Kuhl Mountain Team and Bingham Cyclery
Posted by kdayracing | Filed under Rides
The Kuhl Mountain Team is pleased to announce it’s partnership with Utah’s biggest and best shop, Bingham Cyclery. Together the they kicked things off last night with a team night, hosted by Binghams, in the down town concept store. Spirits between the team members and shop are high as we look forward to a promising season of racing and bicycle advocacy. We’ll keep you updated with new news and events that we’ll be hosting together as we work hard to promote our Mountain Culture through the sport of cycling.
The 2010 Kuhl Mountain Team:
David Welch
Kevin Day
Tom Bender
Taylor Foss
Brian Tolbert
Ryan Krusemark
Tanner Cottle
Eric Rasmussen
Paul Clark
Chad Davis
Trevor Greenwood
Hunter Tolbert
Danny Vanwagoner
Jim White
Fred Porter
David Mellon
Meg Plank
Mary Wilcox
Lisa White
Joey Lythgoe
Amelia
Soloing 24hr. of Moab
Posted by tdiegel | Filed under Race Results, Rides
A few of you have asked about the race, and I thought I’d take the opportunity of a leisurely November morning to go over it a bit.
Still Smilling, must be the day before
Geoff Lane had done 24 hrs of Moab several times – and the solo 24 hr world championships in BC last year and – while he did not exactly advocate doing these 24 hrs races per se, he did correctly think that I might be at least a bit intrigued by the concept. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that putting out a decent effort for that extended period was something that – in over 30 years of doing silly endurance-oriented events – I had never done, and I began to get a bit more curious about what it would be like. I had dundered down the I-5 corridor riding the Seattle to Portland event a couple of times and raced Lotoja mildly successfully, and a few years ago did the Brian Head 100 mt bike race (and ended up in the medical tent) but these 9-12 hour events seemed to be “just the beginning” relative to burning it all night in addition to all day. Last year I thought that if I was riding a lot in late summer I could/would ramp it up to enable the October race, but then realized that doing a 24 hrs race is not about simply riding a little bit more later in the summer; it takes a bit more preparation and a pretty big mental commitment in the months prior.
So despite my reservations about the Moab race being a) a bit of a contrived junk show, b) expensive, c) a bit too much of a commitment of “training” energy even as my enthusiasm for racing seems to ebb slightly every year, a special deal of $160 entry fee back in April (and for some reason the normally-greedy race promoter only charged my card $100) provided the last little impetus to give it a go, if for no other reason than it was incentive to ride a lot over the summer, which I like to do anyway. Basically, I’ve done lots of dumb things, but I hadn’t yet done that specific dumb thing, so might as well give ‘er a go.
As the ski season faded into kayaking season, I endeavored a bit more than usual to maintain fitness through May and June, and was able really kick start the long-hours-in-a-saddle concept with our late-June/early July trip to Bulgaria, where we were on our bikes most days, all day at a pretty leisurely pace. Once home from that trip I was able to partake in the annual “Rick Steiner Memorial 100” mountain bike ride (Rick’s not quite dead yet, but being the oldest member of The Mt Bike Gang, we want to make sure that we are well-prepared) that consisted of ~75 miles of singletrack and 25 miles of pavement. We took 14 hours at a pretty leisurely pace, and though I felt fine, I wondered how another 10 hours of mostly-night riding would be. Hard sayin’ not knowin’…..
I began to ramp it up with at least one 5-8 hour ride/week and some other higher-intensity road and mt bike rides during the week. By the end of the summer I had equaled my TD World Records up Mill creek and Big Cottonwood, so I figured that these efforts – combined with the longer rides – was putting me in decent stead for my journey into the unknown 24 hour range. But it was at this time that I realized the fundamental conundrum of training for a 24 hour race: if you put out that kind of super-long-term ride in training it can take weeks to recover, so it may be best to avoid that, but then the rides all end up being shorter and faster, which doesn’t give one a sense of what will be the appropriate pace and effort for the longer race. So I just kept riding, and a blistering-hot race at Snowbasin in late Aug where I did decently well indicated that I was generally tracking ok.
A blip in the “training plan” presented itself in early September when the opportunity to join Greg, Boyce, and a crew of other New Englanders for a trip down the Romaine River in NE Quebec. Despite my “commitment” to training, I wasn’t going to let a silly race get in the way of a grand adventure, so I busted out to New England and had a great trip (another story unto itself). While there I also had the opportunity to get schooled by Greg and Sue on their local technical trails (before I left their driveway I had already walked my bike and crashed twice on the roots/rocks that typify New England riding) and had a couple of amazing 50 mile rides on the rolling and deserted roads between quaint villages that reminded me what “real” road riding was like.
