Durango pro Howard Grotts outclimbed the competition Sunday to win the Whiskey 50 mountain bike race in Prescott, Arizona.
Grotts took the 50-mile event on a rainy weekend that produced wet dirt and slowed riders on a sticky course. Canadian Derek Zandstra was second and Keegan Swenson of Park City, Utah, was third.
A 12-mile climb in the middle portion of the race separated the competition.
“I was feeling good for the first portion (of the climb), and decided to really push the pace once it got steep,” Grotts, a Durango native, said on his blog. “That tactic worked, and so I found myself confronted with riding the remaining hour of the race on my own, not knowing whether the chasers were 5 minutes or 30 seconds off my wheel.
“Fortunately everything played out well – no bobbles, flats, mechanicals, cramps or other race-ending disasters – and I was able to win my first Whiskey Offroad title!”
Other Durangoans placed high among the 67 finishers. Ben Sonntag was sixth, Todd Wells was seventh, and 21-year-old Fort Lewis College student Payson McElveen was 17th.
Wells, in an email, said the Whiskey 50 is one of his favorite events of the season, with a nice mix of singletrack, doubletrack and fire roads, with the start/finish area in downtown Prescott on Whiskey Row.
He said a group of six set the pace: Wells, Grotts, Swenson, Zandstra, Fernando Riveros Paez of Colombia and Christoph Sauser of Switzerland, a 39-year-old who won the bronze medal in the 2000 Olympic mountain bike race.
Sauser suffered a couple of flats, and Wells also punctured near the end.
“I made it onto the road before stopping to try and seal the cut with the CO2 but it only got me another minute or two down the road before I was riding on the front rim,” Wells said. “I soldiered on for the last mile or two, didn’t crash and still rolled across the line.”
The women’s winner was Chloe Woodruff of Prescott, who was 13 seconds ahead of Georgia Gould. Durangoan Liz Carrington was 16th.
The three-day festival featured a criterium on Friday, and amateurs raced Saturday. The men’s pro criterium was won by Sam Gaze, Grotts’ and Wells’ Specialized teammate.
johnp@durangoherald.com
