or this lunchtime when it was a bit drier. It was not the cleanest run, but I really pushed till the end. Pedaled my lungs out of my body and yeah, paid off. Fantastic. Good job. Congratulations. Though it's unofficial, absolutely stellar performance. Really stoked for you. Thank you. Well, Griz, this pro men's field here at the US Open is incredible. There's four World Cup winners, one World Cup overall champion, and one of the most dominant enduro riders all sitting inside the top 10 from seed. And Will, the field is over 100 riders deep for our pro men's. That field is full of hungry domestic American racers that are frothing at the chance to compete with the world's best on home soil. And we've got four Americans in the top 10. They're going to try to put some pressure on our top qualifiers. We got Dakota Norton that was in third, Richie Rudin in fifth, Lucas Shaw right behind him, and Aaron Gwin back in the top 10, but they got to pressure our top qualifier, Lachlan Stevens-McNabb. He was 2.5 seconds clear of the field yesterday with a 244.2. And Griz, right out of the gate, we've got Ronan Dunn, our current hot seat rider. Before we get into our top 10, he was seven seconds off the pace yesterday, but the two-time Red Bull Hardline winner has turned it up for finals here at the Fox US Open. No kidding, Will. Look at the pace he's got out of the gate. Ronan woke up and shows, let's attack today. He is looking like he is absolutely on fire and comfortable here at Killington, Vermont. Yeah, and the beautiful thing about this track is, I mean, there's not a whole lot to really slow you down. Like, if you're willing to hit the routes and hit the lines, hit the off-cambers, you can really carry pace. He's 35.67 at split number one. That's faster than the fastest split one we saw yesterday for the SR-Suntour hole shot. Yeah, Ronan is ripping right now. You can hear him. He's got his breathing locked in. He's got that heavy occult, that tomahawk breath. So you know he's locked in, he's focused, and he is just executing. 10 out of 10 precision, minimal mistakes. I think this is exactly what Needles was talking about. He's just buttery smooth off that triple. Wow. He tipped it right in, got plenty of backside off the triple, and he's used to putting on shows here in the US. Gave us a show in the second place at Snowshoe 2023 World Cup, and it's a 152.98 at split number two. Wow, Ronan executing a nice outside line. He's got his pin. He's pinned. He's got his speed tapped. I mean, any faster, and he's blowing off the tape here. First rider from the pro men through the whoops. It's done. Gapsome. He might hit the last two. I think his front wheel hit the gap. Again, freeze frame that. That was sick. Holy cow. All right, let's get back in it. Ronan done here. Oh, and catches an extra backside off that rock garden gap. Took his inaugural win on the World Cup series this year in Poland. He's third overall in the series. So truly one of the class of the elite men's field. Oh, and he's going to go 243. Faster than time from Laughlin Stevens McNabb yesterday. All right, we've got ourselves a downhill race. Ronan done throwing down the heater. You know, he's feeling the freedom. He had a lot of stars and stripes coming into that finish line. Look at this. Oh, and here's the replay you wanted, Chris. All right. All right. His front looks like his front wheel hit the last. He gapped into the last three whoops. That was sick. And here's Andreas Kolb writing for Continental Atherton. Another one of our World Cup winners in the field, Andy Kolb, also the European champ. Yeah, stoked to see Andy Kolb on U.S. soil. What's he going to do for us here at Killington, Vermont? Looks like he's got the same intensity and pace that Ronan done just threw down. I can see a hole developing right there, Chris, where everyone's landing and some of that softer, a little bit of moisture leftover from earlier in the week. That's going to be an abrupt one to hit right out of the gate. Oh, yeah. And, you know, it's going to take all the length strength you've got to keep. Look, these riders are just pumping. It's like a massive pump track at about 35 miles an hour or whatever the speeds you guys are carrying. And he's green at split one. Well, yes, he is. Thirty five point four seven. We're going to keep a watch on split number one to see who's going to take home a thousand dollars courtesy of S.R. Suntory. Look at Andy Kolb just pumping. I mean, great execution. Minimal. He's on the edge of the knobs. Yeah, he is. Look at this. Oh, gapping out wide, Andy Kolb. Yeah, this is a good run. Well, I really like