Top Leadville finishers to get rematch at Park City Point 2 Point

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The Park City Point 2 Point (PCP2P) race is shaping up to be a Leadville 100  rematch among the women. The Utah round of the National Ultra Endurance (NUE) series on Saturday, September 3, will feature a battle of three of the top four female finishers at this year's Leadville 100.

Leadville winner Rebecca Rusch, PCP2P defending champion Pua Mata and Jenny Smith are signed up for the event, but they will face a stiff challenge for NUE series queen Amanda Carey, who withdrew from Leadville after mechanical issues early in the race.

The PCP2P is known among racers as a challenging and true point-to-point race. The 2011 course travels 78 miles and climbs roughly 14,000 feet through the Wasatch Mountains without crossing, or using, the same trail twice. It cuts through the area's three ski resorts, including Deer Valley Resort and Park City Mountain Resort, and will finish in the Forum at Canyons Resort. Featuring more than 90 percent singletrack and very few sections for resting, the PCP2P requires athletes to maintain their endurance and focus.

"Park City has over 400 miles of trail, which provides us with some incredible options for choosing our course," said Jay Burke, race director of the PCP2P. "The P2P is merciless. Ups and downs, big miles and technical lines. The course is not for the faint of heart, and that's exactly why the P2P has attracted some of the most prestigious endurance cyclists from around the country."

Two-time defending PCP2P champion and Cyclingnews blogger Alex Grant of the Cannondale Factory Team called the 2010 PCP2P "harder than Leadville" and described the course as "25 miles shorter [than Leadville] but with the same amount of vertical gain and 75 miles more singletrack. There were no road sections for resting, drafting or eating or drinking. [It's] a pure mountain bike course."

Joining Grant in the 2011 PCP2P are male pro endurance racers Tinker Juarez, Travis Brown, Josh Tostado, two-time Leadville 100 winner Bryson Perry and Olympic Nordic gold medallist Billy Demong.

The 2011 edition of the Park City Point 2 Point race sold out its 350 spots in just six minutes after registration went live. Because of the overwhelming interest in the solo category over the past three years, the PCP2P duo category has been eliminated indefinitely.

The top seven men and women will share a $10,000 cash payout with the winners taking home $1,750 each.

For more information on the Park City Point 2 Point, visit www.thepcpp.com.