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Bigfoot crew members teamed up with Maverick Sports to bring the 10th and final stop of the MSC race series, the Fall Classic, to Breckenridge, Colo. September 6-7. The top riders of the season contended for the last of the series’ points to come out on top. And at 10,000 feet, they did, on some of the toughest courses of the season.
Saturday’s Circuit Race took riders on a 2.5 mile power trip through the Breckenridge Nordic Center. The course featured fast singletrack descents and a few short climbs through aspens, leaving riders breathless and spread-out at the start/finish line. The pro men crushed the five laps in about 45 minutes. Brian Smith (Gunnison, Colo.-Trek VW) pushed the pro/semi-pro field with a 41:45.4 and Travis Brown (Durango, Colo.-Trek) and Benjamin Sonntag (Durango) came sprinting in individually for second and third. The pro and expert women raced together. Jennifer Smith (Gunnison, Colo.- Trek VW) matched her teammate’s finish with a 48:45.07 win, followed by Kelley Mattingly (New Castle, Colo.- Rocky Mountain Racing) and Jennifer Gersbach (Avon, Colo.- Dales Pale Ale Sport). Day two of the event sent riders on a 14, 18 or 28 mile loop through the raw backcountry of Breckenridge. The day was beautiful with blue-bird skies and no wind. The mass-start left downtown 10 a.m. sharp, up Wellington Road and turned onto the trails for an adventurous ride— up the aptly named Heinous Hill, down the shale-covered Little French Gulch, and through premier sections of the Blue River Trail. Many of the sections were reminiscent of the Firecracker 50 course in reverse, but presented an even more challenging race with longer climbs and more technical descents. The racing was fast and furious with some riders coming in bruised, scuffed and torn up. A great weekend to end on. The pro men averaged just over 14 mph on the demanding course. Macky Franklin (Taos, N.M.- Team Devo) came across the finish line in first with a 2:03:19.4 with Smith and Kelly Meglky ( Golden, Colo.- Trek VW) sprinting for second and third respectively a minute later. On the women’s side, Smith, Mattingly and Gersbach carried over their results from the circuit race to score first, second and third again. The weekend changed a lot for the overall results. Low race scores were dropped and riders put everything out on the line move up in standings. Consistent finishes all season long drove Jay Henry (Avon, Colo.- Tokyo Joes), Brian Fuentes (Boulder, Colo.- Waltworks/Fuentes Designs) and Mitchell Hoke (Colorado Springs, Colo.- Tokyo Joes) to the top three for overall MSC Endurance Pro Men. Gersbach, Mattingly and Erin Huck (Boulder, Colo.-Tokyo Joes) finished solid top three for overall MSC Endurance Pro Women. Co-Motion carried it's tradition of winning the Overall Cross-County Team title for its sixth year running by a mere 28 points over Feeback Sports. Team Colorado Singletrack came in third. Bigfoot Production is already putting the 2009 race calendar together and hopes to have a tentative schedule out by the end of this month. A huge thank you to all racers who participated and all volunteers who made this one of the most successful seasons yet. Thank you to Grace and Kim, who kept the registration flowing; to Chris Cawley and his on-mountain crew who created and maintained our courses as fast as we were shredding them and moving on to the next race; and to Mike McCormack who carried the MSC Series the last couple of years with Bigfoot Production and kept the series jiving. Bigfoot Production was established in 2006 in conjunction with Yeti Cycles to expand and improve the Mountain States Cup Series and promote bike industry involvement in racing. For further inquiries please contact
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. All photographs courtesy of Vast Action photography.
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