Kirkland wins Silver Rush 50 bike race

“I’m definitely getting into my groove”

 As the summer mountain bike racing season progresses, so does Team Griggs Orthopedics (Team GO) rider Jari Kirkland. After reaching the podium in her last couple of races, Kirkland stood on top winning the Leadville Silver Rush 50 last weekend in a time of four hours, 40 minutes and 28 seconds.
Kirkland had a slow start to the racing season this year. She didn’t get back on her bike until mid-April and so she spent the first couple races warming up to the season including a sixth place finish at the Growler.
“I had a really late start to my season,” says Kirkland.
As the season continued though, Kirkland continued to gain steam. She had a solid run at the Ultimate Mountain Challenge competition at the GoPro Mountain Games in Vail finishing in sixth and then hit the podium at the Fat Tire 40 placing second.
“That was a good race there, I felt strong,” says Kirkland. “The season just got progressively better with each race.”
Kirkland’s next challenge was the Silver Rush 50 in Leadville, part of the Leadville race series. In the past she’s competed at the Breckenridge 100 race on the same weekend but decided to mix it up this summer.
“Breckenridge was the alternative but I’ve done that race so it was nice to do something different,” explains Kirkland.
The downside of that plan was course familiarity, or lack of course familiarity.
“I didn’t get a chance to preview the course but I knew that because there’s 8,000 feet of climbing, there’s probably nothing flat,” says Kirkland.
The only other piece of information Kirkland had came from Rebecca Rusch’s finishing time of around four hours, 35 minutes two years ago when Rusch won it. Kirkland has matched wits with Rusch before so she set her sights on that mark.
“I felt if I could hang close to that and feel good, I’d be excited,” says Kirkland. “I’m definitely getting into my groove, mentally that’s a good place to be.”
The Silver Rush 50 is 50 miles long with an out and back format. Kirkland jumped off the start line for the initial climb but got hung up behind some men struggling at the top of the first climb. As the race continued, she found a stronger group of men to work off of and by the time she reached the turnaround, she had a slim lead on the woman in second place.
“At the turnaround someone told me there was a girl one minute back so I just kept pushing the pace,” says Kirkland.
One-third of the way back, she found out she had built on that lead and then as she dropped into the final nine mile rocky descent, she caught word that she had added additional time to her lead, it was at that point that Kirkland decided to ease off the throttle.
“I didn’t want to flat so I took it slow, which was not necessarily in my game plan,” says Kirkland.
While Kirkland crossed the line with the title, she was a bit off of her intended pace leaving room for improvement.
“I felt great all the way to the finish line but I need to figure out how to be five minutes faster,” says Kirkland.
Team GO rider Sarah Stubbe finished in ninth with a time of 5:41:35 and teammate Troy Hiatt had the fastest time among local men placing 19th after four hours, 21 minutes and 42 seconds in and out of the saddle.
Kirkland wasn’t the only local to step on top though. Lee Cannon, a local man racing in the 60-69 age class, finished with a time of 5:46:24 to win his age class. Cannon hopes to carry that momentum into the Leadville 100, which he will be racing in for the seventh time.
Kirkland will get in a couple triathlons, a day of racing on the Big Mountain Enduro circuit and then take a week off before she heads to the Leadville 100 race on August 9 with her sights set on another podium finish.
“Truly, I don’t expect to win. The woman who won last year is a fully sponsored pro rider with no job but to race,” says Kirkland. “I think third is the goal, and to have a time of seven hours, 40 minutes. I just want to have a really good solid race. Last year I was sick and just suffered through 100 miles.”