The four-man team “Flippin’ Sweet Moves” logged 39 laps and 58,578 vertical feet in 24 hours, setting an overall record at last weekend’s second annual 24 Hours of Sunlight race. The Glenwood Springs team – Michael Lowe, 40; Mike McCoy, 37; Dave Weidemann, 40; and Bob Lowe, 30 – competed in the men’s senior division. The next-closest team completed 34 laps. Glenwood’s Michael Schneiter set a snowboarding world record for most vertical feet gained in a day with his 24-lap 36,048-foot tally. And the best for last: Park City, Utah’s Polly Samuels-McClean rebounded from a mysterious 13-hour lap with a nap with a swift 11th lap to defend her women’s solo crown. Although a far cry from the 20 laps the 38-year-old logged at last year’s race, setting a women’s world record, she had a very good excuse this year. She’s 3 1/2 months pregnant, a condition she kept under wraps so not to worry race organizers.
“My doctor said I was fine as long as I stay hydrated and just listen to my body,” she said before the race.
CROSS COUNTRY SKIING
Blaugrand rules at the Butte
Hundreds of festooned freaks on skinny skis madly stomping through Crested Butte’s downtown alleys before circling the snowy town? Close, but not quite an average day in the Butte, the 21st annual Alley Loop Nordic Marathon is part serious race – it’s a qualifier for the Wisconsin Birkebeiner, the largest cross country skiing marathon in the country – and part costume party. On the serious side of the 42K endurance race, Boulder’s Benjamin Blaugrand, 33, won in a wickedly speedy 2:11:37. He was followed by Pierre Franz Wille, 40, of Basalt at 2:18:29 and Don Pollarim, 45, of Salt Lake City at 2:22:18. Among the women, Kate Furz, 36, of Boulder took first with a time of 2:44:22, followed by Crested Butte’s Jari Kirkland, 30, at 2:46:47 and Telluride’s Thalia Pryor at 2:49:30.
SKIERCROSS
National qualifier Friday at Taos
Think you have what it takes to take down Colorado skiercross champions Casey Puckett or Brett Buckles? Your shot at the Puckett-Buckles podium arrives at Taos on Friday, when the Jeep King of the Mountain Series hosts a National Open qualifier to fill the final five ski spots in Saturday’s 2007 Skiing & Snowboarding World Professional Championships at Taos.
The three fastest men and two women racing down the King of the Mountain’s unusual Y-cross course will advance to Saturday’s races, going head-to-head with an international field of Winter Olympians and world champions. Win it all and take a piece of the $450,000 prize purse, the richest cash purse in skiing. Click over to jeepsports.com to register.
SKIING/SNOWBOARDING
Hall cashes in at Breckenridge
Tanner Hall took the money, but Peter Olenick of Carbondale stole the show with his signature “Whiskey Flip.” And both crowd and competitors thought he was robbed.
Olenick’s one-of-a-kind, double-flipping 540-degree spin-to-switch landing stunt was only good enough for second place behind Hall in Sunday’s $25,000 superpipe portion of The Honda Ski Tour in Breckenridge, eliciting a rousing round of boos from the hundreds gathered around the Peak 8 pipe. His score of 89.67 fell 1.3 points behind Hall, who used a switch-entry 1080 to win his first event in the new four-stop series.
“This pipe is awesome. How good the pipe is makes us look better,” Olenick said. “I guess I screwed up a little bit, but I think Tanner did too.”
Simon Dumont leads the overall tour standings with 150 points, followed by Olenick with 106, Hall with 100 and Matt Philippi with 95.
The Breckenridge stop of The Honda Ski Tour will be televised on ABC at noon Saturday.
Compiled by staff writers Jason Blevins and Scott Willoughby.