what I'm seeing here. Fifth in the World Cup overall, and Andy Kolb's just been at the sharp end of World Cup racing for the past few seasons. He set up in these woods. Oh, he's gone. See you later. Andy Kolb looks like he's positively at home and he's green at split two. Oh, he's up by six tenths, took that outside line right there, skipped over the top of a few holes. Man, he's just getting maximum pump and maximum explosive pop. What's he going to do for us in the whoops? Is he going to just clear them all? Not quite. But those whoops are begging for mercy right now. Are we going to see is maybe Jack Norton going to just gap all of them? Are we going to see anybody gap all the whoops? I'm excited. Andy Kolb, here he comes. What's he going to do for us in this? Oh, massive gap. Nice pre-hop. Good execution from Andy Kolb. Yeah, that Atherton bike is looking money here in Vermont. It's got really, really good pop and pump. Kolb going to challenge the top time of Ronan Dunn. He comes down fastest by 1.3. It's a 241.7. Okay. Okay. So they're just getting faster and faster. We've got ourselves a downhill race, Will. Yeah, here's one of these lines. Kolb, he's going to anchor up and gaps all the way to the outside. Yeah, that was a highlight of his run. For sure. Clean execution. Angel Suarez, the Spanish rider for Frameworks Racing, put down a 249 yesterday. He's got to be feeling right at home here on U.S. Soul. You know, Nico's got him primed and ready for the U.S. Open today. Oh, yeah. Could this be the second Frameworks factory rider to get a Monster Energy Pro downhill race win this season? We had Ace of Vermont throwing down heaters in Mountain Creek. Here's his teammate, Angel Suarez, just looking like he's absolutely comfortable and on the gas at Killington, Vermont. Look at this pace, Will. Oh, the pace is there, and Suarez has proven over the years that when he is on, he is dangerous to take a race win. He's just dancing on the bike. What's the SR Sun Tour hole shot time going to be for Angel Suarez? He's right there, 35.75, so Andy Kolb still holding on to the top time so far. You can hear Angel's breathing on point. Wow, look at that gap out. Oh, so much style from Suarez. He was a little bit more conservative than Andy Kolb through that section. Could that have cost him some time? Angel's looking good, clean over this triple. Nice setup, early braking into that corner. All right, this is a critical section here. What's he going to do? Coming into this rock garden straight to the outside. Oh, looking good. He's building some pace here. Yep, he's kept the time just about the same, so he's one second back of Andy Kolb. It's going to be tough for him to make up any time from here. Can he gap the whole whoops? Is that going to be the key to the race? Just gap the whoops. That could be it. That could be the differentiator today. Here it comes. Well, if that's what it takes, that's what these racers are going to do. Suarez just skipping low on them. Oh, yeah, just cakewalk. He's got a motocross background. Those felt just like brake bumps, basically, for him. What we've seen here at Killington of this final wood split can be a decisive one. There's one second on the clock that Suarez needed to make up there. Perfect backside on that jump, squashing here on the pedals down to the finish line. He had to make up one second on Andy Kolb. Suarez, he does it. Angel Suarez into the hot seat at 241.6. He's owning it. You know, I think those race fans gave him a little fan of freedom. You see those flags, they kind of pushed him to the line faster. Anything that it takes here. We see this whoops Aaron Gwynn is our next rider. Eight place yesterday in qualifying with 248 on Grizz. We've been so excited to see him back at the races. He was at national champs and now he's back here at the U.S. Open. Oh, yeah. Well, you know, Aaron Gwynn is a happy man to be back between the tape. And you know what's crazy? He's got a 100 percent podium rate in the U.S. since he's returned to racing this year. Not a surprise, Grizz, to hear that stat. Gwynn, I mean, he's just been dynamite on a downhill bike since day one. Don't think that will ever change. He's 100 percent the GOAT for USDH. He's that's all I got to say, man. He's the GOAT. So what's he got for us? A whole shot. Yeah, we'll let the riding do the talking, Grizz. He is up by eight hundredths of a second, 35.67. I know he's been so excited to get this new Crestline race bike out on the races. Gaff right there into the corner and he said to the inside. Yeah, Aaron is just looking comfortable on his new Crestline and he is so glued