I dialed it back up when I returned to what I felt like was an even higher level, and then started to turn it down around Oct 1st, since the money was in the bank at that point. Fred Marmsater – veteran of no less than eleven 24 hours races – gave me a bunch of great advice as well as his amazing supply of lights and batteries, which later proved to be a critical component of both mine and Geoff’s night laps. In addition, Bruce Rogers generously figured out a way to get his Fisher Rig down from Idaho to Salt Lake for me as a spare bike; another piece of gear that would later prove to be critical.
Friday morning the 9th Geoff and I rolled out of town for the quick trip to Moab. Once there we suited up for a slow lap and I was a bit stunned at how slow and challenging the first 5-6 miles of the lap were. I had done the race on a team with Bruce, Trig , and brother Paul a few years ago, but I had conveniently forgotten the many sand traps, huge cobbles, hike-a-bikes, and slow, bumpy climbs that characterized this challenging section. It took us almost an hour to do that bit, but the remainder of the lap was quite fast, which clearly enables the relatively fast lap times (1-1.5 hours) that are commonly turned during the race on the 15 mile laps.
The Moab race is fairly amazing in that in the course of a few days a fairly desolate desert landscape is literally turned into a decent-sized town with several thousand people camping there, for better or – more likely – worse. Given the crowds we were a little concerned about getting a good night of sleep prior to the start, but they kept an area exclusively for solo riders that was also generator (???) free, so we were able to get some quality out of the last sleep of the weekend.
The next morning after a standard breakfast and plenty of tea, I set up my “secret weapon”; an old-style clothes-drying rack of my mom’s that I loaded up with all the jerseys, shorts, gloves, hats, tights, knee warmers, leg warmers, etc. that I thought I might need. I was anticipating that it would facilitate fast camp transitions, vs my typical method of digging frantically – and usually fruitlessly – through a bottomless black bag, getting frustrated, and then just upending the whole thing on the ground to find something like “the other arm warmer”. Here I am proudly alongside my contraption:
As I was warming up for the start Scott came rattling in towards the start, and as I pulled up to the window to say hullo 4 year old Leo suddenly burst out “Hey Tom! Go Fast and Take Chances!” Awesome. I’m all over it!
The race starts with a dusty run to the bikes and then a crowded ride for the first few miles, so despite the fact that it’s a long day, it behooves one to get at least a decent start so you don’t get caught in too much traffic. However, the first couple of hours of a 24 hour race is pretty weird; you feel like you are going slow and the pace is oh-so-definitely sustainable forever, but you know in the back of your mind that it’s not, so you slow down, but that’s soooo slow….towards the end of the lap I was riding with another solo guy and we started chatting, and I asked him what he thought of the pace. “Maybe a little hot” was his response, but when I realized that there were a bunch of other solo-ers nearby – including a threesome of ladies all riding together, well-behind the favorite, I felt ok with it. The 2nd lap was more of the same, and I was feeling fine.
Then, the melodrama: “disaster struck” (if such a term is appropriate for a silly race that almost no one cares about).
I was about 2 or 3 miles into the 3rd lap – about 3 hours into the race – when I felt a twinge in my calf. I’d been struggling a bit with a herniated disc for much of the summer and as a result of portaging a loaded kayak on the Romaine, with calf-cramping a sometime-manifestation of that, so I thought that was what it was. However, within minutes of that initial twinge both my legs suddenly and violently cramped up and I pretty much fell off my bike and commenced writhing in agony in the sand and sage while people rolled past wondering what the hell I was doing. I couldn’t believe it; after only 3 hours in 70 degree heat at about 70 percent effort, and drinking 2 full bottles each lap, I had somehow let myself get badly dehydrated. I tried pushing my bike a bit but literally couldn’t walk or pedal. I was furious as well as being agonized. However, somehow out of the desert a guy appeared and asked if I was ok and did I need anything, and when I gasped “water” he pulled out a huge bottle as well as a bunch of salty peanuts. I slugged the bottle and the peanuts and walked around a bit, and considered my options. That water would clearly help, but getting that depleted that early was a bad hole to dig out of, so I considered cutting off the route and heading back to camp for more water and electrolytes, but that seemed like a poor option, especially considering I had just gotten the freeby water. So I stumbled along for a bit, only to start cramping again. One guy passing said “are you cramping?” I nodded without saying anything, and he said “Do Downward Dog!” (a yoga pose). Whatever; I had nothing to lose, so I bent over and gave it a shot. And surprisingly, that was the ticket; I stopped cramping, got back on my bike, and slowly soldiered on throughout the lap.
