Enjoying the ride: Best mountain bikers reap rewards and redemption

DEER VALLEY — With several thousand dollars worth of mountain bike sitting in the "trash compactor" back at her Heber City home, Kathy Sherwin was determined to erase the memories of Saturday's crash and Did-Not-Finish in the women's cross country race.

After all, her 78-year-old mother had made the long trip from Washington state to watch her race.

"That was only the third DNF ever," Sherwin said after finding herself on another podium after the Short Track race at the National Mountain Bike Series on Sunday afternoon. "I had to get redemption."

That came with a fifth-place showing after battling friend and fellow Utahn Heather Holmes for most of the race, trying to hold on to that last podium spot.

Sherwin was able to pull away from Holmes over the final few laps to secure her position.

Katerina Nash finished strong with Catherine Pendrel and Georgia Gould — all partners on the Luna Women's team — sweeping the top three places.

"I'm really happy with my effort," Sherwin said. "I dangled for a little bit ... and worked my way up."

Sherwin's crash in the cross country race ruined her bike stem, her shifters, her derailleur and cracked her frame. Coming just a couple of months after breaking her thumb in a road race crash and a near crash during a pre-race scouting run of the race, Sherwin sought to keep her streak of podium finishes at NMBS races alive.

With that goal accomplished and her thumb back to full strength, Sherwin is enjoying one of the better seasons of her career.

In the men's short track race, Geoff Kabush competed like the world's top-ranked mountain biker that he is. Allowing Ryan Trebon, Carl Decker and Jeremiah Bishop to set the pace, Kabush plotted his moves, waiting for opponents to drop off. On the bell lap, Kabush bolted past Trebon on the uphill and cruised to a fairly easy victory.

"I just wanted to make contact," Kabush said, "because I knew I could demand more speed up the hill ... I was saving a bit of energy every lap."

In the men's downhill, Justin Leov enjoyed a victory of nearly six seconds over the field. Flying down the bare ski slopes at Deer Valley, the 24-year-old New Zealand native crossed the line at 3:01.41. Australia's Amiel Cavalier was second at 3:07.28, while New Zealand's Sam Blenkisop finished at 3:07.33.

Park City's Chris Van Dine was fifth, finishing at 3:11.21.

Nick Van Dine (seventh), Andrew Pierce (eighth) and Matt Johnson (ninth) helped round out a strong showing by Utah pro division cyclists.

The women's downhill saw Joanna Petterson win the pro race at 3:53.21.

The NMBS heads to New York next month before returning to Utah for the series finals at Brian Head in late August.

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E-mail: jeborn@desnews.com