A crop of competitive mountain bikers from the valley, led by first-place winner Rose Grant, came away successful at the Mountain Bike Marathon Nationals in Oregon recently.
Grant won her age division (19-29) and was the fastest non-professional female competitor at the USA Cycling Mountain Bike Marathon National Championships in Bend, Ore., on Sept. 17.
Last summer, former Beacon staff writer Dan Testa wrote about Grant’s rise in the competitive mountain biking world. She doesn’t seem to be slowing down. At Nationals, Grant clocked the rugged 52-mile course in 4 hours, 13 minutes and 53 seconds. The runner-up time was 5:08:45.
In the men’s pro race, Kalispell’s Ben Parsons came in 18th with a time of 3:32:33. Whitefish’s Phil Grove took 23rd with 3:33:33.
Kalispell’s Joel Shehan finished a close fourth in the men’s 30-34 age division. Shehan came in with a time of 3:44:47, less than six seconds behind third place. Chad Malcott of Whitefish took 12th with 4:42:17.
Dustin Phillips of Kalispell took third in the men’s 35-39 division with a time of 3:42:52.
Sheli Thomas, also of Kalispell, finished fifth in the women’s 50-59 division, 5:42:04.
Other Montana top-five finishers include Missoula’s Sam Schultz, who took third in the professional men’s division with a time of 3:20:50; and Bozeman’s Lisa Curry, who won the women’s 30-39 division with 4:15:05.