ACC Blog

The old local adage “they call it Government Trail because it rules!” was appropriate for this past Wednesday’s mountain bike cross country race, on the singletrack showcased in NORBA Nationals and years ago, for the Colorado State Championships. This race course ruled, if you like both buffed and technical singletrack on a true point to point route. Bike handlers were lovin’ it and roadies were’s able to fake it.

The late summer afternoon presented ideal weather and just the first signs of fall color, with yellow leaves beginning to blanket portions of the trail. Not only did the weather heat up that day, but so did the battle amongst the big dogs in the Senior Men A. In the end, it was Team Honey Stinger’s Len Zanni prevailing over rising star (and Lance’s local guide), Max Taam, by just over a minute. Len smoked the singletrack with a scorching time of 35:30. Local pro Kelley Cullen stormed the entire women’s field, crushing it with a time of 40:31. Alena Gauba, riding for Denver/Boulder Couriers, took the Vets with fast time of 50:24-even with the damaged hamstring that’s hampered her throughout the season. In the Men’s Vet A, yours truly was (finally) fortunate to get up and over Simon Elliott and Mike Maple, the dominators of this year’s road and mountain series. On the other end of the age spectrum, young gun Keegan Swirbul flew over the course in 43 minutes and 24 seconds. Atta boy Keegan! To round out the winners of the week, Robert Stumpus (aka Stumpy) cooked the course for the Masters in 46:48, Keith Berglund took the Vet C’s and Ed Cross won the Grand Masters in 1:01:51. In the “Uno category”-single speeds- club Prez Mike Pritchard rode a very respectable 43:23, without a frickin’ granny gear!

Thanks to all who volunteered their time for the race: Elliott Larson, Bill Boughton, Jack Ouland, Alex Feuer and Jonathon Forbes.

The club also had several hearty volunteers at this past weekend’s Adopt- a-Trail Day 2, re-routing the infamous “Root” section on Government Trail and trimming the entire lower part of the route. Showing off their trimming and trail work skills were Charlie Eckart, Mike Pritchard, Annie Gonzales, Alena Gauba, Agustin Gauba (sharing the family love), Erik Skarvan, Max Taam, Mike Maple and Jacques Houot. Thanks for giving back to our club’s adopted trail, the trail that totally rules dude!

This entry was posted on Monday, September 8th, 2008 at 2:44 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.