When I finally reached Scott in the pit he was clearly concerned since I’d been out for so long – over 2.5 hours. He bustled around trying to get me enough water/electrolytes/salt, and I sat down for a bit. As I continued to drink I actually felt worse, and finally realized that I was getting woozy and nauseous, and then stumbled away and promptly blew up all the water and food I had ingested in the last hour. I immediately thought “okay, now the game is really over”, since I had now just dug myself into a yet-deeper hole, but as I sat and tried to sip water back in just to keep from getting to the dangerous zone, I started to feel a bit better. The “pinch test” (grabbing a fold of skin in your hand and seeing how fast the “tent” falls away) wasn’t looking good, relative to the support crew folks’ hands nearby that I was testing as well for reference, but I couldn’t deny that I was feeling better and was holding the water down. About that time Ash rolled up and was quite surprised to see me just hanging out in camp, and for some reason seeing her gave me the impetus to fire back up and just take it a little at a time and see what happened. So, back on bike.
I was quite surprised to find that I actually felt pretty good, but was still cautious, so I kept the pace super mellow. By this time it was getting close to dark, and for the next lap the pit crew of Ash and Scott were getting ready to get down and serious. It’s the night laps that riders really start relying heavily on the crew for food, hot drinks that are replenishing, light/battery charging and management, and of course the all-important encouragement. I had of course dropped back to the back of my group due to my downtime, but seemed to be slowly moving back up according to team Pit Crew, so that was indeed encouraging and was incentive to keep the pit stops pretty brief. And so the night wore on…..and the laps sorta started to blur together. One of the riders I talked with said something about dropping into “The Zone”, and that’s pretty much what I did; my laps were pretty consistent, and as I rolled into camp every hour-fifty or so I was able to eat mostly everything that Ash and Scott had ready for me (guacamole, pesto-pasta, cookies, bacon, gorp, tea, bouillon), the bike and body both seemed to be working fine, Ash and Scott were providing perfect support, the lights were staying lit, and it became pretty much just chugging around the course. By the middle of the night I had not only forgotten about my early dehydration but also lost track of how many laps I’d done. Ash had taken a late nap and Scott told me that I was continuing to move up – I’d made up the lap I’d lost to Geoff, who was my only real frame of reference – and I realized how little motivation is sometimes needed to continue to do something dumb like ride all day and all night.
Randomly – here’s a pic of Fast Freddy Porter hydrating as he is heading out for his sunset lap:
It was sometime in the middle of the night that I realized that my brilliant little gear rack had one fatal flaw; it wasn’t quite robust enough for the vicious desert winds (it was actually pretty much dead calm the whole race), and – I suppose it was inevitable – it ended up like this:
Heavy sigh…..
Fortunately the nighttime temps were mild enough that I didn’t need to throw on too many of the sand-filled clothes.
Finally there was a bit of light in the sky over the LaSals, and dawn was imminent. It’s natural to assume that daylight will result in a surge of energy, and that may have happened, but must have been brief, because at dawn there is the hard realization that there are still 5-6 hours of riding left, which – even by itself, without the previous 19 hours of churning, is a pretty long ride, and I started to struggle to maintain the consistency I had had during the night. The biggest problem I had was with my lower back and my arms; they were soooo tired that I had a hard time pushing the pedals around on those grinder climbs, and a couple of the technical/loose descents that I had previously been charging down with abandon were getting terrifying because I was literally afraid that my arms would simply collapse and I’d pitch onto and over the bars. More and more of the climbs became walks, but even those were hard because pushing the bike seemed to be no easier on my sore lower back.
Bruce’s bike had a far-more upright stance on it than my bike, and even though in all my 5 years of riding owning my Cannondale I’d never had a problem with my position, I knew that in order to make it to noon I had to not only get a mellower position but also take advantage of the smaller gear that I had put on Bruce’s bike. The anticipation that I had of the relief that Bruce’s bike might offer was offset by the trepidation that I had that his tubed tires (vs my tubeless) might flat, and even though a 5-minute change didn’t seem like much over the course of 24 hours and I wasn’t even close to contending for anything, it seemed daunting. But sure enough, with enough time for 2 or possibly 3 laps to go I got on Bruce’s bike and it was a fairly significant improvement.
