Carey wins in Utah

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Now in its third year, the Park City Point to Point (PCP2P) made its Kenda National Ultra Endurance (NUE) Series debut selling out in a record six minutes. After unusually hot conditions last year, racers at the point to point enjoyed mild weather conditions combined with excellent course conditions this year. 253 out of 310 racers finished.

Open men: Grant makes it three in a row

Two-time defending PCP2P champion Alex Grant of the Cannondale Factory Team made it three in a row with a time of 6:48:59.

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"It went well. I felt pretty good," said Grant. "Actually, I hit two trees and crashed once so early on. I was a bit worried but bad things happen in threes, so I managed to pull it out. I had Tinker (Juarez) with me almost the whole time until the last 20 miles and, I mean, you can never count Tinker out, so I was wondering what he had left but I wore a Camelback and he only had one bottle most of the time so I don't know if that was part of the difference."

Josh Tostado was dropped on the Steppes climb coming out of Johns, about four hours into the race. Grant escapted Juarez, who later caught back up.

"That's why I was worried," said Grant. "Then, goin' up Spiro, I figured I would put the pressure on there. That's where I got away from Josh Tostado last year so I knew that was kind of the breaking point of the race. If you're not feeling good, you will lose a lot of time going up that." Grant will race a few more of the western NUEs next season.

Not far behind the defending champion, mountain bike racing legend Tinker Juarez (Cannondale) a two-time US Olympian and former 24-Hour National hampion finished in 7:01:00. According to Juarez, "I knew it was going to be tough today because of the altitude. I just got in yesterday, so I was gonna be hurtin' at one point or another but I definitely started hurting with about 20 miles to go. I stayed with Alex as long as I could but I just didn't feel fresh and, ya know, I just made the best of it."

Juarez rode his own race after that. "I did my best so I was happy, and I held off Josh. After cracking, I had to ride for a long time to get that focus and energy back." Juarez is also likely to do more 100-milers next season

Tostado (Bach Builders), who finished second place in the PCP2P in 2010 and won the the Breckenridge 100 from 2005-2010, crossed the line in third place, less than two minutes behind Juarez at 7:02:26.

According to Tostado, "It was good. This is a really tough race, I mean, 78 miles and 14,000 feet of climbing ya know, you're climbing and descending the whole time. It's all singletrack so you're really beatin' your body up and it's a true strong man's test for sure."

Tostado was feeling run down after a month and a half straight of racing. "All in all, I think I did pretty well today. They dropped me once and then I caught back up. I was feelin' good again and then they dropped me again and I decided to just plug away and go my own pace. You gotta hand it to Alex. This is a real great mountain bike race and a great addition to the NUE Series. If you can't ride a mountain bike real well then I wouldn't recommend doin' this race."

Bryson Perry (Lifetime Fitness), a two-time Leadville 100 winner in 2001-2002 placed fourth in 7:08:16. "I didn't know what to expect coming in today. I didn't know the course too well. I'm from Utah so I was able to come up and ride one or two of the sections of the course. I broke my scapula earlier this year, came back and I've done a couple races since then but you just never know how you're gonna feel but I feel pretty good actually. I tried to just take it easy at the start, maybe 25th or so after the round valley loop and I just started working my way up and it seemed to pay off for sure. No cramps, no mechanicals. I crashed a couple of times, but never hard, just washed out in the corners." Perry is planning to do more NUE Races next year.

Carey Smith (Hammer Nutrition), winner of the NUE Series High Cascades 100 finished fifth. "It's always tough when it's a strong field. Those guys were flyin' but I felt pretty good, no mechanicals and I had great support. I got a bee sting in the head which was rough for a little bit but that was really the only setback. The course is fun but hard. You gotta be on your toes the entire time. There are always gremlins in there to grab a tire. There is a lot more embedded rock than the HC100. We were all together through lost prospectors until after the Deer Crest climb, about mile 40."

Just behind Smith, after trading places throughout most of the day, was Stig Somme (Willas Wheel) who placed fifth 7:20:59. Reigning US Olympic Gold Medalist in the Men's Nordic combined (10km large hill), Billy Demong, placed 28th in the open men with an 8:17:01. In addition to gold, Demong also took the silver in the 4x5 km Team division in Vancouver last year.

