This is the same course every year a fast 16+ mile course that is uphill for the first half and downhill for the second half. It's very fast with the top male riders finishing in under 1 hour. I did the race as male duo this year with Keith Bushaw.
Jan Bear: 5h 49m 03s, 6/16, Male Duo combined age 100+
Keith Bushaw: 5h 40m 01s, 6/16, Men's duo combined age 100+
A typical El Paso rocky, loose gravel and chunky climbs race. The weather was also cold(39 degrees) and windy at the start but the wind died down and it warmed up.
The course was the same fun course that we raced April 19th this year. Fast and flowy single track, with some short climbs mixed in, sand and some gravel road stretches.
Kim Bear: 1h 09m 48.6s, 1/4, Womens open 12 mile course.
Jan Bear: 2h 12m 42.9s, 3/8, Men 50+ 27 mile course.
The Huntsman Games mountain Bike Championship is the result of both mountain bike races. You get points based on your finish, 1 for first 2 for second, etc. The champion is the person with the fewest points.
This is the same course that has been used the last couple of years off Sheep Ridge Road. The course is about 8 miles long. This year there had been a big rain so the dirt was really good and no sandy sections. Kim had to do 3 laps and I only had to do 2 laps.
A 95% plus single track race. Lots of long winding trails with a significant amount of lava type rock. The 35 mile race was 37 miles and the 50 mile race was 53 miles.
A very wet race, raining, supper muddy slippery mud and rocks. The bike was a mess after the race! I rode a controlled race not wanting to go down on the slick rocks.
This is a fast paced 10 event race, including rowing machine, tire flips, sled pull, sandbag carry, medicine ball toss and yoke carry as the Jewish Community Center in Albuquerque, NM. From the Sampson Challenge Website, "The Samson Challenge is an epic obstacle course event hosted by the JCC of Greater Albuquerque, combining endurance, strength, CrossFit, and adventure race elements into one unforgettable experience".
Kim and I did the 25 mile race. There was 4K of climbing in the race with some pretty steep ramps on the trail named Giddy Up and Snack Pack. The best part was that by the 19 miles mark most of the hard climbing was done. A great course for 25 miles I'm glad I didn't do the 50 mile 2 lap race!
Team 2 Kims and 2 Minis, Team members; Kim Katko, Maryalice Hawkins and Kim Bear
Team Santa Fe: 23h 53m 51s, 2/17, Mens 4 person team
Team members: Keith Bushaw, Brett Hawkins, Todd Kurth and Jan Bear. 19 laps, same number of laps as the winning team, about 25 minutes down. We were clearly the oldest team, average age 61.
A fun short loop in Castle Rock, CO. Kim raced with Kim Kreb and Scott Patterson since I stayed home to recover from my injury.
Team Santa Fe: 9h 51m 31s, 3/3, 3 Person Coed Team
Kim rode 5 laps and Scott Patterson did 6 and Kim Kreb did 4. Kim enjoyed catching up with them as it had been years since we raced against them in Leadville!
A fun race that includes the Alien Run Trails outside of Aztec, NM. There is a 13 mile, 30 mile and 60 mile race. This year because of snow and bad weather the races were 13 miles, 26.5 miles and 38 miles. Ries and I did the 26.5 mile race and Kim did the 13 mile race.
A fast fun 13 mile course with about 1000 feet of elevation gain. This year the weather was cold with intermittent snow throughout the day. The first and last laps were COLD.
Kim Bear and Eliza Linde: 8h 59m 37s, 25th place, Women's open duo
Kim teamed up with E. Linde for this race, it was supposed to be a women's team but some of the members were injured so it ended up a women's duo, "Burque Brujas". Kim did 4 laps, including the first and last.
Team Santa Fe: 9h 45m 32s, 4/23, Men's open duo
I teamed up with D. Million from Las Cruces for this race. We were the oldest male duo team by far and held our own finishing 4th out of 23 teams. I did 5 laps and D. Million did 4 for our total of 9.
The race consisted of about 190km of total distance and 15500 feet of climbing on 87% single tract trails specifically made for mountain biking. The rest was on forest logging roads and was used primarily for passing and climbing. It was a great 5 days of mountain biking in a new environment. The organization was great and the week went off without a hitch. I would highly recommend this event.
Team Santa Fe: 12h 30m 41s, 1/3, Male pairs 60+
Ries and I were fortunate to take the overall win from the 60+ team that won the category in 2024 by about 20 minutes.
The enduro sections were the same as last year. Lots of fast fun. Overall there was 17 miles of riding during the enduro including the 3 enduro segments that were totaled about 4 miles.
This years XC race used the same course as last year. The course felt very heavy as compared to previous years due to the rain. The sandy sections felt like velcro and it was all about power, even on the long downhill sections.
This years time trial was cut short due to rain and only a few categories were allowed to race to prevent trail damage. The course was shortened to 3 miles and only about 30 racers completed the course before ongoing rain stopped the race. The time trial for all the other race categories that were not allowed to race Friday afternoon due to the rain was the last 6 miles of the 40 mile cross country race.
This 24 hour mountain bike race is on a fast 16 mile course with lots of twisting turns and jumping cactus! This was the 25h annual race. I was on the 5 person co-ed team with the sum of the racers age greater than 250. There were 22 teams in our category, we finished 1st.
Jan did the 75 mile race and Kim the 23 mile race. The 75 mile race had 6K feet of climbing and a 1 mile plus hike a bike in the snow. As the race progressed the wind and wind gusts got worse and worse. The 75 mile race started a 9am and the 23 mile race at 12:30pm so Kim and Kari started at noon to try to avoid some of the worsing wind conditions. The weather service described 75 mile an hour winds.
Kim and Kari started early and would have finished in 36th and 37th place respectively but since they started early they did not get an official finish time.
