At the U.S. Open last weekend, Jill finished second in the downhill slate behind Tracy Moseley and ahead of Melissa Buhl. What makes this all the more remarkable is that Jill had just taken the Grand Slalom title, beating both Moseley and Buhl.

On her blog Jill makes clear that she would have won the downhill as well had she not taken a detour where she’d crashed in an earlier run.

You have to love her attitude:

After my crash yesterday, I had orders from Bryn (Atkinson) and Lars (Sternberg we assume) not to hit the finish line jump, so I had to ride the go around which was about a second slower. Finished 2nd by 0.4 seconds!!! Doh. Decent run, did the rocks clean, Just a exited the lower woods in an interesting spot, hit the low line by accident and lost a bit of speed. Still learning how to put together full runs, and I know what I gotta do next time, so I am happy to be learning and progressively getting better, which is my goal every race.

It was quite a weekend for Kintner, auguring big things for the rest of the 2010 season.

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.

First, a reality check. When manufacturers and PR types talk about the 29er revolution, they’re mixing marginal data with speculation and hope. I have yet to see an industry figure for 29er adoption. There’s another revolution in mountain biking going on, too, having to do with tubeless tires. For loose yardstick purposes, keep the tubeless “revolution” in mind in evaluating the 29er revolution.

I can’t see most downhillers, who are compact guys and gals between 5-9 and 6-0, getting much advantage from a 29er. But someone who did come to mind is the all-time greatest, Steve Peat, a big guy with shoulders broad as Texas who tosses a conventional 26-inch downhill bike around like it was a BMX.

It’d be interesting to have a guy of Peaty’s dimensions (6-2, 200 lbs) try out the 29er DH. Or even the new Santa Cruz Tallboy 4-inch 29er for that matter (Peat rides for SC). If Peat smokes the field riding a 29er then I’d say yeah, we have a winnah!

There’s no question that a 29er is going to roll faster and cover more ground than a 26-inch bike. If downhilling were just a matter of point and rip, then yes, by all means, a 29er would belong in your quiver. But downhill courses are among the most technically demanding racing a rider can do. There’s lots of twisting and turning and braking and railing. It’s a big question-mark whether the gyroscopic advantages of going 29 translate into an arena modeled for 26-inch competition.

Here at Bike Intelligencer, we’re keeping an open mind. We’ve ridden 29ers and like them. We don’t own any. But we have friends who love the things (for awhile; after the honeymoon, most relegate their 29ers to specific trails and types of riding), and who are all over six feet tall. We may yet see the light. After all, we are just a tad over 6-0. And out of the seven bikes we own, one does actually really truly sport tubeless wheels.