Sundance ICUP Report, Photos, Video

ICUP Sundance Spin 2010 from atomicmiles on Vimeo.

In classic Utah County fashion, the start of the Sundance ICUP is up a significant climb. It is an all out redline effort to get to the top of the climb where the single track begins. Places to pass are limited so I wanted to get to the single track before the pack.

In the sport 35-39, Mark M. from UMB has been dominating the races. In the video you can see that I tried to keep his wheel, but he pulled away on the initial climb and was never seen until the finish line. He is consistently putting a 3-4 minute gap on the second place finisher.

I was second to the singletrack and Brannen (part of the lunch ride group - Go check out his blog as he has some good pics) came in right behind me. Most of the slower bikers from other categories were kind enough to let us pass. Sweet singletrack with some exposure.

At the flathead ski lift base, the double track climbing up towards arrowhead (we didn't go all the way to arrowhead) doesn't look steep, but it was painful--especially on the second lap. Brannen passed on the uphill here and then I would catch him on the downhill-- a pattern that would be repeated a few times on the race.

The final descent on the lap came down front mountain right under Rays lift and onto the road right by the yurts. Then, another painful climb up the pave road back to the start line.

On the second and final lap, Brannen passed me on the climb. I kept him within my sights and hoped to pass him on the downhill. I would then have to gut out the final climb to the finish line. However, as I was chasing on the downhill, I hit a soft shoulder and my wheel washed out. I flipped right over the handlebars going right between two pine trees. Luckily, the ground was soft and spongy with years of piled up pine needles. A quick inventory that I was still in one piece and the bike was fine, I jumped back on the trail to finish the race. Any chance of catching Brannen was gone. Unfortunately the wreck slammed my camera hard enough that it didn't record the wreck.

The Sundance single track is awesome. A very fun course. Congrats to Brannen on 2nd--he's strong on the climbs.

The Mad Dog kits came in and I was impressed. I've bagged on blackbottom jerseys in the past, but I got to say, they've made some improvements. They have a better zipper now, and the bib shorts were super comfortable out of the package. A big "thank you" to Keith P. for managing the Mad Dog Team--it's practically a full time job for him.