At around 10:30 am I rolled in at the end of my 11th lap – just after endoing hard again into deep sand for the 2nd time in a row at the same spot a mile from the finish line; apparently my learning capabilities had diminished with the laps – and Ash was there in her cycling togs, ready to go out if I wanted. I could barely walk, barely pedal, could barely talk past a rasp, and felt that groaning was really the only thing I could do consistently. Ash said I looked like a whipped basset hound. Fred Porter came by to say hello and later said I looked like a corpse. A nearly-dead basset hound; great. I really didn’t feel like going out for another lap, and my place was – at that point – absolutely solidified, whether I went out again or not. But I had ridden all summer in order to do as many laps/miles down there as I physically could, and though I didn’t “feel” like it, I knew that physically I was capable of one more, albeit slowly. So I told Ash that I was ready to roll, and she jumped on her steed to join me in my sufferage.
As we ground painfully slowly up that long 5-6 mile section early in the lap she was able to keep reminding me that it was “just a few more pedal strokes” to get over the little humps, and most of the time – but not all; sometimes I’d crater and pretty much fall off the bike – I’d take her advice and push another crank arm over, literally one at a time. She loved the fact that I was dreading “the big climb” that loomed near the end of the lap, which was actually only a mile long and climbed about 300 feet, but at that point…it was pretty brutal. But a final downhill coast – and a final walk through the notorious sand pit that had thrown me the previous two laps – and it was done.
After the gratuitous socializing, a shower, and a half-hour massage to possibly ease the pain in my back we headed out. As we drove to Moab, I fell sound asleep on the 7 mile stretch of highway leading into town, and then again was fully out as soon as we left Moab heading for Hanksville and then Boulder, where we checked into the ultra-cool Boulder Mt lodge. They thankfully had a hot tub there that had a back-massaging jet in it, and I was able to take a bit of inventory of my body. My legs were all puffy, my pulse remained high, and I literally would get out of breath simply walking. Quite odd, and together these would have been a little alarming in any other circumstances. But after a sumptuous dinner at the legendary Hells Backbone Grill, a long night of sleep, and another phat breakfast to refuel a bit before we headed down the Hole in the Rock Road for a week of hiking in the tributary canyons to the Escalante river, I started to come back to normal. However, my back continued to be sore/tired, and then my left foot mysteriously went numb and stayed as such for about 2.5 weeks.
The hiking and camping we did the week following was approximately 2134 times more “fun” than soloing Moab, but the latter definitely delivered on the opportunity to push myself into a fully new zone. Will I do it again? Very much unsure. It is indeed a bit of a junk show in the desert and the price of “training” and subsequent recovery time is fairly high – not to mention the typical near-$400 entry fee – but as always there’s an opportunity to apply what I learned, so perhaps. If I do, I will certainly figure out a way to secure the gear rack!
Thanks again to Bruce and Fred for their generous gear loans, and to Ash and Scott for providing such awesome support. It is truly impossible to do that race without very patient people who are willing to give up their entire weekend to the likes of Geoff and I, and they were perfect.
24 Hours of Moab!
Posted by fredporter | Filed under Rides
Over beers along the Snake River a month or so prior Brian had invited me to ride on their 5 man team the Warthogs. The chill pace of a 5 man sounded like fun. Considering past experience at the 24 HoM the weather forecast this year was the best yet. No rain. No wind. No sub-freezing temps. Highs in the mid 60s and lows around 40. Excellent! Friday I got there in time to get in a pre-ride finishing just before dark. Under the setting sun the La Sals were purple and the rocks of Behind the Rocks were a soul warming orange. We rounded the wagons at the top of the climb to the finish. We had two teams in our encampment which made for a super nice between lap social scene.
Rich led off with the run and as you can see there was the usual freedom of expression:
The first time I did the 24 Hours of Moab the gun went off and it started raining. When the clouds cleared the next day the La Sals were capped with their first snow of the season. Not this year! Wunderbar! The spartan was especially psyched. He went on to take first… in the run to the tree.
Rich finished his first lap and we were in first place in the 5 man category! I went next and dropped us into second. The gap between 1st and 2nd slowly opened to 32 minutes until lap 14. Sometime around 4:30am Larry was on course and went by someone running his bike. Larry asked the guy his number so he could report it when he finished his lap. It was a rider from the 1st place 5 man team! Broken chain. Bad luck. Larry went into open-up-the-gap mode and we were in the lead by 30 minutes. At the end of the race the other team had recovered to within 17 minutes.
