Thanks to little South St. Vrain Creek, the Lyons Outdoor Games are ready to go big time. The fifth annual edition of what might loosely qualify as the St. Vrain River Festival turned out to be five times larger than any previous event, organizers said, drawing some of the biggest names in white- water kayaking to the creekside town this past weekend to compete in freestyle paddling competition, boater X racing, mountain bike trials and what just might prove to be the Mac Daddy of all extreme creek kayaking races.
“Almost all the current world champions were here for the kayak freestyle, and one couple drove all the way down from Idaho with their two kids for the Cadet Rodeo,” said Matt Booth, who helped organize kayak competition. “We were hearing comments from some of the pros that this was the best creek race they’ve ever done.”
The creek race through the crux of the notoriously steep and technical Class V+ South St. Vrain was won by Dagger Team pro Andrew Holcombe of Asheville, N.C., with Carbondale native Eleanor Perry (now living in Durango) taking top honors among the women.
Although coordinated water levels led to less carnage than expected, Booth said a medium flow in the creek wreaked enough havoc to demonstrate just how challenging the river can be.
BICYCLING: Race Across America underway
The largest field in the event’s history set out on the 3,043-mile bicycle odyssey known as Race Across America (RAAM) three days ago, pedaling from Oceanside, Calif., to Atlantic City, N.J., until sometime next week.
Considered by many as “the world’s toughest endurance race,” the nonstop, coast-to-coast race passes over two major mountain ranges – including the Rockies at Wolf Creek Pass – through the desert and across the plains in the face of stout wind and severe weather patterns.
Still, the grueling event that drew only four solo competitors in 1982 attracted more than 220 competitors in this 26th edition, including 46 men and women over age 50, cyclists living with diabetes and organ transplants, and one man with a prosthetic leg.
This year’s solo men’s division is intensified by the return of three former RAAM champions: Daniel Wyss of Switzerland (2006), Jure Robic of Slovenia (2004 and 2005) and Wolfgang Fasching of Austria (1997, 2000, 2002), who has never finished lower than third since first entering in 1996. This year also sees the largest solo women’s race category since 1993, with five women going for gold, including Kerry White of Vail.
Team categories offer their own brand of intensity with teams of two, four or eight riders sharing time on the saddle for up to a week (compared with eight to 12 days of solo competition).
Leading the Colorado charge is returning four- man team champion Team Beaver Creek-Catlin (Zach Bingham of Vail, Mike Janelle of Avon, Jim Mortensen of Eagle and Nat Ross of Vail). The team, which started racing today, finished last year in five days, 16 hours and one minute.
To trace the progress of riders’ travel, visit
SKIING: Aspen awaits downhill racing
Women’s downhill racing is scheduled to return to Aspen Mountain for the first time in almost a decade next winter, the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) announced this week.
Combined with races at Beaver Creek, all seven World Cup alpine races in the U.S. next season will be held in Colorado.
The U.S. leg of the 2008 World Cup alpine tour will kick off Nov. 29-Dec. 2 with the popular Birds of Prey downhill, super-G, giant slalom and super combined races in the men’s division, followed by women’s downhill, super-G and slalom in Aspen on Dec. 7-9. This season marks the 40th anniversary of Aspen’s first World Cup alpine races when men and women raced downhill, giant slalom and slalom in 1968, the second year of the alpine World Cup schedule. It will be the first women’s downhill in Aspen since 1988.
KAYAKING: Wisp course open in Maryland
The Wisp in Deep Creek, Md., announced the opening of the nation’s newest man-made whitewater course last week, joining the likes of the Charlotte, N.C.-based U.S. National Whitewater Center designed by Boulder whitewater course designers Scott Shipley and Gary Lacy.
The 8-foot deep, 1/3-mile Wisp course sits atop a mountain and draws 250,000 gallons of water per minute from nearby Deep Creek Lake to create rapids ranging from Class I to Class IV, depending on the configuration. The course contains four main rapids, with a conveyor belt transporting rafters and kayakers back to the starting pool so they never have to leave the boat.
The Wisp will offer kayak lessons and guided raft tours beginning June 28. The course is open from April through October, weather permitting. For more information, go to
ACTION SPORTS: EXPN.com expands coverage
Responding to the burgeoning world of action sports and ever-increasing online demand, ESPN has launched the expanded, now featuring 24/7 coverage of action sports above and beyond the X Games. With multimedia content that includes live online event coverage, an expanded video library, action sports podcasts and news, the new design emphasizes video and photography, including access to video, photos and original content from all X Games events. A new collaboration with Surfline adds surfing news, forecasts and multimedia to the EXPN site.
