Best Race Ever

Have you ever had any burn­ing ques­tions you’d love to ask the top ath­letes? Ever won­der what’s in their water, how they train or what keeps them on the top of their game? We’ve all been there from time to time and to tell you the truth, there really are no secret ingre­di­ents to mak­ing your local super-starts shine brighter than oth­ers. It’s called devo­tion, pas­sion and grit. Of course a struc­tured train­ing plan, decent nutri­tion, sleep, func­tional equip­ment and a num­ber of other things all con­tribute to their suc­cess. But over time, what you’ll come to find out is that the love for the sport is what truly dri­ves us.

Each Field Fact post will pose a sim­ple ques­tion to some of Utah’s best cyclists, to get a small glimpse of what con­tributes to their suc­cess. Today I ask the ques­tion: If you had to pick one race and one race only to par­tic­i­pate in for the rest of your life, what would you pick? (feel free to pick a race that no longer exists, one you haven’t done and have always wanted to do or one that is a part of your stan­dard race sea­son each year)

All answers are direct quotes from each athlete

Chris Hol­ley:

PCP2P. After last year I can’t really think of why it is my favorite.

Bart Gille­spie

GDR. Adven­ture! Some­day when the kidos are a lit­tle older I hope to do it.

Blake Zum­brun­nen

Okay, for real; Deer Val­ley and Soli­tude are my two favorite local races. Both have rip­per 1-track that can cre­ate dis­tress on chasers. DV is pretty basic from a tech­ni­cal stand­point, but the art of flow­ing and get­ting through switch­backs quickly is para­mount. Soli­tude demands a bal­ance of speed and keep­ing your equip­ment together.

Nation­als– I really liked rac­ing at Fort Lewis Col­lege and at Durango Moun­tain Resort because of the fans. Fans on the east coast also tend to gather in techy DH areas, which makes for good times. Snow­mass puts you on the rivet on the UH and DH and gen­er­ally fil­ters out rac­ers that aren’t fully race-ready.

So my one favorite– Deer Val­ley national course. 4 notable climbs per lap that are each about 6–8 min­utes long. Very fast descend­ing, good crowds, home course.

Katy Sher­win

If I can only do one race each sea­son I am going to make it a doozy and pick the 6 day Andalu­cia MTB Stage Race in Spain.  It was prob­a­bly one of the most orga­nized and well run races I have ever done in my 10 years of rac­ing (and it was a FIRST year race!!).  Plus, head­ing to Spain for a week or two dur­ing the win­ter months wasn’t half bad either!

I think this race cap­tured me the most out of all the years I have been rac­ing because I always told myself that MTB Stage Rac­ing is some­thing I would never want to do.  And lit­tle did I know I couldn’t have been more wrong.  Not only did I come away from that race hum­bled, I came away know­ing how far I can push my mind and body.  There is some­thing about reach­ing beyond what you think your lim­its are that is so rewarding!

Tom Ben­der

While I don’t feel I have one race that I love specif­i­cally I do have a whole series…WORS.  Best orga­nized, largest fields, strongest fields and cool ass courses!  I’m miss­ing the Mid­west racers!

If i did have to pick one it would be the Chequamegon Fat Tire Fes­ti­val (aka the Mid­west world cham­pi­onship).  A moun­tain bike is needed but there’s no tech­ni­cal parts too it, but bring legs as you’ll do 40 miles in 2 hours…cool fes­ti­val, great peo­ple, amaz­ing ter­rain, beau­ti­ful area and I’ve the post race activ­i­ties are a blast!

K.C. Hol­ley

That is a tough ques­tion. We are lucky that we have so many great races so close. One of my favorites that is no longer was the Brian Head Epic. It was a beau­ti­ful, fun 100 miler with a lit­tle bit of everything.

Alex Grant

BC Bike Race. It was the best rid­ing of any race I have done as far as true moun­tain bik­ing and trail qual­ity.  Per­fect weather the year we went didn’t hurt either but it’s a cool event.

Jonny Hintze

Tough call.…I really enjoyed 12 hrs of Mesa Verda. It’s prob­a­bly some of the best, if not the best sin­gle track I’ve ever rid­den. I felt like a kid in a play­ground the first time I rode the course. I think I was gig­gling the whole time… Even after doing numer­ous laps the course was still fun. Can we get some sin­gle track like that in north­ern Utah?

Bryson Perry

Ledville 100. The rea­sons:  It is long, epic, at alti­tude and the most impor­tant rea­son is that it gives you a chance to see all of the other rac­ers on your way back and cheer for them.  I have never raced another race where it is an out and back and you have oncom­ing traf­fic that is scream­ing for you not at you.

Sec­ond coolest race would have to be Whiskey 50. Cool atmos­phere, cool town and cool course.

Jake Pan­tone

If it was going to be only one race I would do the Tour Divide… This way I could get an entire sea­son worth of rac­ing in one event. Then there is the risk asso­ci­ated with get­ting attacked by a moun­tain lion or griz­zly bear. I would have to regrow my beard though… It just wouldn’t be appro­pri­ate to tra­verse the con­ti­nen­tal divide w/o the beard rem­i­nis­cent of a gold miner.

Jason Sager

The old Laji­tas stage race in Laji­tas, Texas.

Doesn’t hap­pen any longer, but it was a pil­grim­age to west Texas in the 90’s where, as guys look­ing to “make it” and be come pro could line up and race Tin­ker, Wiens, JHK, Til­ford, and an end­less list of pros in the early sea­son under the grand west Texas sky and in shorts.

A long and dusty TT in the desert, a stxc around the old ghost town/country main street setup, then an OG epic 55k loop with through washes, desert sandy twisty sin­gle track, up a 400m sin­gle pitch “giant” climb (for us Tex­ans) and then back through the canyons to the fin­ish. You stayed in the bunkhouse, ate local food, and unpacked white dust from your cloth­ing and gear for weeks.

Duff John­son

Park city point to point is my favorite race so far, but the BC bike race is a dream of mine. I’ve heard the trails in that race are unbeat­able, and the chal­lenge of a stage race and that race in par­tic­u­lar gets the blood pumping.