In the tween lap times, I got to experience some fine Utah spirits. The first was a swig of High West from Park City:
The next was some of the Underground from Ogden’s Own. Both were really good.
29er riders: you’re old school. I bet these 36” wheels on that sweet Ti frame rolled pretty smooth:
Enjoying the DH:
Xterra-Utah
Posted by Ryan_k | Filed under Race Results
Last Saturday Kuhl riders Meg Plank, Lisa and Jim White stormed Xterra Utah. The offroad Triathlon started with a swim in Pine view reservoir. Once out of the water the athletes took to the bikes for a race out of the valley to the base of Snowbasin Resort. After completing the ride they were off for a nice trail run to the finish line.
Congratulations to the KUHL athletes who competed in the Xterra-Utah race. Lisa White won her age group and finished 2nd in the women’s field. Meg plank finished 2nd in the age group and 5th overall in the women’s category. Jim White had a great race finishing 7th in his age group and 19th overall.
It's like swiming in a washing machine
In addition to Xterra-Utah the Xterra national championships were held on the same weekend. The championship course consists of a 1500-meter swim in Pineview Reservoir , where water temps hover near the “wetsuit-required” range. From there the racers took off on the mountain bike. The racers endured a 32km ride from the valley floor to Snowbasins lodge. All of this was followed by a demanding and hilly 10km run to the finish.
Congratulations to friend of KUHL athlete Trisha Davis. She had an amazing race on this very demanding course finishing 11th overall. This qualifies Trisha for Xterra worlds in Hawaii next month.
We wish her the best of luck.
World Cup Winners, Olympians and Friends of KUHL
Posted by Tolbert | Filed under Rides
While the rest of the KUHL team was eating there Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches for lunch yesterday I was trying not to loose my lunch while chasing an Olympian up the steepest hill we could find, over and over and over.
I know what you must be thinking “wow Tolbert is taking this offseason seriously, is he training for Cross or maybe a return to 24 hrs of Moab?” Not quite, for those of you keeping track I have ridden my bike 4 times in 3 weeks, right now I am golfing way more than riding.
I was out yesterday helping my good friend and Friend of KUHL (FoK) Steven Nyman build some high end speed into his tree trunk size legs. For those of you who don’t follow Downhill Ski racing, Steven Nyman is one of the top ski racers in the world in Downhill, (Junior world Champ, multi year National champ, world cup winner and olympian) but besides being a crazy fast skier Steven is an avid cyclist.
Best draft ever
This year Steven has strayed away from the usual ski racer training regimen (lifting as many heavy weights as possible) to taking a more organic approach to training with more cycling and kiteboarding to build the strength he needs to stay healthy for the olympic year.
Steven is as strong as ever on the bike, look for him to be a real threat on the world cup and at the Olympics this upcoming winter.
Everybody's favorite Men's Health model
you can follow Steven here
www.nymansworld.com
PCP2P Recap
Posted by kdayracing | Filed under Rides
Congrats to our PCP2P racers on Sat for pulling off a true endurance event. Everyone will agree that the race was a true success and for it being the first annual, it was nearly flawless. Everyone will also agree that with over 14K’ of climbing and 75 miles of amazing Wasatch single track it was by far one of the most challenging endurance events they’ve ever done.
Waving the flag for the KUHL Mountain Team was Kevin Day, who finished with a solid 4th place in the mens pro devision. Ryan Krusemark took home a win in the U29 devision, and Joey Lythgoe who took home the bronze with her Duo partner Aaron Fox.
The team would like to thank all those involved in making the race possible and those who cheered from the sidelines four hours on end. The race was a great success so hopefully that means it will be back next season because we’re looking forward to it.
Kuhl Bike Touring in Bulgaria
Posted by tdiegel | Filed under Travel
In late June my partner Ashley and I headed for Bulgaria for a couple of weeks of bike touring. Yes, Bulgaria is a pretty random country, and no, virtually no Americans go there. However, having had the good fortune to do a fair bit of bike touring in the Meccas of Western Europe, we decided that we should give Eastern a try since a) it would be different, b) we met a Bulgarian/American on a river trip a year ago and she said she thought it would be great bike touring there, and c) while Bulgaria was recently admitted to the EU, they are not yet on the Euro, so their currency is still the same and as such it’s a LOT cheaper than Western Europe.
