Cool but sunny weather and ideal course conditions greeted racers today at the 10th annual 12-Hours of Mesa Verde mountain bike race.
About 800 racers took on the 16-mile loop course at Phil’s World, with the endurance goal of tallying up as many laps as possible.
Ashley Carelock, of Dolores, took first place for the women’s solo race category. She rode 7 laps, or 112 miles in 12 hours. Debbie Mortenson came in 2nd.
“It went really well, it always feels good to win,” Carelock said after the award ceremony. “The trail was solid, you could really get into the curves.”
Mike MCauley took first place for the men’s solo category. Shawn Gregory, of Dolores, came in 2nd.
A brief rain and hail storm hit early in the race, but it settled the dust and left a nicely packed trail.
“It’s perfect weather for the racers, and the trail is really fast,” said race director Tanya Wynes.
There were 16 categories of racers including, 3-4 member teams, two-person teams, co-ed teams, single-speed categories, Geezers, and Grommets. Plus 114 signed up to race solo. Racers see how many laps they can do within 12 hours. The team or solo rider with most laps in the least time wins.
“We have a very tight race in a few categories,” Wynes said.
That was the case for the 3-4 male team contest. Team Ska/Zia beat out Can’t Touch This by just one second in unofficial results.
Preston Edwards won the male single-speed race, and Liz Carrington took it for the womens.
The event attracted racers from across the state and nation.
“It was fun, I’ve got no legs left, but it was worth the suffering,” said JB Brochman, of Boulder. “After you hit the Rib Cage section, you forget all of the pain and have a blast.”
Several records were broken. Junior Quinn Simmons, of Durango, had the fastest lap for juniors at 1:10:32.