Open women: Carey gets the NUE win #6 of the year

NUE Series defending champion Amanda Carey (Kenda/Felt) won by a big margin in one of the strongest women's fields this season. "Jenny Smith (Alpine Orthopaedics/SRAM/Breezer) and I were together for the first five hours, trading back and forth, blow by blow. She would go by on the climbs, and I would pass her on the descents. I knew I was descending faster so I wasn't too worried about small gaps on the climbs which is about the first half of the race. It was after Johns, on that really rooty descent, I put in a really hard effort to get into Johns first and came out with a pretty good gap. She charged really hard to catch back on at that point on, I think, the steppes climb."

Smith seemed to hit her limit while Carey stayed steady. "I didn't see her for the rest of the day but I knew she was right there and she was riding strong," said Carey. "She had a strong Leadville and is an extremely accomplished Xterra racer and, like, the nicest person you will ever want to meet. I am very happy to have spent half of my day with her." Smith went on to finish fifth in 8:46:43.

Refering to the highly anticipated matchup with Pua Mata, who failed to show up, Carey said, "I was waiting for it too. I thought she would've come here and destroyed the course which she could have done extremely well on. She has in the past. I don't know what the story is but I heard last weekend that she decided not to come and something had come up."

In only her second-ever endurance race ever since entering the PCP2P last year, Erica Tingey (White Pine) was somewhat emotional about her finish in what may have been the strongest women's field this year. "It went really well. I just started out going mellow and I said I'm just never going to push over threshold. I stayed under threshold the whole day and just knew that had to be good enough and it just happened to be good enough."

Tingey saw Carey after Silver Lake, then not again. "I heard she had seven minutes on me in the feed zone. I passed Jennifer Smith coming out of the second feed zone going up Spiro and I wasn't sure who was behind me so I was being chased by some unknown person. I think I might try some of the other NUE Series races next year because now, I know I can do it (big smile)."

Finishing third 8:36:28 in her first NUE race since placing third behind Carey and Cheryl Sornson (Team CF) at Syllamo's Revenge, Sonya Looney (Ergon) said. "I'm surprised at my finish. I just won a stage race two weeks ago, so I was fatigued." Looney won the Breck Epic. "At the start I tried to go and I held it for a little bit but then my legs started aching and I fell back to about 10th place."

Looney contemplated dropping out, but was encouraged by Lynda Wallenfels (LW coaching) to keep going. "Suddenly, i got a little faster and then faster still. I never actually tried to push really hard after the start, but I was surprised that I just started catching people one after another and I thought, man, everybody else must be having a tough time today too.

Everybody has their story, I mean, I got stung by a bee in the butt and I thought, I hope my butt cheek doesn't swell up because then my butt's gonna look fat in these shorts."

"Then Rebecca Rusch came up me and I was like, oh my gosh, we have to race to the finish so the last five miles we actually kinda rode really hard straight to the finish."

Less than a minute later, three-time Leadville winner Rebecca Rusch (Specialized) crossed the finish line in fourth place in 8:37:24. "My race was fun. I kinda came here sort of with no expectations after Leadville. I've kinda been just chillin' a little bit so this is the first hard day I've done since then but I came here because of the reputation of the course, all singletrack, and the super strong women's field. It's exciting to see the women's field getting deeper and deeper."

When asked how this race compared to Leadville, Rusch said, "It's totally different. Leadville is pretty much a fitness race and the altitude are the things that create the challenge. This is technical mountain bike riding and two hours longer in time. Like this and Shenandoah, the thing about the NUE Series that is really appealing is that every race is a super quality course and some place you would want to go ride anyway, even if there wasn't a race there. Every year, the schedule is a juggle but I always have my eye on the NUE Series because it's such quality races."

Smith, who placed fourth at Leadville just four weeks ago, said, "My motivation for coming here was because, in the end (referring to Leadville), I didn't have the volume. I got to 65 miles and I kind of struggled and I knew the Park City P2P had been won in 8 1/2 hours with 80 miles so I felt I needed some more of that and clearly I do. It was totally different than Leadville being all singletrack and a completely different style of riding. I like them both for different reasons. I'm done with my season for at least a month or so but may do some more NUE races next year."

