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30th annual Ute Cup Trial . (Left) Ryon Bell negotiates "the bog" in section 10 en route to winning the Ute Cup Trial in Colorado. Bell clea ned every s ection over the cou rse of the two-day even t to finish with a perfect sc o re of zero. (Above) Former U1e Cup winner Mark M anniko incurred on ly one point over the two days of riding. good enou gh for second place. By Jay Sheets 46 SARGENTS, CO AUG. 21-22 , anad ian Ryon Bell may have a new nicknam e a fter w inn in g Colorado's prestigious Ute Cup: "Mr. Clean." It might be appropriate, as the Montesa-mounted Bell cleaned all 80 sections during th e two-day event. This was the 30th Ute Cup event to be held in the splendor of the Rockies. The event was hos ted by the Rocky Mountain Trials Association. In the three decades of this event, there have been around 2700 en tries. This weekend saw 130 entries and 129 participants. Al though names su ch as Whaley, Schreiber and Miller may have been among them in the past, it was the everyday riders that made up the majority of the competitors. Riders from 22 different sla tes and several different countries made the effort to attend . Scott Steinman drove all the way from Juno, Alaska. At the end o f Saturday, four riders w ere tied w ith a clean score card fo r both loops. Beta -mounted multi -time AMA / ATC National Trials Champion Geoff Aaron, Bell, Col orado's own Mark Manniko and Wyoming's Derek Marlinson had all zeroed every section. On Sunday, the sh owers were a d eluge a t tim es as the afternoon wore o n. Veteran riders were always trying to ge t a peak at the w eather moving in . Early riders such as Mark Manniko ma y ha ve hoped for rain, a s it m igh t have increased the likelihood of other top rid ~ ers acquiring more points. Bell, however, was no t one of them, even when the weather tu rned really nasty. W was at about section 10, the mud I bog. (but) it didn't really start to get wei till section 13 or 14," Bell said. "Some of the sections definitely got harder. I tried to rid e as fast as I could. I think the sections were perfectly su it ed for today, even wet or dry. Section nine - the hard- est one - go t Geoff (Aa ro n) for a cou p le of points. In number 17, I nearly took a d ab the last loop. I think Mark Manniko took a dab there. Both days' loo ps were rea lly fun . Wh ere I live, it rai ns a ll the time, so I'm used to it. I like riding in the rai n." Mann iko, w ho cu rre n tly hold s th e Ute Cu p win record with four vict ories, wound-up in seco nd pla ce with a single point. " Ryo n d id an incred ible job," Manniko said. "He had to ride a bu nch of the loo p in th e rain th a t I didn'thave to ride. I planned my da y ou t. I kn ew tha t it was going to ra in th is af ternoon - I was hoping - so I rode very fast. And I just m ad e one m istake, and Ryo n rode really well . • "The observers deserve a big hand," M ann iko continu ed . " It 's n ev er a p lea sant event to score for, and it wouldn't happen without them . It's a hu g e amount of work for th e trial s masters. It' s a real big happening. It's neat to see that it's ge tting so popular. I think th is even t has as many or more riders th an any of o u r Na tio nals ha ve this yea r." Aaron picked up a mere three ma rks for third overall. " I had a pretty good idea th at you had to clean the tri al to win it," Aaron sa id. "I made a mistake early on today, an d after that, th e pressure wa s off. I had two points o n the first loop and on e on th e second loop. I had a great tim e riding th ro ugh the mou ntains, and it was my first Ute Cup, so I was glad to come and check it out." ctI Ute Cup Trial Sa rgents. Colorado Results: August 21-22, 1999 O /A : 1. Ryon Bell ; 2. Mark Ma n n iko; 3. Geoff Aaron: 4. Matt Moore; S. Jason Carpenter . 6. Derek Martinson; 7. Zack Clcmonc 8. Bill Burgener; 9. Kevin Busch; 10. George Smith; 11. Alle n G uyot ; 12. loy Burn ett . 13.. Rebert Sch we nke; 14. Bruce Carver; 15. Steve Dola n; 16. Steve Morg a n; 17. Guy Va n~aJsbt.'Ck; 18. Ma rtin Belair; 19. Luke Mol klCk;20. David Bleck, t