Bike
Rally
Mastering speed by any means necessary
Jill Kintner trades her mountain bike for a rally car in a bid to improve her downhill skills.
Jill Kintner is one of the fastest gravity riders on a mountain bike. She also might arguably be the most diverse. From downhill racing to 4X to dual slalom and even a rich history of BMX with 13 National titles.
Kintner has stood on the podium across every gravity-fueled discipline. "My goal is to be the best mountain biker in the world," Kintner said.
Clearly, Kintner is a motivated athlete and that drive to be the fastest means she’ll train in as many ways as possible, even in a rally car.
Classroom instruction: Jill goes to turning school
© Dustin Keoni/Red Bull
The driver takes the field...
© Dustin Keoni/Red Bull
Stormy skies at DirtFish Rally School
© Dustin Keoni/Red Bull
Smooth and fluid: Starting to link turns together
© Dustin Keoni/Red Bull
Kintner spent a day on track at the DirtFish Rally School with instructor Nate Tennis, learning crossover skills that will help the Washington state native become even faster during her busy season of racing the UCI World Cup and the U.S. Pro GRT series.
Any skill that can help towards my mountain biking, I am pretty pumped.
“My goals are to tidy up my braking points, read the terrain and accelerate at the right point, because a lot of that is similar to mountain biking,” Kintner said. “It’s definitely a lot trickier than it looks at first.”
Ready to drop in on some Pacific Northwest loam
© Dustin Keoni/Red Bull
Momentum is the name of the game to turn on a bike
© Dustin Keoni/Red Bull
Americans love left-hand turns: Jill swoops
© Dustin Keoni/Red Bull
Tennis was impressed by Kintner’s 'natural skill' and her willingness to put the pedal down.
“When you put a cage around somebody who is on a bicycle most of the time, their fear level goes out the window,” Tennis said. “They feel very safe and therefore aren’t willing to back off the throttle much.”
The following day, Kintner took to the trails in nearby Port Angeles to try her newfound knowledge out on two wheels.
Entry speed in check: Kintner looking to exit fast
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Jill Kintner riding downhill in Port Angeles, WA
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It's easy to appreciate Washington's mountaintops
© Dustin Keoni/Red Bull
Jill Kintner with rally car and her Norco DH bike
© Dustin Keoni/Red Bull
“Over the two days, it was eye-opening for me to see the similarities and to try some things out," Kintner said.
"Any skill that can help towards my mountain biking, I am pretty pumped [to learn] and if I could take even a small part of that to my riding and go even faster, then it's mission accomplished."
