Smith and Carey win High Cascades 100

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The sixth annual High Cascades 100 marked the midway point of the 13-race National Ultra Endurance MTB Race Series with yet another sold-out NUE event. Held on the same weekend as the Cascades Classic road race, the host town was packed with cyclists and fans. Milder temps with a high in the low eighties contributed to a higher finish rate of 94% compared with 85% last year under much warmer conditions.

Women

Following a two-year hiatus from the NUE Series following back-to-back series wins in 2010-2011, NUE Race Series Champion, Amanda Carey (Liv/Giant) returned to the High Cascades and proved that she still has what it takes by reaffirming her ultra-dominance, crushing the competition, and getting the win in 9:00:57. Carey headed home with plans to compete on her home turf at the upcoming Pierre’s Hole 100 in Alta, Wyoming on August 16.

Nineteen minutes later, Sue Butler (River City Bicycles) finished 9:19:28 to place second. Four minutes behind Butler, Erika Krumpelman (Team REP) captured third at 9:23:06. Sixteen minutes later, Karoline Droege (10 Barrell Brewing) took fourth in 9:39:24 with Muffy Ritz finishing 9:58:24, just seconds ahead of Julie Browning (CyclePath Racing) at 9:58:33, rounding out all of the women who finished sub-nine hours.

Men

Cary Smith (The Hub/Enve/Gu) earned his third HC100 win on Saturday finishing 7:29:07.

The race began in earnest after nine miles of paved and gravel roads. Once the race hit the first rolling doubletrack, the pack quickly thinned out, leaving a lead group of five that stayed together until the first feed zone at mile 26.

After the feed zone, Brett Nichols (World Cycles) slowed slightly while the remaining four stayed bunched up until Tinker Juarez (Sho-Air/Cannondale) pulled away to rapidly open a gap of over a minute. Josh Oppenheimer (TruWhip Cycling) faded on the same climb, leaving Smith and Jantaraboon Kiangchaipaiphana (Champion System Adventure) working to close the gap to Juarez.

Smith separated himsel from Kiangchaipaiphana in the tight trees of Sector 16 as the Thai rider started feeling the effects of the altitude and dry conditions. At roughly 60 miles in to the race, Smith passed Juarez while he was adjusting his bike. Juarez jumped back on and the two rode together for about 10 minutes until Smith was able to break away in the beautiful Happy Valley, riding on everything from moon dust to mud to piles of snow still several feet thick on north-facing slopes. Nichols closed the gap to less than a minute to finish 7:30:02.

Juarez held on to finish third despite suffering from blurriness in one of his eyes aggravated by the dust on the course. He finished 14 minutes behind Nichols at 7:44:14.

"I had to dig deep to finish for third place. My eye feels better today and now it is time to return home and start resting up for the NUE Big Bear Grizzly 100 next weekend," said Juarez.

Three minutes later, Clint Muhlfield rolled into fourth at 7:47:44 with Josh Oppenheimer (TruWhip Cycling)was fifth.

Five-Time NUE SS Champion, competing in the geared category this year, Gerry Pflug (Rare Disease Cycling) took a nasty spill put him back into ninth place.

Jace Ives (Bear Creek Bicycle/Syntace/SQ Lab) earned his first win at the HC100 with six minutes to spare, finishing 8:01:02.

He raced with AJ Linnell and Ben Shaklee until the dropped him, but he caught back up to Shaklee at mile 45, then dropped him at mile 60.

At mile 65, Ives made it back to Linnell.

"We chatted for a second and then I decided to drop the hammer. Once I got onto the road, I stayed in the big ring and spun out all the way home, continually looking back for Gerry and AJ, but they never came within sight," said Ives.

Following back to back victories at the HC100 in 2012 and 2013, Linnell finished six minutes behind Ives at 8:07:17.

Shaklee (Jack's Bicycle Center/Homegrown Racing) finished third at 8:14:19.

Masters 50+

51-year-old Greg Golet (Team Chico) claimed victory with 26 minutes to spare despite a crash. His time was 8:10:38. 52-year-old Wayne Tonning (Multnomah Athletic Club) placed second at 8:36:14 while 53-year-old Gary Gardiner was third.

Results