to the ground, you know, even when he pumps and like I mean, he just popped a triple. Look, he pops a triple, but he's so low glued tires back on the ground and he's just aiming for speed. Oh, and he's let it wide open there through the rocks straight down the gut. Oh my goodness. Committing to that turn before the rock garden. Oh, and he's up by 1.2. No surprises. Aaron Gwinn absolutely hitting the afterburners through these lower woods here at Killington, Vermont. What's he got for us here? Opting for a little bit more centered setup into that corner. So we've seen some riders. That was a good rhythm. That was a really good rhythm. You know, we've seen some riders hugging the tape on that entrance, but he's not pedaling. Oh, he took those things wide to the outside. Yeah. Yep. All right. He doesn't have a bike issue. The way he pedaled there. I didn't I don't know if he was just making a correction or or his chain lock. But now Aaron's looking like he's good. Nice, low, great exit speed here. Wow. This is going to be a nail biting fight to the finish here. Well, does he have it? Yeah, it's an impressive run for Aaron Gwinn. You know, he's still trying to get up to full race fitness. Haven't been off the bike for such a long time. He was up by over a second. Gwinn comes down to line. Oh, and he fades back to fourth place to forty two point five nine, a second off the pace of Angel Suarez. Yeah, he knows he left a little bit out there, but that was impressive to see. I think he one needed to gap all these whoops and two. I'm going to put it on the fans at the finish line. They weren't waffling those American flags hard enough for Gwinn. Hopefully they get ramped up by the time we get to our top five. We got Luke Myers Smith seventh in a seating yesterday on track right now. Two top tens in the EDR this year. It's been really consistent. Yeah, when I was doing my homework on this, dude, I was like, oh, this guy rips on everything. Downhill, e-bikes, enduro, and he's like at the highest level on everything. It's pretty amazing. And, you know, he has raised the U.S. Open here previously, Will. So what's Luke Meyer got for us today? Well, he's rocking the national championship sleeve of Australia, one of the historically great downhill nations. That is an accurate statement. And, you know, I was listening to the OTB podcast the other week, and I know Sam Hill's got his eyes here on Monster Energy Pro Downhill. Could we see the greatest from Australia come and contend the series in 2025? That would be exciting, huh? Yeah, we'd love to see it. It's Meyer Smith gapping out of that left-hand turn. He's on the giant factory off-road team. Again, right there, you heard Meyer Smith. He's got his breathing locked in. I call it that Tomac breath. That is a key to going fast. I learned it from Kyle Strait. If your breath ain't right, your speed's wrong. You're going to be way off. Well, Meyer Smith was right there in touch at that first split. He's coming into this rock section, maybe not quite as aggressive as Gwen, getting bounced around just a smidge, but he's on pace with the top time, just three-tenths out of that top spot. Meyer Smith certainly got the job done there, like you said, maybe not as quick as Gwen, but definitely good enough. He's in touch. He's opting for that outside, hugging the tape into this berm. What's he got for us in these whoops here, Will? Oh, he is just ramping this run up, Grizz. He was inside on one of those left-hand turns, just a quick touchdown, and he's out. Similar to what we saw from Angel Suarez, nice skim of the whoops. And those riders are coming so close to the right-hand side of the track right there as they drop back into the woods. Oh, he's back on the pedals. Yeah, back on the pedals. He hugged the inside off that little rock drop. This is going to be, again, what a fight he's going to try. These fans, the flag, I think the flag could be a real differentiator too. Well, Meyer Smith down across the line. He goes third, just 0.3 off the top time. Incredibly tight racing here at the top. Suarez just dodged one right there. It's going to be Suarez, Kolb, and Meyer Smith, your top three, separated by just over three hundredths. You got to love it. These sub three-minute tracks make for tight racing like this. And Luca Shaw is our next rider, the first of three more Americans we're going to see here in US Open Finals with sixth place yesterday, doing it for the Canyon Collective. You know, Luca Shaw in his head is probably thinking it's, I'm due to go downhill series races. So can he get it done today here at Killington, Vermont? We're about to