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2008 Signed on as official team rider, Diablo Freeride Park - Gravity Team!
2007 season was great! Several podium placements and a first place win in the first year of the Pro license!
The Poughkeepsie Journal - Wild race hits Plattekill Sunday, April 18, 2004 Nancy Haggerty
Alternative sports Extreme biking takes spotlight in annual event
Collectively, they crashed eight times. But with two finishing in the top half of their class and another winning his, clearly that wasn't so bad.
Crashing goes with the territory in downhill bike racing. And when the course is sloppy and snow-covered, well, the adventure is heightened.
Just ask the 91 racers, who competed in Plattekill's recent Extreme Snowman Downhill Mountain Bike Race.
Or just ask one of them -- Jason Memmelaar, winner of the men's expert senior (19-24-year old) class.
"You just pretty much had to hang on for dear life," said Memmelaar, 20, a SUNY Delhi student and resident of Chester.
Since starting downhill racing just a year-and-a-half ago, Memmelaar has taken his biking to higher and higher levels.
This win came in just his first snow race.
Part of the course ran through the black diamond area of Plattekill, Memmelaar noted.
But, if not used to the soggy conditions, he was used to the sport's shared dry land and snow requirement.
"You just hammer down the hill as fast as possible," Memmelaar explained.
On a course rerouted because of earlier rain and warm temperatures, though, fast was a relative term.
Chad Lawrence, 32, of Lake Katrine, who finished seventh in the men's expert master (30-34-year-old) class, and Gary Bischoff, 33, of Highland Mills, who finished one spot ahead of him, both described the experience as racing in 12 inches of slush.
"It was rough to get going," said Lawrence, a graphic designer, who raced BMX as a kid and started downhill about four years ago. "When it's slushy, it's really rutty. When there are lots of ruts you take rides you don't want to go on a lot of times."
Lawrence, who competes in the nationals in downhill, had a flawless ride until the last 100 steep and highly rutted yards. Then he fell three times.
No problem for Lawrence
But, with the exception of losing time, that wasn't a big deal for Lawrence, whose BMX background has served him well in downhill, giving him not only a good technical background for jumping but making him unafraid of the "big stuff in the way."
"Regular downhill in the dirt is a lot faster and more technical," noted Lawrence, who competes a few times each year on snow.
But even for the first-place Memmelaar, the snowy course was a challenge. He crashed, he noted, right over the finish line.
That was nothing compared to Bischoff, a former BMXer, who went down twice in the last 100 yards and twice earlier in the race.
"It was like landing in soup," he noted, adding he got a helmet full of snow during his first tumble.
Bischoff, who this year will race in the downhill nationals in Vermont, West Virginia, Colorado and California ("every place I can get to), got involved in mountain bike riding strictly for fitness and then participated in his first downhill race eight years ago -- the setting Plattekill.
"I was just (immediately) addicted," he said.
And three knee surgeries later, nothing has changed. Heck, in the past year Bischoff has sprained a wrist three times.
It would seem his job as a manager in a prescription insurance company might come in handy. But it also seems a little incongruous with his racing -- and maybe particularly so with his explanation of why he's so passionate about his sport.
"It's the speed," Bischoff said. "You know if you make a mistake it's going to hurt."
"You have to be some kind of adrenaline junky just to try it," he added.
Times Herald Record - These mountain bikers have no fear - By Sal Interdonato sinterdonato@th-record.com May 25, 2007
Jay makes last-second adjustments to his helmet, goggles and gloves to be sure he's geared up in the starter's ramp.
The countdown is on now, four electronic beeps followed by a high-pitched alarm. It's go time.
Memmelaar bursts off the ramp, pedaling as hard as he can.
Memmelaar is flying down the mountain as fast as a downhill skier. But there's no snow to cushion a potential fall. Rocks line the trail. One wrong move could send Memmelaar's world into a tailspin.
Memmelaar remembers the time he bounced off a rock and hit a tree head-on at Mount Snow. He cracked his sternum and broke his collarbone.
"I was waiting to get back on the bike," Memmelaar says. "I was out for two months. I couldn't wait to redeem myself."
