Just some thoughts and experiences from a mountain bike endurance racer who likes to ride and race his single speed mountain bike a long long way on remote single track in the mountains and desert.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

The Rico 100 mountain bike race. 1st place overall on a singlespeed.


The 2012 Rico 100 mountain bike race.  1st place overall on a singlespeed.  96 miles and 14,000’ elevation gain in 12:07 hours.  Super tough race based out of Rico Colorado!  Epic singletrack and some serious hike-a-bike above timberline.  Awesome views! 

The racers rolled out of Rico early in the morning and climbed up to the Colorado Trail where we got on some sweet singletrack that took us over Blackhawk.  We rode it all the way to the Grindstone trail.  Grindstone is a ridable, but technically challenging, steep downhill into the Bear Creek basin.  Then the route took us down the Bear Creek trail which is a bit rocky and technical but almost all ridable.  At the bottom there was an aid station.  Took me about 8 hours to get to the aid station.  I knew I was in first there but they were not far back. 

From the aid station another monster climb started.  I rode up the Taylor Mesa graded road then had some serious hike-a-bike on the Calico trail with some amazing views.  This is when the rain really started coming down on me.  After riding/hiking on a long section of Calico the route drops down West Fall Creek trail.  This trail is usually a fun fast downhill but the wet condition made it treacherous.  Just before getting to Dunton the route turned onto the Winter trail which was a mucky mess.  Normally a mostly ridable climb.  Today is was so greasy it was hard to get traction and even ride much. 

At the top of the Winter trail I got on a dirt road that was mostly downhill to the highway then took that back down to Rico with the rain dumping on me.  The finish was at the Enterprise bar and grill in Rico.  A beer and burger was waiting for me.  Nice job to the other podium finishers: Doug Byerly 2nd and Jeff Hemperley (SS) 3rd.  Great race!
 http://coloradoes.wordpress.com/swes-event-list/rico-run/

The Rico 100 podium