find out. Yeah, a man that rides with ultimate precision. Oh, textbook. Yeah. If I was going to tell any rider, if someone said, hey, Grizz, how should I ride a downhill bike? I'm like, look at Luca Shaw and don't look anywhere else. Oh, he's linked up the rhythms really nicely right there. Coming up to the SR Suntour hole shot here at the top. Oh, and he's fastest, 35.68. And he just makes it look so easy, Will. His flow is phenomenal. Yeah, he's got complete command over that downhill bike. There's going to be some opportunities to let this thing run here lower on the course. Maybe a smidge off balance on that inside, though. A little off balance, but he was right back on the pedals. So he made up good quick recovery. I mean, all these riders are just making quick recoveries from the slightest mistakes that unfortunately do happen in downhill racing. Right there on the main line. And man, his bike is just so composed. It's kind of difficult to tell the speed here. The time will tell us. And he's on pace with the top time. Oh, yeah. He's just one tenth back on Suarez. This could be a huge result. Oh, look at that pre-hop for Luca Shaw. Oh my goodness. Again, hugging the tape here. What's he going to do? Is he going to gap all the whoops? Are we going to see the whoops get gapped today? Please, Luca, do it. Send it. You can do this. All of them. So Shaw's tucking into these whoops. A quick touchdown. Nice. He's had two top tens on the World Cup so far this year. But can he get a race win here today? Killington, Vermont. Luca Shaw looking on point. I don't think he's leaving anything on the track today. Well, he's about to dump the tank here coming into the finish line. He absolutely wants to win here at the Monster Energy Pro Downhill Series that you mentioned. He was third at Rock Creek at round number one. Luca Shaw wrapping up his run here at the U.S. Open. And it's nine hundreds off the time of Angel Suarez. Are you kidding me? Yeah, that's that's downhill racing. I mean, wow. Does it get any tighter? It might come down a gap in the whoops, Chris, that would have been worth nine hundreds if you could stretch that one out a little bit as we move into our top five. Another American heavy hitter. It is Richie Rude for Yeti Fox Factory. Oh, so excited to see Richie Rude racing downhill in his environment. You know, that's where he started my introduction to Richie Rude. He was 14 racing downhill with Gravity. Excuse me. Yeah, it was Gravity East race back then. And what a career he has had since then. Well, and he's almost reinventing himself going back to his downhill routes towards the the middle part of his career, Chris. Yeah, you know, he said earlier, I think he's just excited to race downhill again while he still can. You know, all these riders that are approaching age 30 and above 30, they know there's a generation right behind them that are coming. They're going to lift the bar and the clock is ticking. In fact, the clock is ticking here at the S.R. Suntour Hole Shot. And unfortunately, Richie Rude a little bit back at split one here. He's going to be back on that time of Luca Shaw. Shaw just took over the the hole shot there, but an interesting rhythm from Rude. Yeah, pretty consistent with what we've been seeing from riders past. Oh, nice aggression. Look at that pop. Yeah, that that exit speed, you know, that exactly that section is probably what cost Luca Shaw the hot seat in that previous run. Richie straight down the main line into this rock garden. Everybody's been on that same line, Chris. Yeah, I don't think there's any advantage of going inside there at all. And Richie losing, he's made up time. Yeah, he's in touch here. He can he can ramp it up. What's he got for us here? Hugging the outside tape. All right. Gap the whoops, Richie, please. It's going to be a gap or a skim. That seems to be. Oh, he's peddling into it. OK, that was an aggressive skim battle that'll get the job done. Oh, he's high right here. He anchored up to the high line that was blazing. That could have just reeled in the second he's looking for here. Well, oh, yeah, the pace is there in this section. You can tell where we're flattening out the track just a little bit. So that extra speed he carried into that section going to be crucial is rude. Gaps that. Well, he's just done everything he possibly could. If this isn't great. Oh, and he's just off the pace. Point seven. He's into fourth place. These riders are so stacked up here at the top as Angel Suarez sits on in the hot seat and really just buried himself. This is Enduro World Series champion power peddling at this jump three