In recent races Seattle native Jill Kintner’s name has shown up on the women’s downhill roster as well as her signature event, the dual slalom.

We’ve suggested this means Jill may be looking for bigger vistas. Jill herself won’t confirm or deny the extent of her downhill ambitions, although in a new blog post she suggests she’s seriously pursuing DH.

And there it was again, at the Sea Otter Classic. After wearing out the field in the dual slalom and taking home the gold, Jill threw in her lot with the downhillers the following day.

The result was quite respectable: Sixth, about 5 seconds off the smoking hot pace of Melissa Buhl. Interestingly, Buhly had an off day in the dual slalom, at fourth, after narrowly beating Jill in last year’s Sea Otter slalom matchup.

More significant from our perspective was the fact that Jill finished ahead of some real high rollers, including Fionn Griffiths, Kathy Pruitt and Katie Holden. And she was just a hair off the paces of Sabrina Jonnier and the ageless wonder, Leigh Donovan.

These results translate simply into one factor: Experience. Jill has been honing her downhill skills under the tutelage of Aussie boyfriend Bryn Atkinson, a world class downhiller himself. If she can get more downhill racing under her belt, there’s no reason she can’t contend for World Cup titles.

Why bother with downhill at all, when you’re so good at dual slalom? Any champion wants to push her envelope and keep testing herself. Having medaled in the Olympics in BMX, Jill is pretty much the gold standard in dual slalom. And in the competitive arena, downhill racing is still the ultimate challenge. The downhillers get all the glory — disproportionately so, perhaps, but deserved as well.

The only question is whether downhill could hurt Jill’s campaign for the world title in dual slalom this year. You don’t find someone at No. 1 in both disciplines at the same time, for a variety of reasons starting with, as Jill acknowledged to Brett Tippie (scroll down for video interview), being too whupped winning the slalom to face a second day of racing.

But the one quality you have to love with Jill is she really believes anything is possible. You can see the steely determination when she rides — it translates from her body language right through the goggles and jump suit. And any interview I’ve seen with her shows an uncommon resolve to follow through on her goals.

Kintner may at this point be undecided about pursuing downhill. It’s still early in the season. But we’d sure love to see her rock in the Big Dance!

Full race results.

Mountain Bike Action recap.

—PinkBike.com

We’ll continue to update once tallies get posted. For now it looks to us like Jill’s wintering over in Australia with BF Bryn Atkinson has paid huge dividends. Jill has her eye on the rainbow jersey this year and is off to a resounding start!

Two summers ago I rode with Canadians at Seven Summits in inland B.C. and one was sporting a Catlike. I asked about it and got details but found you couldn’t get them in the U.S. You couldn’t get them in B.C. either at the time — he’d gotten his in Montreal.

They’re cool-looking but we’ll reserve judgment beyond that till we’ve had a look at the real thing.

180 large, and gold sliders!

Just in time for Sea Otter, Fox has released a new lineup of 180mm single-crown Fox 36 forks. Hmmm. We’ll have to test one of these of course, but first impression is a bit of a head-scratcher. Surely double-crown at that amount of travel is still stiffer, albeit heavier. The new config appears aimed at the Whistler/freeride crowd, but what we’re seeing on the ground, er, in the dirt, is a preference for shorter travel. As riders’ skills improve and stunts require more bike maneuverability than full-on suss, shorter forks and tighter frames are showing up at the parks. But we’ll see.

The easiest explanation, of course, is that Fox always exaggerates the amount of travel, and what we’re really looking at is a class of extra-long 160mm forks. Really, it’s pretty blatant and widely disparaged by wrenches, well-known in industry circles but shrugged off. As the owner of no fewer than a dozen Fox forks over the years, we’ve yet to see one fulfill its specs. We think Fox otherwise makes great products that they back fully. Fox should take care of this before someone files a class-action suit claiming misrepresentation.

Fox also is issuing new 150mm and 160mm lines boasting lighter specs and more trail-ride (rather than big-hit) suspension tech. The message here is that the long-travel trail crowd is jonesing for lighter, quicker configurations. Till now that’s meant reducing travel options, but perhaps the lighter weights on the new Fox offerings will keep the slopestylers in the LT category.

Also at Otter, the Banshee Spitfire, 2010′s best new-bike name so far, is caught on video by PinkBike.

Ned Overend, the ageless one, is at Sea Otter as well.

For some time we’ve been following catastrophic failures of Thule’s T2 rack, which we think should be officially recalled. Looking for a good alternative? Here’s the Kuat NV, reviewed on MtnBikeRiders.com.

Seattle native and slalom champion Jill Kintner will be there on her new ride. Jill will be out to avenge her narrow loss last year, and won’t be making this mistake:

One thing undoubtedly contributed: Not having been pressed all day, she may have been playing it too cautious, counting as much on something going wrong for Buhl as seizing the opportunity to put down the hammer from the start.

You’ll be able to see Jill aboard her spankin’ new Transition Double at the Sea Otter Classic next weekend in Monterey. (Race schedule here.)

This is quite an upgrade from the old Double.

For mutual moral support, there’s an all-girls mountain bike program.

Banshee Bikes, which is busting out with upgrades and new bikes in 2010, also will be there with its new Spitfire.