The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Many places claim to be the birthplace of mountain biking, Crested Butte among them. What many don’t dare to claim is the title of “Awesomest Place to Race Mountain Bikes.” After this weekend, Crested Butte could post that title at the entrance to town.
The Mountain States Cup’s fifth stop of the year featured cross-country, downhill, Super D, and dual slalom racing action. With a cross-country course that is both higher and more remote than any other on the series and a gravity series at CBMR featuring fast, fun race tracks with views of snow-capped peaks, Crested Butte’s event definitely puts the “mountain” back in “mountain biking.”
The racing kicked off early Saturday morning with the start of the ClifBar Fat Tire 40, the cross-country race for men’s and women’s Pro, Category 1, and Open (Wildcat) class racers. The grueling course took racers up the backside of Painter Boy ridge at Crested Butte Mountain Resort before dropping them down the pummeling, rock-strewn Westside trail before shooting them out the Upper Loop to Brush Creek Road before climbing Strand Hill Road and down Strand Hill trail before the long trek up to Deer Creek trail. Once off Deer Creek on Gothic Road, racers relaxed on several miles of dirt road before hitting the final climb up the backside of Painter Boy ridge and down the buffed-out Columbine Hill trail for a screaming fast descent to the finish line.
Few other courses in cross-country racing feature as much pure singletrack as the Fat Tire 40, something that sets Crested Butte apart from other Mountain States Cup events. Course designer Dave Ochs describes it as “Way longer, way harder than the other MSC races, and really takes on more of that epic mountain bike ride/race feel. It defeats a lot of folks and, in the end, that’s what makes you come back.”
As far as the caliber of racers goes, the field this year saw a lot more Pro riders than years past, with a special emphasis on what Ochs calls “the hardened strong men and women, not the shorter distance, faster racer types” who seem to be dominating a lot of other MSC events.
The Pro men’s category featured some super-fast times with overall victor Mike West of Yeti Cycles coming in at 3 hours, 27 minutes, and 18 seconds. Hot on his heels was local pro Brian Smith of Team Alpine Orthopaedics, coming in just 42 seconds behind West.
“Nine times out of 10 I can beat that guy,” Smith said of West, “but he just had a great day out there.” Despite being within 10 seconds of West for much of the race, Smith credits West’s superb downhilling technique for initially opening up a gap on him early in the race and then managing to get 30 seconds on him during the last downhill to the finish. Tim Allen of Niner-Ergon Racing came in third while Team Alpine Orthopaedics rider Travis Scheefer brought home fourth with a time of 3:33.05. Brian Riepe of Mountain Flyer hammered the course out in 3:44.05 for 15th place.
On the women’s side of the Pro field, Jenny Smith of Team Alpine Orthopaedics rode strong, finishing in second place just one minute, two seconds behind winner Gretchen Reeves of Tokyo Joes, who finished with a time of 3:59.52. Smith, who has raced in all three editions of the Fat Tire 40, said that this year’s course was her favorite. Unlike many of the competitors who were really beat up after the rocky descent of the Westside trail and the technical pedal-fest on the Upper Loop, Smith said she “really liked the start.” While Smith beat Reeves up the legendary Deer Creek climb, she couldn’t quite hold on to her lead and ended up trailing Reeves on the way to CBMR. The two beat third-place finisher Teal Stetson-Lee of Rocky Mountain Cycles, by almost 15 minutes.
In other cross-country race action Tommy Githens of Brick Oven/Crested Butte Builders smoked the course in a blazingly fast 4:04.26 to take second in the Men’s Singlespeed division. Tina Kempin, riding for Brick Oven/Crested Butte Builders, came in 10th overall for Category 1 Women and third in her age division (30-39) with a time of 5:19.03. Sarah Gillis finished fourth in the Women’s Open (Wildcat) division with a time of 5:30.13. Justin Reiter of Crested Butte finished in 15th place in the Men’s Open (Wildcat) division with a time of 4:27.35, with Justin Varaljay, also of Crested Butte, finished in 17th with a time of 4:30.04. Rounding out the top 20 for Crested Butte Men’s Wildcat finishers was Mike Mcauley in 20th with a time of 4:32.02.
By the time the XC racers were finished, the gravity events were already under way with racers hitting the lifts to tackle the Dual Slalom course. Racing continued on Sunday featuring both a Super Downhill and the Downhill event. The Downhill, now part of the Professional Mountain Bike Gravity Race Tour, brought out a strong contingent of nearly 70 pro riders.
Taking top honors in the downhill was Jared Graves, followed by Cody Warren of DRD E-Fusion in second and Ben Furbee, racing for Transition Bikes/Fox Shox in third. Mountain Sports director Drew Cesati called the presence of a rider like Jared Graves “pretty much like having Bode Miller here for one of our FIS ski racing events.”
Kain Leonard finished with an impressive 12th overall. Leonard was happy with his run, even though he admitted to a couple of “dumb mistakes” on the course, namely blowing out of his clipless pedals during his run. Despite that, Leonard called this race “the funnest track of the year” and said that it was “really well received by all the racers.” He said, “CBMR staff really stepped it up, from the trail guys getting the track ready to the lifties making sure that the huge crowds got loaded as fast as possible.” When asked if he would be back to racing in the future Leonard said, “I don’t think I’ll ever quit racing,” adding that his favorite part of this year’s race was hearing the roar of the crowd cheering the racers on. “It really shows that people are getting into gravity racing, which is great.”
Leonard wasn’t the only local racer this weekend with a good finish, as Gunnison Valley residents placed in the top ten in nearly every other category in Downhill. In the men’s Category 1 19-29 age group race Colin Pickett of Gunnison, racing for Rocky Mountain Cycles, took the win. Of Pickett’s performance Leonard said simply, “He killed it.”
Also stepping up to the top of the podium in the men’s Category 2 19-29 age group was Crested Butte resident Red McIntosh. For Cesati the performance of these two riders was a definite highlight of the event. “It was great to see the local boys come out and compete and not only do well, but step to the highest position on the podium.”
Also finishing with a promising ninth in men’s Category 1 15-18 age group was young local Teo Bradbury, son of mountain biking legend Doug Bradbury. Bradbury is coming off a significant leg injury sustained last year during a practice run. Of Bradbury, Leonard said, “To do this well with a new bike, coming off an injury, to get a top ten result in the country, is really impressive. He’s a racer to watch.”
Rounding out the men’s Downhill results, Luke Shaffner scored himself a 10th-place finish in the Category 2 30-39 age group, Josh Palmer also nabbed a 10th-place finish in the Category 3 15-18 race, and Same Kenagy, who races for Western State College, got a solid third place finish in the Category 3 19-29 age group division. Junior Men’s racer Lane Griffin scored an eighth place for his run.
Crested Butte’s ladies did well for themselves as well with Janae Pritchett taking second in the Category 1 women’s race. For the Category 2 women Nicole Digate, racing for the Crested Butte Monkey Posse, earned herself a second-place finish while Annie Frame took third place for the Junior Women’s division.
The Mountain States Cup’s next stop will be the Full Tilt in Telluride July 8-10.