time overall, I might add, for the Enduro World Series and was not quite enough. He got the extra win from the flags, Chris. I think Angel got the best win to the flags thus far today, though. Well, we roll on to Matt Walker from the UK, 25 years old, a man with some big time success in the World Cup, took a win at Leo getting back in 2022 and was the overall champ in 2020. So tons of experience coming into this one positively. I am excited to see Matt Walker racing in the United States. I like this kid. He's got some playful colors going on. And, you know, again, Matt, one of these riders who's taken this weekend as a prep for Mount St. Anne. And there's a shot to win a lot of money here today. So, you know, that would also be a nice cherry on top, right? Well, yeah, well, you can see he's already pushing. You see the tire mark there on his nice white pants. That's our Suntour whole shot coming at us right here. Oh, and he's got a thirty five point two nine, almost a half second up. That might hold on, Chris. Yeah, that's where you want to be, because we know the lower part of this track. It's been a crapshoot. Some of these riders have been losing time in areas I just can't pick up. So Matt Walker, good right there on the cat, on the pedals out of that section. That's critical low on that triple as well. So that Madison Saracen team, a storied team that supported a lot of British riders over the years. Yeah, I mean, we even have Steve Pete in the house thinking of British riders and he's on pace. So he's dropped some time back. He is now seven tenths off the pace. But a big gap in a perfect back. Triples in hugs the tape. All right. Matt Walker is probably going to be the guy to get the works. Tuck in on the inside. He does gap in. Yeah, I don't think Gavin would be faster if it was faster. Somebody would have done it by now. Walker clean through that section. What can you do right here? Yeah, it gets a nice hot one little pedal stroke in there. Good pace. Yeah, great pace. Looks like his energy is up. Here he is. He's got to dump the tank now. Finish line is coming around. Flags are flying. Matt Walker finishing his bid at the U.S. Open. He goes eight. He lost two seconds at the bottom. How did that happen? It's tough to tell where these riders are losing their time. Well, it's let's go over to the hot seat with Lars to hear from Angel. So I'm just sitting down here on a hot seat, going to catch up with Angel. Hey, what a run. You're sitting on a hot seat. There's just a few more riders to go. How are you feeling? I'm feeling good, man. I'm so happy that I came here. Such a cool event. Such a cool track. It's not like what we raced, like it's not steep, but it's still like super fun and super hard to race. I'm stoked to be here and had a really good run. Excellent. So you've been putting that Frameworks bike to the test, doing a lot of testing. Did you do anything different today? No, actually, we've been working on the bike. The bike is super dial. It's such a sick bike. We just like drop a bit of pressure on the floor because it's flatter. So we put as much weight in the front. That's it. The bike was running so good. Fantastic. Well, well done and enjoy your time in the hot seat and hopefully it'll hold. Thank you. I hope. Well, there's three more riders to find out if that time from Angel Suarez will hold and Dakota Norton has a wry smile because I think he's got something up his sleeve today. Grizz back to back U.S. Open winner is on track. Oh, you know, he's got to be feeling it. High stack deck. Well, he's not doing the high stack anymore. I really like his setup. Low stack height, tall bars, you know, and as Angel just said, this track isn't very steep. So Dak's setup may be not ideal for Killington, but his intensity is saying otherwise. So here he comes. Dak Norton. Yeah. Speaking of setup, Grizz, he's already painting lines on the outside of the track that I haven't seen a tire on and he goes high right there again. Yeah. What other lines does Dak have for us? 35.42 at the SR Suntour hole shot. That's going to put Dak ahead of our hot seat rider, but not quite enough to take it away from Matt Walker. Yeah. Somebody is not messing around, are they? That's where you want to be if you're Dak Norton. Looking at low. He tripled into that, but he did it lower than riders we've seen previously, going a little inside to outside here. Wow. Yeah. On the gas early, on the cranks early. That was some wizardry, Grizz. He kept his tires on the ground, but like simultaneously kind of gapped into that turn. I don't know what I just saw, but it was fast. Yeah. Dak is doing