Pedaling hard for position, about 20 riders left the starting line to begin the Sawtooth Mountain Challenge. Most of the race is held on a variety of technical single-track trails, which challenge even the best trail rider. Once again Thunder Bay riders ruled the day, with Dylan Bailey (right) winning the 22-mile Expert Class race in two hours.
Everything was new this year for the Sawtooth Mountain Challenge Mountain Bike Trail Race: new course, new starting date, new race directors, and some new riders found themselves atop the standings.
With temperatures in the mid- 60s and a light breeze, the trail dry and fast, Saturday, October 17 was a perfect day to race.
Instead of starting downtown and climbing the mile-long Nature Boy trail to the start of the single-track loops, racers started on the technically challenging single track Pincushion Mountain trail system.
Dylan Bailey of Thunder Bay won the 22-mile Expert Class division in 2:00:29. Leading local racers was Jim Joynes in fourth place. Joynes finished with a time of 2:25:30. Other local finishers included John Alt in seventh in 2:37:37; Adam Harju in tenth in 2:48:02; Max Wahlers in 11th in 2:48:17; and Tim McGrath placed 13th in 2:56:10.
Thunder Bay’s Keith Ailey won the men’s 15-mile Sport Class race in 1:26:10. Will Surbaugh was the top local finisher at 6th place with a time of 1:45:01. Two other local finishers completed the race, Matt Nesheim in 7th in 1:55:35 and Mark Abrahamson in 10th in 2:45:16.
Lisa Weispfenning of Washburn, Wisconsin placed first for women in the 15-mile Sport Class with a time of 1:57:49. Grand Marais rider Kathryn Ramberg finished second in 2:11:01 while Reilly Wahlers placed fourth in 2:25:01 and Kelly Twiest was fifth in 2:28:58.
Alexandra Brazeau was the lone woman entered in the 22-mile Expert Class and she finished in 3:10:31.
Duluth’s Sandra Van der Bosse was the women’s winner in the 4.1-mile Citizen Class in 31:45 while Jake Torch of Duluth was the male winner in 28:39.
Sam Hedstrom and Jay Arrowsmith DeCoux were this year’s race directors. Arrowsmith DeCoux said there were 35 riders this year, down from past years, but added, “We didn’t know what to expect so we didn’t put much into marketing. Next year we will ramp that [marketing] up. Because this is an MEA weekend we want to make this a family friendly race. The kids’ race was well received this year and we plan to keep that and really open it up next year.”
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