Montana and the Flathead Valley were well represented at the 16th Annual 24 Hours of Moab, one of the premier mountain biking endurance races in the country. Staged in the Utah desert, teams ride laps for a full day on a 15-mile course that climbed 1,360 feet. The team or rider that bicycles the greatest distance in 24 hours wins.
Flathead locals Ben Parsons and Clint Muhlfeld took first place in the Men’s Duo Championship division, racing for Hammer Nutrition, the Whitefish-based company that manufactures fuels and supplements for endurance athletes. Both Muhlfeld and Parsons completed 10 laps, covering a total distance of 298 miles.
Hammer Nutrition also placed third in the Men’s 4-Person Championship Division, and overall, with local employees of the company Dustin Phillips, Matthew Butterfield and Phil Grove racing. Sponsored athlete Colin Cares, of Colorado Springs, made up the fourth member of the quartet. The team completed a total of 22 laps, averaging about an hour and eight minutes per lap.
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Guided by headlights, Phil Grove commences a night-time lap. |
As of last week, Phillips and Grove were sore but pleased with their performance, saying the Moab terrain, featuring sand pits and technical rock formations, is unlike any other 24-hour race in North America.
“On one hand you have a lot more traction on the slickrock,” Grove said. “Then you’ll come across, almost, boulders.”
The climbs and descents on rocks also allow the rider a greater range of options for tackling each obstacle to shave seconds off their lap time, as opposed to the single-track trail common to most mountain bike races.
“It is so much different because of the width of the trail,” Phillips said. “You’re out there almost constantly making decisions, searching for the faster line.”
“Sometimes it worked out, sometimes it didn’t,” he added.
Compounding the challenge was the roughly 13 hours of the race that occurred in darkness. Though riders mount bright lights on their bikes and helmets, it still limits peripheral vision, particularly on climbs, Grove noted.
The sandy, rocky conditions are also hard on the bicycle components, making mechanical breakdowns inevitable.
“I broke my chain with about one mile to go on my first lap and had to run,” Grove said. “The whole course wants to crash you out.”
Phillips agreed.
“You’re pushing, it’s night-time, you’re tired,” Phillips said. “The demand of the course eventually will catch you.”
Despite the tough riding, Grove and Phillips described the race as a blast.
“It’s a celebration of the sport; 6,000 people show up to build a city in the desert,” Grove said.
“You’re looking out at night and you see miles of intermittent headlights going out over the course,” Phillips added.
Racers had about three hours between laps to recover. While racers in less competitive categories could spend the time around a campfire enjoying a beer, the Hammer racers focused on resting, eating and staying off their feet.
But whatever they did apparently worked. The Hammer racers referred to themselves, informally, as the “working man’s team,” an acknowledgement of the challenge they face holding full-time jobs and competing against pro bicycle racers.
“It validates what we’ve been up to,” Grove said.
“We’re in this grey area between full-time pro athletes and just industry workers,” he added. “We’re trying to walk the walk more so than other companies.”