Locals shine in “epic” cross-country bike race

Fat Tire 40, Wildcat 40 put bikers to the test

 
No one said it was going to be easy.
Last year Dave Ochs, Chamber of Commerce events director Scott Still, Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) sports director Drew Cesati and a gaggle of local mountain bikers gathered together to design the ultimate cross-country bike race.

Rule number one: it had to be long.
Rule number two: it had to include some of the top bike trails in the north end of the Gunnison Valley.
Rule number three: see rule number one.
What they came up with was a monster of a cross-country race course that included the Upper Upper Loop, Farris Creek and Strand Hill (aka the Strand Hill corkscrew), Deer Creek (a big ride by itself) as well as a number of the trails CBMR has to offer.
They called it the Fat Tire 40 and opened it up to 100 racers.
The event was a success, garnering the attention of the bike racing community.
As a result, the same entities got together again this year to offer two races on a similar course: the Fat Tire 40 and the Wildcat 40.
The Fat Tire 40 would be for the “racer” crowd competing on the Mountain States Cup series, and the Wildcat 40 would be for the masses. Furthermore, they added a little kick to the course.
Last year, riders finished with one last climb up the resort, topping off on Columbine Hill before dropping down a relatively smooth single track and finishing in town.
This year, they finished the course with an uphill taking riders close to the top of the Silver Queen lift before dropping them down the West Side Trail to the finish at the base area.
It was a brutal course, to say the least.
Carnage abounded out on the trails, with calls from riders looking for extra C02 cartridges to fix the multitude of multiple flats.
“There was mad pro carnage on the Upper Loop,” says Ochs. “People were beaten up.”
Unfortunately, there was mad course carnage as well, as the top five riders in the men’s pro category were sent the wrong direction during the Strand Hill corkscrew.
Following the Farris Creek/Strand Hill portions, the top pros got mixed in with riders from another class who were just heading out on the Strand Bonus for the first time. Signals got crossed and as a result, the top five pros turned back onto Strand Bonus a second time instead of down the Canal Trail to turn toward Deer Creek.
“I guess it was just confusing,” says Ochs. “It just sucks in the end. I’m bummed the way it went down.”
Local and Team Alpine Orthopaedics rider Travis Scheefer possibly benefited from the confusion. Scheefer won the Fat Tire 40 last year and was reeling in the lead group when the confusion hit.
“It was total chaos,” says Scheefer. “We were coming through with the Cat I riders who were on their first lap. We were all moving about the same speed so you couldn’t tell who was who.”
Scheefer knew which way to go and followed through on the Canal Trail. He found out what happened when he dropped onto Brush Creek Road and headed out for Deer Creek.
“Brian Smith was there and told me I was in first so I figured those guys must have gone the wrong way,” says Scheefer.
As Scheefer started climbing up the road to the Deer Creek Trail turn-off, he took a look back, then stepped on it.
“Once we started climbing up the road I thought if I give some gas I can build more of a gap,” says Scheefer.
He held his lead the rest of the way to finish the 40-plus mile course in a time of three hours, 43 minutes and 46 seconds, three minutes faster than his winning time last year.
Alpine Orthopaedics teammate Ethan Passant finished in fourth place in a time of 3 hours, 50 minutes and 9 seconds. (Passant would go on to take fourth place again in the Oh Be Joyful kayak race the next day.)
Avon, Colo. resident and 2009 national marathon mountain bike champion Gretchen Reeves won the women’s pro race in a time of 4 hours, 11 minutes and 29 seconds.
Gunnison resident and 2009 Fat Tire 40 winner Jenny Smith was four minutes back in second place.
Smith entered the race dubious of her chances after suffering from an illness contracted in Brazil that put her out of commission leading up to the race.
“I was just going to see how things ended up,” says Smith.
Reeves and Kelley Cullen led the charge on the first half of the course and started to pull away from Smith en route to the Strand Hill corkscrew.
Smith knew Reeves wouldn’t blow up but she managed to reel Cullen in and took over second place by the time they were climbing the Deer Creek Trail single track.
“I was in one gear harder than I like to be but I was going faster than a lot of people,” says Smith.
Smith realized she had given the race everything she had when she started cramping on the West Side Trail but she held on to second place, finishing 30 minutes faster than her winning time last year.
“I felt super strong and I came out of it really happy,” says Smith. “For me I had a really good race.”
Team Alpine Orthopaedics rider Jari Kirkland posted a time of 4 hours, 39 minutes and 37 seconds to take sixth place.
Other notable local Fat Tire 40 results include Team Alpine Orthopaedics rider Stewart Gross, who placed fifth in the Cat I men age class 19-29 with a time of 4 hours, 20 minutes and 13 seconds; Brick Oven/Crested Butte Builders rider Aaron Huckstep who took 17th in Cat I men ages 30-39 with a time of 4 hours, 41 minutes and 21 seconds; and Rock-N-Roll Sports rider Becky Sears who won the women’s Cat I ages 19-29 class.
The locals turned out in mass for the Wildcat 40 race and led the charge there as well.
Team Alpine Orthopaedics athlete Bryan Dillon was the only Wildcat racer to break four hours winning the Wildcat in a time of 3 hours, 53 minutes and 57 seconds, a time fast enough to have placed top 10 among the pros.
Brick Oven/Crested Butte Builders rider Dan Loftus recovered just enough from the prior night to take third place on a single-speed.
Sydney Fuller represented the Brick Oven in the women’s Wildcat finishing with the top local performance to take third place in a time of 5 hours, 8 minutes and 40 seconds. Dawn Passant, Missy Ochs and Sarah Gillis carried the Team Alpine Orthopaedics colors to fifth, sixth and seventh place respectively, Heather McDowell took eighth and Tina Kempin rounded out the top 10.
“All in all it was a great day,” says Ochs.