something special today. Does he have any differentiating lines here that can give him even more time at the next split? Wow. Oh yeah. And he's green by a second. That is huge at this point, continuing to pull up and make little gaps. Yeah. You can tell he's on the edge, the feedback into his body starting to... What did he just nose press into that? What is going on? Dak Norton. He is finding pumps everywhere and you know he's going to blitz these loops. Look at the fans lining up here in Billington. Bam. Dak's the one that nearly did it. That's my boy. Somebody had to send it. And the tires were on the edge of traction as he rounded that corner to get back into the woods. Hold it together, Dak. One second up. Oh, and he is down to the crux part of the run. It's burning now. Did you see that pre-hop to like three cranks in that nasty rock garden? Dak Norton, again, if this isn't green, I have no idea where the time was because this was an insane race A big pull there from Norton on that finish line jump and he does go fastest by nearly a second. 0.8 up. It's a 240.76. It has been thrown down here by Dak Norton with two riders to go. All right. Did he get them all or did he get the front wheel to just the last three? That was nice work, Dak Norton. What a race. The folks are going to be radioing back to the top. Hey, Dak just about got the whoops. He's in the hot seat. Well, the crowd's going wild here, Grizz, for our final two riders. Ocean O'Callaghan out of Ireland. The Irish national champ riding for the YT mob. He was second in seating yesterday. There's only one thing he wants today, Grizz, and that is to take home $15,000. He's the winner of the US Open. Yeah, that is some big motivation to get down this hill in a hurry. And what can Mr. Ocean O'Callaghan do for us today? Looks like he is nice and comfortable here in Vermont. You know, what I like about his riding style, he's a little bit more relaxed, a little bit more upright, kind of old school Josh Bryceland sort of style. But, you know, it works for him. He's not loose. He's not getting front wheel deflection. A lot of riders I see that kind of mimic this upright style. They they're on their face way too much. So. Well, O'Callaghan's put it together here in 35.69. He took that huge win at Snowshoe World Cup in 2023. And the only thing bigger than that win was the afterparty, Grizz. If he wins this one today, Killington is going to have a night to remember. Well, I think regardless, Killington is going to have a night to remember. The vibes and stoke is extremely high here at the US Open. It's always been that way, Will. Always been that way. Will O'Callaghan is quietly putting together a really nice run. No real loose moments at this juncture as he dives into this rock garden. Everybody there on the outside line. Yeah, everyone's just funneling into one race line right there. But look at this time. He's oh, he's up. Yep. He is up by point one at seven. We've seen such tight racing here today and it's just going to get tighter and tighter. We've got one to go after this man, Mr. O'Callaghan. Is he going to get the whoops like Dak or is he going to go for the skim? Wow. Front wheel first into those whoops. Well, that was dangerous. Full inside. He's got that Fox Factory suspension working hard, body working hard as well. Still looking pretty fresh down here. Oh, a little bit of a bobble, though. That's not a great place. Oh, yeah. That's about the worst place you want to have a bobble at that lower section. That's going to cost him a lot of time, a lot of energy to get back up to pace here. It's going to have to get on the pedals. Yeah, the fans of the Fox US Open try to carry him across the line. He's going to go second to forty one point two seven half a second outside that time at Dakota Norton. Man, that was so good. Just one bobble will put you back a half second. Isn't it mind boggling how the smallest mistakes cost so much time, but the front end nothing but impressive young man. And we're down to our final rider, Lachlan Stevens McNabb. He's out of New Zealand doing it for the union. One more rider trying to deny Dakota Norton back to back to back glory here at the Fox US Open. Lockheed's on track. Lockheed's on track. He's locked in. And, you know, this rider, he's got really, really good pump. He's got a BMX background and we've seen the flow of this track developing throughout the day. So, Lockheed, if he's able to execute pump, keep it together, hold his lines. He could be a threat for a win here today, Will. Yeah, and I like what I'm seeing right there. That little awkward chicane up there has caught