Growler brings out the best in mountain bike racing

“What’s worse, DNS or DNF?”

Day one of the two-day Original Growler bike-racing weekend was as good as it gets out at Hartman Rocks. Day two was a little different.
The weekend, put together by Gunnison Trails with incredible volunteer support, kicked off at 7 a.m. Saturday with the Half Growler as 348 mountain bikers headed out from downtown Gunnison for 32 miles of prime Hartman Rocks riding under sunny skies.
The course has everything for participants, rolling big ring singletrack, technical ups and downs as well as the occasional pinching climb. And with recent rains mixed with sunny skies, the course was in incredible shape.
“The course was awesome,” says women’s winner and Team Griggs Orthopedics (Team GO) rider Jenny Smith. “It doesn’t get any better.”
And after 32 miles of racing, the women’s race came down to a sprint finish between Smith and Team GO teammate Amy Beisel.
Smith admits she entered the race looking for the win having returned to racing form after the birth of her child and being able to line up against such strong riders.
“I was totally thinking ‘win,’” says Smith. “I felt like we had a really good field in the women’s race and I knew it would be a really good, challenging race.”
She also knew it was going to be tough at the start.
“The start was really hard and fast for me and I knew it would be,” says Smith. “I felt like a baby elephant, as opposed to a gazelle.”
Nevertheless, Smith bided her time settling into fourth place among the women once the initial dash subsided and proceeded to pick her way through the field.
“I was just super patient, which was really good for me,” says Smith.
After dodging some rider carnage on Gateway and finding her way around other riders on course from the men’s field, Smith caught a glimpse of Beisel.
“Dropping into Dave Moe’s I saw Amy and I hadn’t seen her since Kill Hill,” says Smith. “I felt good and that’s where I started my race.”
Smith caught Beisel on the climb up Powerline and built a gap over the remainder of singletrack riding but knew there was still plenty of road riding, complete with a headwind, to get back to the finish line in town.
“Once I built that gap I decided to moderate my effort,” says Smith.
Looking back, Smith noticed Beisel found another rider to work with on the pavement section and by the time they hit the airport, the two riders were neck-and-neck. It then came down to the final turn to the finish line. As Beisel went wide, Smith cut inside to edge out the win by three seconds with a time of 3:12:30.
Megan Carrington out of Denver grabbed the third spot on the podium with a time of 3:17:35.
Ross “Mach” Schnell of Grand Junction put the wood to the men’s 32-mile field crossing in first place with a time of 2:56:56. Trevor Von Boeck of Colorado Springs placed second four minutes behind and Brick Oven team rider and WSCU graduate Kyle Crawley came in third. Rising homegrown rider Josh Gallen had the top local finish among men, placing fourth.
Then the rain came in like a monster Saturday night and really didn’t let up until moments before the start of the Full Growler, the 64-mile race, or tour, or sufferfest, depending on your frame of existence.
As the rain tapered, threatening clouds sat overhead and racers were left scrambling prior to the start.
“What’s worse, DNS or DNF?” asked one racer.
“DNS means you’re smarter,” was the only response and with that she decided to opt out.
In fact, several riders, including a couple of perennial podium finishers, opted out of the race as the potential for riding 64 miles of rain-soaked trails could result in irreparable damage to bikes and insufferable pain to bikers.
Dave Wiens, executive director for Gunnison Trails, reminded everyone at the start of this year’s race, “It’s a lot like the race in 2009. You’ll be okay.”
Team GO rider Dave Ochs had his own plan, sticking packing tape on top of his helmet to “keep the rain out.”
And while the clouds remained in place for most of the first half of the race, the rain held off. The course, on the other hand, did have its conditional challenges. While the trails are comprised of mostly crushed granite and thus avoids turning bikes into a mud-caked mess, there is still plenty of dirt, and therefore mud, to be had out there.
Case in point, the second half of the Powerline Climb. While the moisture turned the first half of the climb into a tacky dream, the second half rendered the track completely unmanageable as riders found themselves stuck in place, whether riding or walking.
“I’d push my bike and my front wheel would spin but my rear wheel was just dragging,” says Brick Oven team rider Ben Preston. “My drive train had enough sand in it to fill a sandbox. It was a weird cupcake of sorts. Mud cake with a layer of granite-silica sprinkles.”
Then the sun hit, and course conditions turned for the better, making the second lap more tolerable.
It was Team GO rider’s Bryan Dillon’s fourth attempt at the 64-mile race. He’s finished fourth twice and crashed out once but he has been on a roll so far this year with a second place finish at a 50-mile race in Castle Rock and then matching wits with the worlds best at the Whiskey 50 in Prescott, Ariz.
“That one gets every fast guy in America and then some,” says Dillon.
Due to the weather, race organizers decided to start out the section at Hartman Rocks with the usual climb up Kill Hill and then turning directly onto the singletrack. As a result, Dillon set a new race strategy in place.
“As soon as I heard that, I knew I had to get up Kill Hill close to the front,” says Dillon.
Dillon settled in right behind leader Cameron Chambers when they turned onto the Tailpipe trail with two other riders in tow. Chambers then suffered a mechanical and Dillon never looked back.
“He flatted on Josie’s and from then on, I was by myself,” says Dillon. “It was kind of sad because it’s always good to have someone with you, pushing.”
Dillon had a five-minute lead after one lap and then laid down an almost identical split on his second lap doubling his lead on the ever-improving course conditions.
“They call it hero dirt for a reason,” says Dillon. “It was sweet.”
Dillon finished in a time of 5:11:38, 11 minutes ahead of Breckenridge rider Josh Tostado. Mike Mcauley joined Dillon on the podium in third place with a time of 5:28:41 to give locals two of the three podium spots.
“It was good to win,” says Dillon. “It’s fun to be in my hometown and win.”
On the women’s side of things, Team GO rider Janae Pritchett was in the hunt for the title. Pritchett came off of Bambi’s and headed up the Powerline Climb on the first lap just three minutes behind heavily decorated and NoTubes Elite Race Team pro racer Amanda Carey.
Pritchett laid down a faster split than Carey on lap two but couldn’t quite reel her in finishing in second place in a time of 6:18:09. Marlee Dixon from Breckenridge finished in third.
The race season continues with a slew of events stretched over the rest of the summer. Dillon returns to racing next weekend when he heads to the GoPro Mountain Games. The Fat Tire 40 will bring the bike racing hordes to Crested Butte for Crested Butte Bike Week June 26-29.
“Mountain bike racing season has begun,” says Dillon.