The 23-year-old daredevil from Chester has seen friends carried off the mountain on stretchers. But on this day, Memmelaar has the need for more speed. He fights the urge to hit his brakes as he challenges a bank of dirt curved like a NASCAR track.
"The object is not to use your brakes," Memmelaar says. "You use your brakes, the slower your time will be."
Memmelaar is racing against the clock. The fastest rider to navigate through the rocks, ruts and trees to the bottom of the mountain wins.
Welcome to the insane world of downhill mountain bike racing.
"My friends think I'm crazy," Memmelaar says. "But they are English teachers and chemists."
There are a lot of crazies like Memmelaar. They like to don their body armor and congregate at Diablo Freeride Park in Vernon, N.J. Skiers know it as Mountain Creek Resort, but it's transformed in the summer into a thrill zone for mountain bikers who prefer to take a pass on quad-busting uphill climbs and instead ride lifts to the top.
There's a 13-year-old X-gamer type who also knows an 8-year-old downhill biker. There's a guy well into his 50s shredding the hill.
There are former BMX riders looking for a bigger thrill. Women are doing it.
And some of the best in the sport also will be doing it this weekend at Diablo, where the U.S. Open of Mountain Biking will be held today through Sunday.
Memmelaar is a former cross-country biker who was tired of pedaling up hills. He always wanted to ride. First, it was dirt bikes when he was younger. But his mother, Jen, wouldn't allow her son to ride competitively. She had taken too many trips to the hospital with Memmelaar's father, Jack, who raced four-wheelers.
Little did Jen Memmelaar know what her son would get into in college. You are probably safer driving the wrong way on a road than downhill mountain bike riding.
As P.J. Mihalick, 23, of Warwick, puts it, "You have to have a disregard for your wheels and bike and sometimes your personal safety."
An accident is waiting to happen as soon as a rider takes the mountain. George Ryan, 24, of Vernon, N. J., has broken his wrist five times and his collarbone twice.
"I've hit my nose super hard a few times," Ryan says. "I get many cuts and injuries that I don't go to the hospital and maybe I should."
Francesca Turturro, a 32-year-old former high school history teacher from Stroudsburg, Pa., crashed into rocks on her first time down the mountain.
"I had a second knee" (due to severe swelling, Turturro says with a smile. "I've chipped a tooth, sprained an ankle and separated a shoulder. It's exciting to go down the mountain and through some crazy rocks. It's a challenge. It's fun. But it's not for everyone."
For people like Memmelaar, one ride can bring on an addiction. One clean run makes a rider crave for faster and faster times.
And when Memmelaar couldn't ride for that two-month period, he went into a funk.
"I guess I had adrenaline withdrawal," Memmelaar recalls. "It's kinda crazy, but I'm not the only one that thinks that way.
"When you kill a section and finish, you feel so unbelievably high. You want to push the limit next time and be out of your element."
Back on the track, Memmelaar gets a good flow and kills his run. He takes fifth place. Not bad. He'll be back, looking for a faster thrill ride.
February 25, 2008
Kovarik wins again, Memmelaar scoops up 2nd!!!!
Got this press release from Nigel Page concerning Kovariks crazy winning streak in Cali.
The most impressive thing about it, Beast of the East Jay Memmelaar getting second taking out Warren and Dave K. We have been keeping a keen eye on Jay and we here at Tractionmag are super pumped on the 2nd place finish. Keep pinning it Jay!
Fontana Winter Series #4 DH
Chris Kovarik keeps his win streak alive by crushing the competition by over 8 seconds! This was the first time Chris was on his new Chain Reaction Blue Intense M6 with all the teams sponsors parts. The new bike seems to be even faster! Nice one Chris.
- 1. Chris Kovarik - 00:02:33.93
- 2. Jason Memmelaar!!!!!!- 00:02:42.07
- 3. Cody Warren - 00:02:43.54
- 4. David Klaassenvanoorschot - 00:02:44.80
- 5. Waylon Smith - 00:02:45.03
Nigel Page
Team Manager - ChainReactionCycles/Intense
posted by Evolution at 2/25/2008
Traction Mag