World-class mountain biking has officially returned to Deer Valley Resort, with competitors having arrived for this week’s Fox US Open of Mountain Biking.  The bikers have been arriving sporadically starting Wednesday, when some were allowed to inspect the NCS competition trail. Others arrive d Thursday, when the first two practice sessions were held.  There will be additional practice sessions before some qualifying and the Best Whip trick competition at 5 p.m. Friday by Deer Valley’s Silver Lake Lodge. The professional finals will start at 3 p.m. Saturday and the youth and amateur races at 9:30 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. Sunday, respectively. Bikers are coming in from California and Colorado for the race. They’re excited and saying the practice sessions are going well so far.  “We just got here this morning,” Aaron Vargas from Los Angeles said Thursday. “It’s super steep, it’s loose and it looks like it’ll be fun for sure.” Vargas is in Park City for the week with a crew from Trailhead Bike Shop in Alhambra, California. He is ranked fourth in the Monster Energy Pro Downhill Series in the category just below professional. A win this weekend would help him in his quest to go pro next year.  “I have to do well this weekend and hopefully get that podium,” Vargas said. “It would be amazing and make my whole weekend for sure.” Vargas said the Trailhead team has been loving Park City as well thus far.  Bikers from across the country started arriving Wednesday, with competitions beginning Friday. Credit: Jonathan Herrera/Park Record Dianne Shannon is in from Denver supporting her son, also racing the same category as Vargas this weekend. She was enjoying the sunny, warm weather Thursday during the practice sessions.  “He’s incredibly excited,” Shannon said of her son. “The track is pretty interesting. He likes some of the features and technical pieces.” Shannon believes Deer Valley will “be a zoo” this weekend.  Some teams like Salt Lake City’s RaceKraftMTB haven’t had to travel nearly as far. Team head Kris Baughman and his youth bikers are excited for what they’re considering to be a home race this week.  “Pretty exciting,” Baughman said. “I’m an old-school dude. I helped to build the track here in like 1998 and then helped to build a number of lower mountain tracks. So it’s really cool to see a big race come back here after the big national series died down somewhere around 2009.”  Baughman said Deer Valley’s team did a great job cutting down trees and widening the new track for this week. He’s glad they’re committed to hosting another world-class event, as they do other times of the year.  Baughman explained that the track inspections can allow riders to find different lines to attack when biking, if they take the time to carefully examine.  “It is really meaningful,” Baughman said about strong crowd support this week. “We had a big national round at Solitude in July, so we got to experience a really big crowd. … So we have some experience with that, but this is another level of excitement and hype.” For further information about the US Open, including a look at the complete schedule for the week, see the event’s website: prodownhillseries.com/event-info/fox-us-open. The post US Open of Mountain Biking is underway at Deer Valley appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less