July 1, 2007
On Top At Ketchum and Park City
BOISE, July 1 — Team Tamarack Resort represented the mountain bike community well in the Lyle Pearson 200 relay from Boise to Ketchum, and at The Twelve Hours of Endurance in Park City Utah.
Lyle Pearson 200
Racing from Boise to Ketchum, Team Tamarack covered the distance in 8 hours,35 minutes to place second in this unique road cycling event. Led by Keith Hickerson and Jon Gould, Team Tamarack demonstrated that mountain bikers can hammer on the road.
Tamarack wins Twelve Hours of Endurance
Ryon Butterfield and I combined forces to win the 12 Hours of Endurance setting a course record for number of laps completed and setting the fastest lap time of the day. The Tamarack win resulted from a combination of not giving up and a willingness to suffer.
The race started at 7 AM on a dry, rocky 11 mile loop in the Park City foothills. The combination of continual exposure to sun, the altitude and the rough, rocky course took a toll on all racers.
Ryon completed the first lap with a one second lead over Chris Fox. On my first lap I ripped the sidewall of my front tire on a rocky descent causing me to fly over the handlebars. The wreck ripped my seat of the seat post. After managing to keep the newly installed tube to stay inside the tire, I completed the remaining 8 miles of the lap without a seat. At the end of the lap my quads were spent, I was exhausted and we were now 8 minutes behind the leaders.
Throughout the day we continued to hammer every lap making up small increments of time. The people in the surrounding pits began cheering for us as the day wore on and by 2 PM a race was starting emerge. On lap 11, around 4 PM, Ryon finished his lap approximately one minute behind the leaders. By lap 13 we had a three minute lead. I finished lap 14 with a six minute lead and Ryon set out on lap 15. The former leaders finished lap 14 with time to do one more lap but they choose to quit at that point. Ryon finished lap 15 setting an event record!
We were the only team to complete 15 laps including the four-person teams. The race was the hardest race I have ever done for a number of reasons. Most impressive is that neither Ryon nor myself ever let up and in the end we were rewarded with a win and the recognition from the follower racers for our efforts. At the end of the day it was a typical Tamarack outcome – riding hard, having fun and doing well. Follow Team Tamarack racer Scott White represented well finishing twelve laps and taking second in the single speed solo category.