some people out, but he's finding it, finding the rhythm. He's hovering. I mean, he was just dancing on the edge there on those outside knobs. Unreal riding from Lockheed. Right where he wants to be five hundreds back. So, it's going to be Matt Walker on that SR Suntour hole shot. $1,000 cash from Matt. Lockheed Stevens McNabb here. He is in touch. We've seen, we saw Dak build from here to the bottom. So, he can find some time. He's going to need to, he's going to need to if he wants to win that $15,000. Yeah, Dak was full pin from here to the bottom. Stevens McNabb low over the triple on the fans. They're turning it up in the rock garden for the last rider of the day. That front wheel dangerous on the edge. Are you kidding me? He is on the ragged edge just holding it together and it's 2.2 in the green grids. Are you kidding me? Boom. Lockheed shutting it down. He is building up pace. He is on a charge. What's he going to do for the whoops? Is he going to just clear them all? Is he going to go nose in? What are we going to do here? Stevens McNabb is on a tear. He's just torn straight through the middle of the whoops. No time to mess about. Oh, and he's fully on the middle line in that off camber and he's doing what he did in yesterday. Grizzly tore him apart with two and a half second lead. He's put it together again. Clean through there. Nice pre-hop. He's going to have to get on the pedals here. No, no pedals. He's going for the World Cup pump. Lockheed, here he comes. Sprint to the finish. Wow, Stevens McNabb. He was on the podium in Leogang on the World Cup this year. Can he take the win here? Stevens McNabb comes down and he does it. He will take the win at the Fox US Open. 2.75 into the green. No one was touching Lockheed Stevens McNabb today. Wow, only rider to break 240. What a ride. He was on the edge wheel. Oh, the sun is shining down here on the Union Rider in Vermont as he throws the goggles out to the crowd. Laughlin, everybody wants to know. I mean, this is a big event for you. I know you probably don't have your breath just yet because you probably dug real deep, but you threw down one heck of a run. Tell us a little bit about it. Yeah, it was good. Great. I'm stoked. Awesome. So any sections that we were like really nervous about or got loose in your race run? A couple of bits of oversteer was pretty slippery, but honestly, pretty perfect run for how hard and sketchy the track is. When you're on race pace, it's sick. All right. Well, awesome. Well done, Laughlin. Very, very cool. Today has been literally a race of hundredths of a second all the way through, and you won by a nice little gap there. So you can step into that next race on the circuit with a lot of confidence and a lot of cheers. Thank you. Here's your SR Suntour hole shot award. It's Matt Walker for the elite men and Phoebe Gale for the elite women, both taking home $1,000. And taking our BOA dialed in award, our fastest amateurs today, we've got Cameron Bragg and Christian Hauser taking home $2,500. Grizz, our pro women's podium today, Nina Hoffman taking the win, Aletha Osgarden second, Luis Ferguson third, Haley Skelton fourth, and Phoebe Gale in fifth. Let the champagne showers begin. Don't forget a little maple syrup on the side, Will. Champagne will wash that down real nice. In your pro men's podium, Laughlin Stevens McNabb taking home the win in that $15,000 cash prize. Dakota Norton in second, Osen O'Callaghan third, Angel Suarez in fourth, Lucas Shaw in fifth. It is raining champagne here in Killington. Full throttle, popping bottles, and finishing off with a shoo-ee. A little maple syrup in the champagne too. All right, that's a refined palette right there from Laughlin Stevens McNabb. Have a shoo, fans. What a flavor profile. And for our women's overall, Allie Osgard takes the championship. Second place goes to Eris Van Leeuwen in third, McKenna Merton. In your pro men's series overall points championship for the inaugural Monster Energy Pro Downhill Series, it's Dante Silva taking the win, Cole Sweetos in second, and Ryan Pinkerton rounding off your podium in third. U.S. Open taking the U.S. Open 2024. Well, hey there. I hope you enjoyed the recap video of this race, the final stop for the Monster Energy Pro Downhill Series, which was the Fox U.S. Open of mountain biking. It's been such a great season, so much excitement, great competition, but it's time to call the year. As for me, the captain, I believe it's time to take my winter slumber. I'll see you. Ahoy. I need a good spot right here. Sleep for the winter. Oh, yeah. Feels good. Is that a bear? Is that a bear? It's a bear.