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I don’t know about you, but I’m excited for some off-road bike racing this month! Later this week I leave for a 10-day mini tour of my home state to both spectate, participate, and of course, report on three great events.
First up is Leadville for the Leadville Trail 100 MTB race, the fourth in the Life Time Grand Prix series. Although Keegan and Sofia seem poised for the wins, anything can happen over 105 miles with 12,000 feet of climbing. Course records may fall!
On Sunday I’ll be lining up at the Breck Epic. Super stoked for this six-day mountain bike stage race that takes in some of Summit County’s best trail riding. Lachlan Morton, Tanner Nankervis, and Taylor Lideen will all be at the start line less than 24 hours after doing Leadville.
As soon as stage 6 of the Breck Epic ends on Friday, it’s on to Steamboat Springs for SBT GRVL weekend — which kicks off with a hill climb at 5:30 p.m. on Friday. I’m signed up for that, too 😬.
Check back here — and on pinkbike.com — for coverage of all three events.
Here’s the Weekly Dirt.
Boardman gets Tiger King ‘cut at The Last Best Ride
What started as a gimmick turned into a $10,000 fundraiser.
Last week, Jess Cerra and Sam Boardman, co-founders of The Last Best Ride gravel race, dangled a carrot that hundreds of people couldn’t resist. For a donation to the Barbara Mansfield Champion Scholar program — TLBR’s charity partner — people could vote on a new haircut for Boardman, who hadn’t touched his flowing locks since 2019. He picked three terrible styles for people to choose from and pledged to get a public haircut during race weekend if $5,000 was raised.
He also said that if people donated $8,000, he’d bleach his hair and cut it into a mullet a la Tiger King.
Well, they did, and he did. Boardman now boasts a really awkward hairstyle (which he told me he’d keep until his next race, Indy Crit on Aug 26), and a six young women from Whitefish received $5,000 scholarships to use toward higher education.
So much WINNING!
Gomez Villafañe beats (a lot of) the boys at Leadville Stage Race
There’s no better way to prepare for a bike race than pre-riding the course, and pre-riding at race pace takes it one step further. Two weeks ago, some 320 riders did that at the Stages Cycling
Leadville Stage Race. Over three days, participants covered the entirety of the Leadville Trail 100 MTB course, which takes place on August 12.
Sofia Gomez Villafañe won the women’s race, with a total ride time of 6:55:24 over the three days. Lauren De Crescenzo finished second some 30 minutes back.
What was more impressive about Gomez Villafañe’s performance is that she finished fourth overall. After her combined fifth, seventh, and fifth place stage finishes, Gomez Villafañe’s total time was just 30 minutes behind men’s winner, Sami Inkinen of Aspen, Colorado.
(Photo: Life Time)
FNLD GRVL will be back in 2024
After a successful inaugural edition, FNLD GRVL will again roll out under the midnight sun next summer. Registration for the 2024 event — to be held on June 15 — will open on January 9.
FNLD GRVL, a co-production of F1 driver Valtteri Bottas, Canyon-SRAM’s Tiffany Cromwell, and the organizers of SBT GRVL, debuted on June 10 in Lahti, Bottas’ hometown. Nearly 1,000 riders from 27 countries attended the inaugural event. Cromwell won the women’s race, while LIDL-Trek pro Toms Skujiņš took home the men’s win.
In 2024, the event will again put up a prize purse of 20,000 Euros to be split evenly between the top five men and women in the pro race. Three course distances will be on offer.
(Photo: FNLD GRVL/Wil Öhman)
100 miles of the Slickrock Trail
If you’ve ridden the 10-mile Slickrock Trail in Moab, Utah, you know that one lap of the punchy loop is generally good enough.
Not so for Chase Caughy, a 21-year-old from Canton, Ohio. On April 17, Caughy, who is supported by the KÜHL Cycling Team, rode 100 miles of Slickrock, completing 11 laps of the iconic trail in 14 hours.
Caughy lives in Moab and is an endurance rider who specializes in marathon cross-country races. So, when someone suggested he ride 100 miles of Slickrock, he knew he had the fitness — and mind — for it.
For the 100-mile ride, Caughy rode an Intense Sniper with 100mm of front and rear travel. He said he averaged around 200w for the whole ride, “but there were a lot of spikes in that.” 100 miles of Slickrock equates to around 21,000 feet of elevation gain, and Caughy rode the loop clockwise.
So what’s next for the understated endurance rider? He’d like to attempt to break Hannah Otto’s Whole Enchilada FKT, maybe this month. Then it’s on to the Shenandoah 100 in Virginia, followed by the Vapor Trail 125 in Colorado.
“Then I’d like to do 24 hours of Whole Enchilada laps in maybe September or October. I really want to do four laps.”
NBD.
Adventure Cycling Association launches ‘Short Routes’ database
There has never been a better time to be a bikepacker/bike tourer. Thanks to the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA), downloadable and paper maps of hundreds of routes are just a click away.
On Monday, the ACA launched a new endeavor that will expand its offering of routes, with a focus on shorter, more beginner-friendly bike touring opportunities.
Short Routes is a new collection of accessible, free routes, expanding opportunities for bicycle travel to more riders. The collection features a range of beginner-friendly to advanced routes that take two to five days to ride and are between 50-200 miles long. The routes are crafted with the beginner adventurer in mind and are available free as Ride with GPS routes on the Adventure Cycling website.
Current Short Routes start from Los Angeles, CA, Washington, DC, Atlanta, GA, Boston, MA, Minneapolis, MN, Philadelphia, PA, Austin, TX, and Seattle, WA.
Furthermore, more experienced tourers can submit their own short routes to share!