Local riders go full tilt in San Juan Mountains bike race

Kempin one spot shy of state title

A handful of local riders led by Team Alpine Orthopaedics (Team AO) headed to the San Juan Mountains last weekend for the Full Tilt in Telluride, competing in the cross-country and downhill races. The event was the sixth stop on the Mountain States Cup Series and is the Colorado State Championships. Win in Telluride and you get the official Colorado state championship uniform for the next year or until someone takes the title from you; think maillot jaune meets the Stanley Cup.
With that in mind, four riders from Team AO—Travis Scheefer, Dave Ochs, Jari Kirkland and Nicholas Kempin—made the trip for a shot at the state title in the cross-country race. Three local young guns—Teo Bradbury, Colin Pickett and Eliot Rosenberg—threw themselves into the downhill race.
It’s been a frantic four weeks for Team AO athletes. Scheefer kicked it off with a fourth-place finish at the Fat Tire 40 here in Crested Butte, followed by a seventh-place finish at the Firecracker 50 and then rolled right into the Full Tilt in Telluride four days later.
“I guess it’s been kind of busy,” says Scheefer.
The pro and Cat I course was over 25 miles long with plenty of climbing on the two laps and a downhill track that Scheefer described as “pedally.”
“It’s a little up and down on the descent,” says Scheefer. “You’re still working a bit.”
Scheefer admits that he may not have been fully recovered from the Firecracker 50 race heading into Telluride but he knew what he had to do for a shot at the state title.
“Jay [Henry] was there and I knew he was the guy to stick with,” says Scheefer.
Scheefer filed in right behind Henry on the first climb and was looking to shadow him the entire race before a mechanical on the first descent let Henry pull away.
It turned out his front derailleur cable had slipped, leaving him with only his little ring up-front for the descent.
“My chain kept dropping off my big ring,” explains Scheefer.
Scheefer lost a minute to Henry on the descent and when he stopped at the bottom to fix the issue, he dropped back to fourth place.
He pulled back into third place on the next climb but lost a spot again on the downhill to finish in fourth with a time of 2:04:03.
“I think that without those mechanicals, I would have probably finished top-three,” says Scheefer. “But that’s all part of racing.”
Ochs finished the pro race in 10th place with a time of 2:18:24.
Kirkland’s schedule this summer has been packed with a variety of events including the Growler, the Teva Games, and an Ironman race, so Telluride was her first shot at a Mountain States Cup Series race.
“I just couldn’t fit them in,” says Kirkland.
She admits her race in Telluride wasn’t “super fabulous.”
“It started raining about an hour and 45 minutes into the race and I got cold and I had a hard time pushing it,” says Kirkland.
Still, Kirkland was in the mix up-front, crossing the finish in third place with a time of 2:34:45.
Meanwhile, Kempin was in the mix for the state title among Cat I ages 30-39 riders. Kempin put in some time in the saddle at local races, riding the full Growler at Hartman Rocks and placing seventh at the Fat Tire 40 two weeks ago.
After taking on the longer, local races, he decided to try something shorter and jumped in with his teammates headed to Telluride.
“We had some Alpine Orthopaedics folks going and I’ve never raced in Telluride before,” explains Kempin. “I was curious to try out that distance since all I ever do are the long races around here.”
Kempin came off the start strong, putting in a huge effort during the initial climb on the first lap to move into second place.
He held his spot through the second lap, battling on the final downhill with another rider on the rain-slick course.
“I was mixing it up with another guy from a younger class,” says Kempin. “That descent got really greasy.”
Kempin crossed the finish line in second place in his class posting a time of 2:17:00.
“I went out hard on that first climb and it worked out,” says Kempin.
The downhill racers all fell short of the podium in their respective classes. Bradbury had the strongest finish, taking fifth place in the Cat I age class 15-18. Pickett took ninth in the Cat I 19-29 age group and Rosenberg finished in eighth place among Cat II riders ages 19-29.
Several Team AO riders are now turning their attention to the Leadville 100 qualifier race here in Crested Butte on Sunday, July 31.
“We’ll see if that turns into a spot in the Leadville race,” says Kempin. “I still got some good racing ahead of me.”
“I’ll probably do the Leadville qualifier,” adds Scheefer. “Maybe all my bad luck is over.”
Kirkland, on the other hand, returns to her strength as she heads to Breckenridge for the Breckenridge 100 mountain bike race on Saturday, July 16.
“I’m really excited for this weekend,” says Kirkland. “I love it.”