It’s hard to summarize a 2 week trip in a totally new country in a quick blog post, but I’ll give it a try. Bulgaria – at the intersection of Western Europe, the Byzantine, Greek, Roman Empire, and Russian empires – has pretty much been at war since the beginning of time, and there’s nothing like war to create a rich history. And the most recent history is that it was 
a communist state under the thumb of the Soviet Union until the fall of the Iron Curtain 20 years ago, and since that time it has had its share of struggles trying to catch up with the rest of its European counterparts. With its own difficult language (in Cyrillic letters; the same as Russian, and impossibly difficult for non-speakers) and a relatively uninspiring capital (Sofia) it has been easy for the rest of the world to sort of forget about it a bit, and it seems that they too have not acknowledged the value of tourism aside from a huge influx of money and hotels jammed onto the Black Sea beaches on the eastern border. However, its 7 mountain ranges – in a country far smaller than Utah – with a myriad of ancient, quiet roads twisting through them, and awesome little spigots fed by wells every few kilometers it’s a great place for bike touring.
Park City Point to Point
Posted by kdayracing | Filed under Rides
You can expect a decent showing this weekend from the KUHL Mountain Team as we venture to Park City for the first and hopefully not the last, PCP2P.
The race starts Saturday morning at 7am and covers 75 miles of some of the best single track in Utah. The race starts at Quinn’s Jct. for a lap on the Round Valley trail then it’s off towards Deer Valley. The race climbs to the top of Bald Mountain and back down to Silver Lake where it’s off towards PC Mountain Resort and then off to the Canyons where we’ll finish and celebrate. With over 14K of climbing, I’m sure a good meal, some live music and a killer raffle will be the perfect end to an excellent race.
So, if you’re not up to much on Sat, feel free to stop by one of the feed zones or stick around the finish line at the Canyons and enjoy the festivities.
24 Hours of Racing
Posted by kdayracing | Filed under Race Results
The Kuhl team took Targhee by storm over the weekend and left the rest of the field in the dust. The showdown began at high noon on Sat Aug 29th. as the four man team of KDAY, Tolbert, Kruzer and Chad Davis set their sights early on the win. The team set a new course record on the first lap and continued to charge for the next 24 hours. In the end the team completed 34 laps which is over 280 miles and 34,000 feet of climbing, five laps ahead of second place.
To put it lightly, the Kuhl Mountain Team was a well oiled machine, with prime placement in camp, factory tents, a great support crew and to top it off, Ben Chournos, a professional mechanic that gave the team bikes some well deserved TLC between each lap. In addition, photographers form local papers and other teams frequently stopped by to hang out and snap a few shots. It was another successful, KUHL weekend.
Tags: Racing
A Kuhl weekend
Posted by kdayracing | Filed under Rides
Along with the holiday weekend came some excellent race results as well some some epic riding. Brian Tolbert crushed the mens expert field to bring home another win in Jackson Hole, but that’s just the beginning. If it wasn’t something in the water it must run in the family. Tolberts younger brother Hunter also brought home a win in the Sport/Expert 13-15 catagory and Danny Van Wagoner continued the winning streak for the team in the Sport/Expert 16-18 catagory. Rounding out the weekend in Jackson, was Jim and Lisa White both standing tall in the second place spot on the podium in the Sport mens and Expert womens catagory.
While some of the team was battelig it out in Jackson, Ryan Blaney and I took to the Wasatch Front for an epci day on the bikes. We began our ride by heading up Grove Creek, just below Mt. Timpanogos. We climbed about three thousnad feet and hooked up on Timp Road. We headed North towards American Fork Canyon where we decended on to some excellent singletrack towards our next climb. After climbing to the summit, we jumped on the Ridge Trail then to the Mill trail and down to Tibble Fork resivoure. From there we continued North into Mineral Basin (the back side of Snowbird). We climbed up and over the top of Snowbird resort and down the front side.
From the base of Snowbird we climbed up Little Cottonwood road to Alta and found our way to the Alta Brighton trail that winds up Grizzly Gulch and over into Brighton resort. Once at the top we decended to Little Cottonwood road and began the climb to the Wasatch Crest trail. From the Crest trail we dove into Park City resort and finished our day off with some of Utah’s best singletrack, linking trails and making our way to the base of the resort.
After 12 hours on the bike and thousands of vertical feet up and over summits, we were happy to be done for the day but very excited about the ground we just covered.
