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Galena Grinder - Pro Ultra Endurance Tour
Posted by: Shannon Boffeli
|August 10, 2012 10:47 PM
Galena Grinder - Galena Lodge, Idaho
USAC Pro Ultra Endurance Tour (Pro UET)
Sho-Air Puts on a Show as Pua Mata and Brendon Davids Win by Big Margins
Written by: Shannon Boffeli
Each year the Galena Grinder offers up some vintage mountain
bike racing at one of the most scenic venues in the country. Galena Lodge, just
north of Ketchum, Idaho, hosted one of the earliest NORBA national mountain
bike events.
The mountain bike heritage of Galena Lodge is evident in
everything you see from old school primitive trails with log and creek
crossings to the camaraderie and laid back atmosphere of all those involved.
The Galena Grinder is a trip back in time and a reminder of what makes mountain
bike racing great. The big views and challenging singletrack of the Galena
Grinder are hard to beat.
The marathon course consisted of two 22-mile laps and almost
7,000 feet of climbing in just over 40 miles. The highlight of each lap is a
brutally-steep, monster of a climb ending in an avalanche chute. The climb
affectionately known as "Horsefly Hill” is the fatter, uglier sister of
Breckenridge’s French Gulch climb.
The big news of the 2012 Grinder was the presence of
California-based team Sho-Air being on hand. Several of the Sho-Air riders
chose the marathon event as part of their national championship preparation.
The men’s race included Sho-Air teammates Brendon Davids and
Eric Bostrom as well as other national-level big hitters like Jason Siegle
(SDG) and Drew Edsall (Kenda/Felt).
Davids started things off fast, opening it up on the start
loop like he was racing an Olympic distance cross country instead of a
marathon. Davids clearly had the legs though dropping all his closest
competitors and not fading over the long-distance course.
Davids dominated throughout the event easily taking the win.
At the end it was local Idaho rider Michael Tobin who was able to stay the
closest to the leader coming in second.
Third went to Drew Edsall who recovered from a slow first lap
moving his way up from eigth in the final 22 miles.
Mike McCalla traveled from Santa Fe, New Mexico , to take
fourth in a sprint finish from Utahn Nate Miller who chose to ride a
singlespeed for the race.
The women’s race also included some top end national-level
talent including marathon national champion Pua Mata (Sho-Air) and National
Ultra Endurance champion Amanda Carey (Kenda/Felt).
From the start Mata proved to be on great form sitting in
the top-10 of the men for most of the race. Pua Mata used her unique ability to
keep the pace high on the climbs and descend with some of the fastest men in
the field staying clear of any challengers.
Mata finished with an unbelievable time being the only woman
to cross the line in under 4 hours and beating all but the top-8 eight men.
Amanda Carey turned in a strong performance and seems to be
recovering nicely from her recent string of 100-milers.
XTERRA racer Jessica Cerra (Focus) came home in third place
followed by local favorite Jana Repulski and Utahn Jen Hanks (Epic
Brewing/MTBRaceNews.com).
The Galena Grinder was included as the third stop on the USA
Cycling Pro Ultra-Endurance Tour (Pro UET). By taking the win, Brendon Davids
took over the Pro UET lead from Tinker Juarez (Cannondale) who was not on hand.
Pua Mata leads the women’s Pro UET standings.
Marathon Results
Open Men
Open Women
Singlespeed
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