Bike Race Season

Summer of the Bike (or Bikes)
April through September 2008

This summer I haven't gotten as much backcountry in as I normally do, mostly because I've devoted it to racing bicycles. I've always done some mountain bike (MTB) racing, but this year I added some road races (CAT 5). Gannett Peak Sports here in Lander, offered to sponsor a few of us to race. It was deal I couldn't refuse. Anyhoo... below is a list of races I did this year. They are links to most of the race websites, so you can click on them for more info.

Triple Valley Stage Race

My first road/ stage race. Pretty fun. Did alright. Turned in a good TT.

Bear Lake Classic

Just a 50 mile road race around a lake. Pretty good early season ride. Fun! I might have done really well had I not missed the 90 degree turn at the finish.

High Uintas Classic

Really neat and well organized Road/ stage race. Hard to find many in Wyoming anymore. The road race is 80 miles over 10,000 ft. Bald Mt. Pass. Good stuff! I placed fifth over all in CAT 5 for this race. I thought that was okay, considering I was blown away in the Crit.

Dead Dog Classic

Another classic Wyoming road race. Just a few Wyomingnites show up the race though. Lander had one of the biggest showings. Most folks are from Colorado. They seem a bit stronger than the Utah folks. I had to race with Cat 4s at this race. I hung in there, but didn't do as well as I maybe could've. It's a great race though!

WYDAHO Mountain Bike Race

Finally an MTB race! This one was WAY fun. Wanted to try it now for a few years- finally made it this year. It's an absolutely beautiful 7 mile single track loop in the Tetons. For the race you ride three laps. I did alright, but it's kind of a short fast deal, and I really am geared to do longer more enduring rides. I don't train to sprint as much as I should, something I need to work on.

Silver Rush Mountain Bike Race

I've done this race three year in a row now. It's awesome. A fifty mile up and back. Starts in Leadville at 10,000 ft and climbs two 12 to 13K mountains and passes twice. I turned in my best time yet for this race- a 5:18! Chuck and Karla set a course record on their tandem (under 6 hours). Awesome!

Teton Pass Hill Climb

This race was fun- pretty low key. Maybe 60 riders or so for the road race, less for the MTB. They are both short (distance wise) hill climbs. Teton Pass is hard. I rode it in 37:30. Came in probably bottom of top third. The MTB race is mostly paved. Smart guys have specialized super light hard tail hill climb bikes or even cycle cross bikes. The top mile or so is single track worthy of a real MTB- but that's about it. The ride down Black Canyon after the race is all for MTB dualies! Great fun!

Making the climb up Teton Pass

Nearing the dirt on the MTB climb

Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race

The big daddy! This one is really what I ride and train for all year. It's epic! I did it for the first time last year. 100 miles, 10,000 vertical feet plus of climbing- all above 10,000 ft. Folks that do this year race are wired a bit different. There's usually a 1000 of them, including some famous folks. Last year Floyd Landis did it. This year Lance Armstrong gave it a whirl. Dave Wiens defended his title claiming victories over both Floyd and Lance while setting course records. Awesome!

The race heads out, paced until they get out of town.

Lance up front as they head out of town- he's in the black and yellow.

My sister to a short video clip of the 1000 rider mass start.

Looking down on the tail end of the start as the riders head out.

Lance hustles across a water crossing.


45 minutes or so later I make it across the same water crossing. Ha!

Pulling into the Dam Aid Station, just below the killer climb in the course- 1.5 hrs of climbing up Columbine Mt. where the turn around point is.

Charge!

Lance blazing through the aid station on his return from Columbine- a good 1.5 hrs ahead of me at this point.

Pulling in for another pit stop after conquering Columbine. Only another mountain and forty more or so miles to go!


Headed up towards the infamous Powerline route up Sugarloaf Mt. The last big climb!


Going for a creek crossing.


Tried to ride it this time.

Survived the last climb! Coming off Sugarloaf on the Turquoise Lake Rd. Almost home!

More than an hour later, I rolled into the finish!


Weehoo. My best time yet- 9:28 (closer to 29)! Next year I'm shooting for sub 9! I think I can do it now.


Seamus take a ride on dad after the race!

I have a couple of more races left this year that I'd like to try (before the guns and skis come out):

The 24 Hours of Grand Targhee Mountain Bike Race

Whew! What a race. The turnout was kind of small, I bet there were more than 40 or so riders on the course at one time. It's a fun course, almost all single track- very similar to the WyDAHO Course. Very fun riding!

I finished the race with 15 laps. I rode about 13hrs, racking up almost 112 miles. I pretty much rode from noon to 10:00pm, slept then started riding again around 7am. I made it a 16 hour race. The winner got 27 laps in- just under 200 miles. Yikes! That's gotta hurt. I slept eight hours during the race too though, otherwise I probably could have neared 20 laps or or more.

Waiting around for the start.



Video of the start, and me running past my bike.

Going out for another lap.

Zoom. Zoom!

Finishing up my last lap.



We stopped in Jackson on the way back so Tally could chase some geese. Nothing beats a wild goose chase!

Dakota Five-O

Did this for the first time last year with Chuck. It's way fun! Hoping I can cut some time off my last year's run.

Actually, I did end up cutting time- 18 minutes- under 5 hrs! I rode 4:49 this year. I ended up 24th/ 97 riders in my class- close to 280 over all. It was a great race- very fun, very hot this year. Perhaps the hottest days I've spent anywhere all year. Lots of awesome Blackhills single track though- most of it in the trees. Chuck and Karla rode the race in under 6 hours, setting another course tandem record. Dino even rode it completing his first ever 50 mile MTB race. Last race of the season for me. A great way to end the season. Let it snow!

Good stuff!