Vail – The longer you play in the hills, the better you are.
Ned Overend and Matt Carpenter proved that by leading their three-man team to victory in the Teva Mountain Games’ ultimate mountain challenge.
Durango cycling legend Overend won the Games’ illustrious hill climb Sunday, besting his first-place time of last year by 30 seconds and racing up the 9.7-mile, 1,500-vertical foot climb up Vail Pass in a blistering 27 minutes, 29 seconds.
That’s an average pace of more than 21 mph on a nothing- but-uphill ride.
“When you are over 50, it’s always good to go faster than the year before,” said Overend, who turns 52 in August.
Carpenter, a 42-year-old ultra runner from Manitou Springs who rarely loses, skated through the Games’ 10K trail running championship in 45:23, finishing almost three minutes ahead of his closest competitor.
“There is a certain satisfaction there when you have more gray hairs than black,” said Carpenter, who won the Games’ 10K trail race last year. “It shows it still comes down to a lot of training and that experience pays off, especially on these kinds of courses.”
Joining the weathered masters on Team Ned was 20-year-old Pat Keller, a kayaking marvel from Asheville, N.C.
“It was an honor just to meet him,” Keller said of Overend. “He gives me hope for what I can do at 50.”
A new aspect in the 6-year-old Teva Mountain Games, the ultimate mountain challenge combined a kayak sprint down Gore Creek from East Vail to Vail Village, the 10K trail run, the hill climb and a grueling mountain bike race that snaked up and down Vail Mountain for more than 21 miles.
Athletes raced solo and in teams. The team racing paired some of the best mountain athletes in the world in powerhouse trios or foursomes.
Overend’s Team Ned eked past the Vail Valley’s Team Nike Beaver Creek and the nationally acclaimed Athletes for a Cure team, which included Tour de France champion Floyd Landis, kayaking royalty Tao Berman and super runner Andy Ames. Berman won the downriver race. But Landis, who is less than a year out from hip replacement surgery, did not live up to Tour de France champion status, finishing the hill climb in eighth, and 36th in the mountain bike race. Berman finished all the events ranked eighth among the solo racers.
Still, it was a tight team race, with officials tallying a complex formula for results late Sunday.
“I like how this ties the whole weekend’s events together,” said Jay Henry, the Vail-based cyclist on Team Nike Beaver Creek who won the Teva Games’ mountain bike race, joining Gypsum kayaker Brad Ludden and local endurance runner Dan Weiland. “You know most of the time we are off doing our own races and maybe you check the results of other races, but this makes you involved in every race.”
In the solo division, Vail national champion Xterra triathlete Josiah Middaugh dominated, with a second-place finish in Sunday’s trail run, an 11th-place finish in the mountain bike race, a surprising 10th-place finish in the kayak race and an amazing third-place finish in Sunday’s hill climb.
“This was a true mountain event, a true test of endurance,” said the 28-year-old Middaugh. “It was just a brutal set of events. The mountain bike race actually was a lot harder than I thought it would be. It wasn’t all that long, but the climbs were vicious and the downhills were super technical.”
Middaugh was followed by Boulder marathon master Dave Mackey and Denver’s Greg Krause.
Among the solo women, Grand Junction’s Keri Nelson took first, followed by Vail runner Lisa Isom and Vail mountain biker Gretchen Reeves.
The team element in sports such as kayaking and cycling, which rarely revolve around more than one player, provided unusual thrills for athletes who typically race themselves.
“When I flatted in the mountain bike ride, I was so bummed for my team. I thought I might have taken us out of the running,” said Overend, who still finished the race 13th. “It’s cool, though. It adds a different dimension to racing.”
Staff writer Jason Blevins can be reached at 303-954-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com.
RESULTS
RUNNING
10K TRAIL CHAMPIONSHIP
Men’s division
1. Matt Carpenter, 45 minutes, 23 seconds
2. Josiah Middaugh, 48:16
3. Bill Fanselow, 48:36
4. Greg Krause, 49:27
Women’s division
1. Anita Ortiz, 54:14
2. Laura Haefli, 55:11
3. Brandy Erholtz, 55:47
4. Cindy O’Neill, 59:25
WHITEWATER
8-BALL KAYAK SPRINT
Men’s finals
1. Andrew Halcombe
2. Nick Troutman
3. Rush Sturgess
4. Lawrence Simpson
5. Todd Baker
6. Matt Fithian
Women’s finals
1. Elenor Perry
2. Devon Parker
3. Tanya Faux
4. Emily Jackson
CLIMBING
SPEED BOULDERING
Men’s finals
(With two-run time listed)
1. Ryan Roden Male, 20.11 seconds
2. Nicholas Sherman, 20.69
3. Daniel Woods, 21.88
4. Ethan Pringle, 22.94
5. Brian Antheunisse, 23.37
6. Rob D’Anastasio, 23.50
7. Ryan Hayes, 23.61
8. Sean McColl, 24.04
9. Sean Drolet, 24.70
10. Marshal German, 25.23
11. Mike Feinberg, 28.41
12. Humiki Asada, 40.14
13. Ryan Olson, 71.20
Women’s finals
1. Rachael Blievernicht, 46.19 seconds
2. Alex Puccio, 46.22
3. Angela Payne, 49.04
4. Hunter Schumaker, 51.21
5. Tomoko Ogawa, 77.75
6. Paige Claassen, 80.21
7. Natasha Barnes, 81.00
8. Amanda Sutton, 85.25
9. Laura Thompson, 89.05
CYCLING
TREK HILL CLIMB
Men’s open
1. Ned Overend, 27 minutes, 29 seconds
2. Michael Carter, 28:35
3. Josiah Middaugh, 28:54
4. Mike Janelle, 29:10
5. Greg Krause, 29:17
6. Jay Henry, 29:18
7. Ross Schnell, 30:24
8. Floyd Landis, 30:27
9. Lars Finanger, 30:28
10. Jimmy Mortenson, 30:51
Women’s open
1. Pua Sawicki, 38:27
2. Jenny Smith, 38:35
3. Chloe Forsman, 39:18
4. Keri Nelson, 39:52
5. Emily Finanger, 40:00
6. Kristina Maier, 40:01
7. Gretchen Reeves, 40:10
8. Lisa Isom, 42:13
9. Virginia Betty, 45:35
10. Maria Noriega, 46:51
