2-for-2: Ivan Sippy and Deanna Mayles add GoPro Mountain Games XC mountain bike wins to short track titles

One day after winning their respective men’s and women’s short track titles, Ivan Sippy and Deanna Mayles added cross-country crowns to their GoPro Mountain Games resumes. On a sunny Saturday morning in Vail, Sippy conquered the roughly 19-mile course, which featured over 1,000 feet of climb on each of its three laps, in a time of 1 hour, 25 minutes and 39 seconds. Mayles’ winning time was 1:44:46.3.

“It’s pretty sweet,” the Colorado Springs cyclist said of her back-to-back victories. Similar to Friday, Mayles soloed much of Saturday’s race, but she started behind Erin Osborne’s wheel up the first fire road climb.

“Deanna was able to match it,” Osborne said of her hard early tempo. “And I looked back and everyone was gone.”

Mayles came through the first checkpoint at the base of Golden Peak in 34:25, with Osborne four seconds back. Defending champion Erin Huck was 1:45 off the pace in third.

“She’s like a mountain goat, so I was always thinking, if she goes even or negative splits, we might be in trouble,” Mayles said of Huck, who went on to snag a bronze medal for the second-straight day. Even though Mayles was a little nervous she’d pushed too hard too early, the 33-year-old uncorked a 33:50 on her second lap to open up an almost two-minute advantage. Looking back on her build up, Mayles realized her regular rides up Rampart Range and Old Stage roads had prepared her for Vail’s thin air more than she’d originally thought.

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“I felt pretty good. I realized I’ve actually been training at altitude quite a lot,” Mayles said. “Third lap, I knew I had a little gap, so I was still pushing, but I knew I was OK if I drifted back a little.”

Osborne (1:46:34.4) was pleased with the runner-up performance. She sliced almost five minutes off last year’s fourth-place effort.

“It was good. I felt strong and on the climbs and that was my biggest goal,” the 35-year-old said. “And then just ride smooth on the singletrack.”

Osborne is a sponsored pro, but the former teacher also has her own math tutoring business called Tandem Tutoring. Her kit sports various math-related graphics.

“I really like to blend the two,” she stated. “I like to show my students you can be good athlete and train hard and also do well at other things, like school or anything else.”

Eight men came through the first lap within eight seconds of each other. Eventually, however, the race turned into a climber’s battle between Sippy, Brayden Johnson and Eagle’s own Landen Stovall. On his third trip up the course’s second major climb — a 1.56-mile segment averaging a 6.2% gradient along Mill Creek Road — Sippy blasted out 374 watts over 7 minutes and 35 seconds. That split was about 50 seconds quicker than the trio averaged over the segment on the first two laps.

Stovall remained in contact, but wound up 13 seconds behind Sippy at the finish to claim silver as Johnson (1:26:12.9) held on for bronze.

Ingrid Stensvaag was seventh in 1:54:16 and Haley Dumke was 15 seconds back in eighth as the top local female finishers. Dumke said the race — her first since suffering an injury in October — was “tough, but good.”

“It’s just so fun to be here and see my friends and family who came out to cheer,” the 34-year-old said with a smile. “And to just push and see what I could get out of myself and enjoy it. I had a great time.”

After wiping out at Little Sugar last fall, Dumke said she’s been plagued all winter by tears in her gluteus medius tendon. She received a Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) injection at the end of April and has only been doing easy rides for the last couple weeks.

“I just came into this morning wanting to get the most out of myself,” said Dumke, who admitted there is still some discomfort while pedaling. “And I wanted to just be OK with some pain and also falling off the group — but just finishing it and trying on the effort I could do. And just being happy.”

Dumke opted out of the Life Time Grand Prix this summer and plans to race locally for the most part. She’ll hit up Bighorn Gravel in a couple weeks and take another crack at the Leadville 100 before ending the summer at the Park City Point 2 Point, where she posted a runner-up finish last year.

“I’m sort of at the bottom right now,” Dumke said. “But I’m happy with what I could get out today and encouraged that I can keep building the rest of the season.”

Saturday’s pro purse was $20,000, with Sippy and Mayles each taking home $3,200 apiece for their wins. Mayles plans to go for the triple in Sunday’s road hill climb up Vail Pass. The full-time engineer for SRAM — who only picked up the sport in 2017 — said she’s currently riding better than ever.

“I mean, having been in the (Life Time) Grand Prix and done so many miles the last few years, it’s a really good base,” she said. “And now I’m doing slightly not as horrendously long things, so it’s probably in the grand scheme of years, probably peaking a little bit, yeah.”

If one had to encapsulate the theme of her bike story — so far — in a single word, ‘bravery’ would suffice.

“I was always a little bit interested in racing, but always a little bit scared to try it,” said Mayles, who raced the four-day 2020 Pikes Peak Apex on a borrowed bike with flat pedals. “After so many times of co-workers and friends and family encouraging me to try it — it’s something I really like. So, sometimes you just need a little encouragement or the courage to go for something.”