The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Kirkland takes solo title, Smith and Brown mount comeback
No matter how many Growler races you may have ridden and how hard you rode in them, nothing can truly prepare you for the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde, the opening suffer-fest of the mountain bike race season.
The 12 Hours of Mesa Verde course follows a 16.4-mile loop of prime southwest Colorado single track in an area know as Phil’s World. Competitors have a variety of options for the 12-hour-long race. One can ride it solo, with a teammate or with three other teammates in a relay fashion.
The Gunnison Valley contingent of bike enthusiasts make the annual trip to Mesa Verde every May to put their pain threshold to the test, competing in all classes across the board.
Sure, there was some cramping, a lot of cramping, and some IV bags, some dehydration and exhaustion, but every rider deals with that in Mesa Verde. The difference lies in how each rider deals with it.
Team Alpine Orthopaedics (AO) solo phenom Jari Kirkland is no stranger to the slings and arrows of pain and suffering. She has made a career of it, winning too many 24-hour and 12-hour solo women’s titles to name.
On Saturday, May 12 she added another title to her résumé, riding seven laps in Mesa Verde over 12 hours, 114.8 miles total, to cruise to the women’s solo title.
The race of the day came from the AO duo team of Brian Smith and Jon Brown. The two riders have their fair share of bike and adventure race triumphs each, so to put them on the same team would appear to be a guaranteed recipe for success.
One thing about endurance bike races, though—anything can happen and something did happen to the pair from the very first lap.
Smith admits that he came into the event cold.
“I went into it with the expectation that I was going to race myself into shape,” says Smith.
The plan proved dubious at first, as Smith showed up 45 minutes before the race and was thrown into riding the first lap complete with a Le Mans-style start.
“I got on the bike and I felt horrible,” says Smith.
Fortunately Brown was prepared and posted the second fastest lap time of the day on his first lap to set the duo in fourth place. Still, it wasn’t looking good for the two AO riders.
“We pretty much ruled out winning the race at that point,” admits Smith.
Smith suffered another meltdown on his fourth lap with no energy in the tank but Brown pressed on during his laps and pulled the team into a tie for second place before handing off to Smith for the final lap.
Ten miles into the final lap and on the rear wheel of second place, Smith got a break when the racer in front of him washed out on a technical climb and Smith made his move.
“I just stayed on the gas,” says Smith.
With just over five miles left in the race, Smith popped one last energy gel and things immediately turned around for him. After struggling all day, Smith found his rhythm and was pressing hard.
“All of a sudden I hit overdrive,” explains Smith. “I was finally in race mode.”
With a little over two miles left in the race, Smith caught a glimpse of what appeared to be the lead team and reeled him in to sit on his rear wheel for a bit. Words were exchanged, the leader realized he was in trouble and Smith made one final move to take over in front, sealing the deal for himself and Brown as they took the 12-hour duo title by a mere 18 seconds.
“It was unbelievable, an incredible race,” says Smith.
Two more local duo teams also won titles in Mesa Verde. Jenny Smith and Sarah Kaufmann teamed up to crush the women’s duo field, putting in eight laps over the 12 hours. Brick Oven/CB Builders riders Heather McDowell and Krista Powers cracked the top five in the same race, putting down a total of seven laps.
Meanwhile, Eszter Horanyi pulled in Jonathan Davis from the Boulder area to win the coed duo title with eight laps.
On the four-person relay team front, several locals pulled together to rattle off a number of top five finishes. AO riders Bryan Dillon, Dave Ochs, Ethan Passant and Jeff Irwin placed fourth with nine laps. The Real Housewives of Crested Butte—Dawn French, Laura Anderson, Sarah Stubbe and Tina Kempin—took fourth place among women’s teams with a total of seven laps.
“Things are starting to come around and legs are starting to feel good,” says Team AO Directeur Sportif/rider Ochs.
While some of the local hammerheads will carry their momentum into an event in Salida this weekend, almost all have their collective sights set on the Half-Growler and the Original Growler at Hartman Rocks, May 26-27.
