Some of the country’s best mountain bikers took over Snowmass ski area last weekend for the annual Blast the Mass, featuring the fifth race in the Yeti Cycles Mountain States Cup and four contests sanctioned by USA Cycling as the official Colorado State Championships.
Saturday’s cross country race – an 11.6-mile loop up Snowmass’ fabled Big Burn with 2,300 vertical feet of climbing – was owned by the mighty Smith duo of Gunnison. Brian Smith, this year’s Elk Mountains Grand Traverse champion and a longtime mountain biking pro, took the pro men’s cross country race, finishing two laps in a blistering 2:06.44. Boulder riders Nick Martin and Brian Fuentes finished second and third at 2:09:45 and 2:11:06, respectively.
Smith’s wife, Kiwi pedal queen Jennifer Smith, won the pro women’s cross country race, followed by Lakewood’s Dellys Starr and Lisa Hudson of Golden.
Aussie Jared Graves and Littleton’s Ross Milan took the top spots in the mountain cross, a BMX-styled, four-at-a-time race down a course of berms, whoop- de-dos, tabletops and big airs.
Broomfield rider Bobbi Watt and Boulder’s Neven Steinmetz finished first and second in the women’s mountain cross.
Less than a second separated the top three pro men in the downhill race, a 2-mile plummet down 2,000 vertical feet of rock and dirt. Vail’s Chris Del Bosco took the title, blitzing the course in 2:23.03. Graves finished second in the man-against-mountain race at 2:23.27, and Justin Leov of New Zealand finished third at 2:23.78.
Durango’s Darian Harvey was first in the pro women’s downhill with a time of 3:00.16, followed by Gunnison’s Stephanie Hatalsky (3:13.93) and Steinmetz (3:22.36).