Singlespeed: Shane snatches victory on 32/20 gearing

37-year-old Michael Shane (Club Ride Apparel) of Ketchum, Idaho, took the singlespeed division, finishing in 8:06:52 and riding 32/20 gearing. "For me, that's the right gear every day, never change".

"I think the course was way better than last year. The only part that was really rough was the mid-mountain trail," said Shane. "It was kind of like a war zone up there. On that part, I was worried that I was going to flat once or twice so I took it easy through there. With 14 miles left, a geared guy came up with me. I let him go in front of me and he just took off and I just stuck on his rear wheel the rest of the way in then passed him on a downhill and got in."

Refering to the Pfluginator, Gerry Pflug (Salsa/StansNotubes/ProBikes) who has won all but one of the NUE Series races so far, (tongue firmly planted in cheek), Shane said, "Gerry, I would like to say thanks for not coming so I finally get to win one. Good luck tomorrow in the Shenandoah Mountain 100!"

Second place went to Corey Larrabee (Revolution) in 8:07:31, "It was hard, brutal. I saw Shane on the last climb but just couldn't reel him in. I improved my time over last year by 15 minutes so I'm really happy. The course was just as hard as last year and anybody that says otherwise is crazy. The iron mountain trail was just miserable. I hope to never ride that again, until next year, maybe." Corey ran 32/21 gearing and commented that he wouldn't change it.

AJ Linnell (Peaked Sports) led much of the race before placing third in 8:18:41. "It was a fun race. A little bit of technical difficulties but other than that, it felt great. I had a flat tire on the descent into Park City. Then, after a long time trying to make up that time, I went off the course, dropped like a half mile down a hill I didn't have to go down and had to go back up to join the course again.

The flat change was probably five minutes then maybe 10 minutes going off course. The signage was there but I just caught the first part of the arrows going left, then, sort of missed the arrows going right and I just kept going left." AJ also took third place at the Pierre's Hole 100 after suffering a flat tire there. Linnell said that he is planning to compete in many of the western NUE races next year.

Masters 50+: Hershberger takes the win

After winning the masters at the Breck Epic just two weeks ago, Mark Hershberger (Team Jackson Hole) crushed the field at Park City in just 8:44:29.

"I left everything out there. It was a lot of fun, very enjoyable. This is a mountain biker's race! I rode with my teammate Paul Nash almost the whole way. We were talking and we had a lot of fun. My focus was Breck Epic and I only entered three days ago so I didn't even know I was going to be in the race. I definitely want to do Pierre's Hole next year. It's right next door."

Craig Terry (Red Rock Bicycle) finished second in 9:27:00. "It was very difficult and it takes everything you got. I did it last year but I got three flats last year. I've done Leadville in sub nine hours but I think last year, I hadn't fully recovered because there were sections where I had to walk and I didn't walk this year. It's just so physically demanding. It just beats you up. I laid it down twice but I got right back up. There is a big difference between laying it down and crashing. No mechanicals but I did wish that I would have lubed my chain about halfway through but the bike worked and I'm just grateful it's over." Terry indicated that he planned to do more western and southern NUE races next year.

A few minutes later, Jay Lewandowski (Chain Reaction) rolled his way into third in 9:33:57. "It went really well. It was fun last year so I decided to do it again this year. I felt like I was in better shape last year but I had about the same time. Last year I had two flats and this time I just broke a spoke. I have a little bit of asthma so I had some issues with that, since it was a little dusty out there.

Last year, I raced singlespeed placing 15th or 16th so this year I turned 50 and raced masters on singlespeed. I did the Breck 100 a few years ago so I might do more NUE races but I'm really trying to do more with my kids. I don't want to be selfish with my time for training (grinning). I just love riding and I live near Salt Lake so these are the trails that I ride."

NUE Series podium finisher David Grauer (Orthopro) finished sixth in 9:52:21 behind Korlin Gillette (Millcreek Cycles) in 9:37:14 and Steve Mower (Fishers Cyclery) in 9:42:43. Grauer said, "It was good. I felt good and enjoyed the trails, and I would definitely come back. This is my fifth NUE race this year." When asked whether he planned to compete next year, Grauer said, "One year at a time!"

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