Plews, Rasmussen solve the puzzler

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The third Annual El Paso Puzzler 50-mile endurance mountain bike race was held under sunny skies and with temperatures in the mid-60s with 140 anxious riders testing themselves in what was being billed as the toughest race in Texas.

With last year's winner performing a bit of course marshaling due to pregnancy, this year's race was a whole different ballgame. Evan Plews (www.evanplews.com), the 2009 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo solo winner, and ridiculously fit retiree, Travis Brown (Trek) destroyed the technical course and floated up the climbs.

Course designer David Wilson, the singlespeed winner of last summer's Breck Epic stage race, led through the start/finish area for the first 11.5-mile section with Plews, Brown, and El Pasoan Santiago Chavez (Sports Systems) close behind. After exiting a bit of twisty singletrack onto a super rocky road climb known as Trenchtown Rd., the three riders dropped Wilson and began to grow a large gap. Singlespeeders Cameron Brenneman and Beto Villegas blitzed the 1600-foot Mundy's Gap climb along with 40-49 winner Kenny Wehn (Colavita) and 19-29 winner Sem Gallegos (Crazy Cat Cyclery) close behind the lead threesome of Plews, Brown, and Chavez.

On the west side of the Franklin range, Brown plowed through the infamous granite rock slide to regain the lead. At about mile 30, Plews regained contact and later took control up the final major climb of the day, a 350-foot grind up a newly finished set of 12 switchbacks.

Plews, coming off double pneumonia just before the holidays, went on to take the win in 4:38 with Brown about four minutes back. Moving into third position was Brenneman who pushed a 32x19 on his 29er. Villegas and Gallegos rounded out the top five.

In the women's race local Susanne Rasmussen took the win in 6:24 with singlespeeder Paula Bohte coming through in second. Alex Castro (Bicycle Co.) was the top finisher in the shorter 35-mile men's event and Diana Almeida took the women's 35 miler.

115 riders finished the event with no major injuries though many riders looked like they got into a cat fight due to close encounters with the large variety of spiky plants lining the Chihuahuan desert trails. This year's attrition rate was much lower with only 18 DNFs in the 50-miler despite more singletrack than the previous years.

Race director Brent Sanders wasn't sure if comments about the difficulty of the race were compliments or complaints. "I had several people come to me afterwards saying that the race was too difficult," said Sanders. "Travis and Evan said it was definitely the most technical 50 miler they've ever completed and both said that with huge grins on their faces. When other riders say that to me without a grin, I take it as a complaint. We consider all suggestions, but this event is intended to be a tough race. All I can say is that we warned people best as we could."

The El Paso Puzzler, the third race in the Texas Mountain Bike Racing Association's Marathon Series, is hosted by the Borderland Mountain Bike Association whose core members donated countless hours of trail building to a new three mile section of singletrack allowing the race to be held entirely in the Franklin Mountains State Park, the largest urban state park in the country.

50 mile-competitors only repeated six miles of trail. The event was originally conjured up by Wilson and Sanders as a way to up the level of riding in El Paso. "David and I had been riding this huge loop around the Franklins for a couple of years, but we could never find anyone that would join us," said Jennifer Wilson, the 2009 winner. "Brent and Susanne (Rasmussen) rode it with us and we realized that we shared the same vision to put on this event."

"We've seen a complete paradigm shift in mountain biking in El Paso since the first Puzzler with group rides now consisting of this epic loop around the mountains whereas before, most people never wanted to make the effort at the huge climb up Mundy's," said David Wilson, the BMBA president.

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