Vail Recreation District hands out awards for second annual AC/DC competition

Results from the second annual AC/DC (ascent/descent) competition, which combines cyclists’ times from the uphill Davos Dash and the downhill Son of Middle Creek Enduro town series bike races, were made official by the Vail Recreation District this past week.

Jonathan Modig took the overall men’s crown with a combined time of 29 minutes and 2 seconds, just ahead of Alex Schultz (29:15) and Garret Moehring (29:35). On the women’s side, Haley Dumke (33:06) rallied for a close win over Bayli McSpadden (33:20). Tamara Donelson (34:31) rounded out the podium.

“I suppose it always feels good to win, but I didn’t have a crazy fast time at either Davos or Son of Middle Creek,” Modig humbly stated. “Just being decent at both climbing and descending pays off.”

---

---

Modig posted a 21:00 Davos Dash time on June 14, giving him a 16-second advantage over Schultz going into the 3.4 mile descent of the Son of Middle Creek trail on June 28, though he wasn’t aware of the standings at the time. He shredded the downhill in 8:02, which was actually three seconds slower than Schultz’s time, but left him satisfied nonetheless.

“I was more happy with SOM; with it being such a short race there is no room for a mistake,” Modig said. “It felt good to put down a clean run.”

---

---

The fastest downhill time belonged to David Sanders (7:44). Sanders was fast last year, too, when he finished in 7:35, just six seconds off of the winner that day, Sam Brown (7:29). Modig said the secret to good downhill riding is to follow people who are faster.

“I have a bad habit of following people extremely close to the point that I can’t see my own lines and am forced to take the lines of the person I am following. Surprisingly, it hasn’t ever ended in a nasty crash,” he said.

“It’s awesome to race down a closed track knowing there won’t be anybody coming up. I generally prefer the descents but you gotta get up to get down.”

After taking the last couple years off from racing, Sarah Parrish, a 10-plus-year single speed veteran, returned to take the one-gear division title. She said she actually prefers climbing up Davos without the ability to slide into an easier gear ratio.

“Because you just ride,” she argued. “Everyone is going up, so it is tough on everyone, I just don’t have to worry about shifting. I always tell people it is just like riding a bike when you were a kid: you just ride and when it gets hard you stand up!”

Parrish’s mindset is pretty simple. “I just ride and try to pass the next person in front of me,” she stated. “I never take the time to check my times from years past, so not sure if I do get faster, and I am terrible at remembering to turn on all the fancy time/pace/distance apps on my phone.”

Though the lack of a rear-suspension makes single speed descending more difficult, Parrish said she was pleasantly surprised by her Son of Middle Creek Enduro performance.
“It was actually better than I expected and I wasn’t terribly slow,” she said.

“Downhill is not my greatest attribute, and I find it hard to go fast without having others to chase,” she continued.

“I prefer uphill, but sure do look forward to the downhill breaks in a race.”

The next town series mountain bike race is the Beaver Creek Blast on July 19.

Full AC/DC competition results

(place, name, Davos time, SOM time, total time)

Beginner men

1. Nathan Fuller 29:42 9:29 39:11:00
2. Kirk Blackmon 31:45 12:50 44:35:00
3. Christian Carson 35:11 9:58 45:09:00

Beginner women

1. Anna Bidstrup 25:49 12:49 38:38:00
2. Emily Block 32:16 12:50 45:06:00
3. Adrienne Graybill 35:46 14:53 50:39:00

Clydesdale (200+)

1. Drew Verratti 34:35 11:42 46:17:00

Sport men

1. Casey Childers 23:37 12:41 36:18:00
2. Jackson Pundt 28:40 10:30 39:10:00
3. Steve Pulley 34:13 11:31 45:44:00
4. Noah Knezic 26:13 20:04 46:17:00
5. Avery Smith 47:13 9:51 57:04:00

Sport women

1. Stella Sanders 28:48 10:07 38:55:00
2. Anna Trombetta 29:56 10:02 39:58:00

Men’s Vet Sport (35-49)

1. Paul Datsko 24:49 8:47 33:36:00
2. Bobby Brown 24:56 8:43 33:39:00
3. Chris Gleeson 24:35 9:13 33:48:00
4. Kevin Haas 25:22 9:19 34:41:00
5. Jason Rosener 26:33 8:30 35:03:00
6. Sean Molloy 26:54 9:31 36:25:00

Women’s Vet Sport (35-49)

1. Jennie Thorne 31:13 11:43 42:56:00
2. Kerry Brown 32:53 11:33 44:26:00
3. Emily Large 31:13 21:10 52:23:00

Men’s master sport (50+)

1. Pierangeli Rob 23:59 9:54 33:53:00
2. Matt Marshall 30:04 9:46 39:50:00
3. Innes Isom 31:47 9:45 41:32:00
4. Kavi Sachar 30:43 11:19 42:02:00
5. Troy Lange 31:52 10:39 42:31:00
6. Tim Walters 32:04 10:49 42:53:00

Men’s grandmaster sport (60+)

1. Charles Brown 27:27 9:28 36:55:00
2. Paul Stedman 27:05 12:15 39:20:00
3. Tim McParlan 33:10 13:58 47:08:00

Expert men

1. Weston Sawtelle 20:46 8:12 28:58:00
2. David Sanders 22:31 7:44 30:15:00
3. Eric Asselin 20:59 9:17 30:16:00
4. Justin Brouse 25:48:00 9:13 35:01:00
5. Ethan Cline 21:30 17:55 39:25:00

Expert women

1. Haley Dumke 23:45 9:21 33:06:00
2. Lisa Isom 25:25 11:36 37:01:00
3. Keely Hendricks 29:20 10:56 40:16:00

Men’s vet expert (35-49)

1. Brett Donelson 21:35 8:25 30:00:00
2. Michael Glass 22:14 9:32 31:46:00
3. Matthew Pacocha 23:50 8:07 31:57:00
4. Michael Sherven 22:59 9:19 32:18:00
5. Matt Razo 23:26 9:37 33:03:00
6. Thad Sharp 26:00 7:48 33:48:00
7. Bobby L’Heureux 26:08 8:34 34:42:00
8. Doug Jimenez 25:21 9:47 35:08:00

Women’s vet expert (35-49)

1. Kim Fuller 27:40 10:24 38:04:00
2. Molly Gamble 28:50 10:12 39:02:00
3. May Jackson 31:02 11:33 42:35:00

Men’s master expert (50+)

1. Jason Russell 22:07 8:28 30:35:00
2. Stephen Elzinga 21:26 10:49 32:15:00
3. Noel Reuter 24:49 8:56 33:45:00

Men’s grand master expert (60+)

1. Ron Gruber 22:06 11:24 33:30:00
2. Dawes Wilson 32:16 10:54 43:10:00

Men’s single speed

1. Mark Nesline 23:17 9:38 32:55:00
2. Marty Golembiewski 24:14:00 10:59 35:13:00
3. BJ Psenda 28:41 9:06 37:47:00

Women’s single speed

1. Sarah Parrish 27:27 10:54 38:21:00

Men’s pro/open

1. Jonathan Modig 21 8:02 29:02:00
2. Alex Schultz 21:16 7:59 29:15:00
3. Garret Moehring 20:40 8:55 29:35:00

Women’s pro/open

1. Bayli McSpadden 23:34 9:46 33:20:00
2. Tamara Donelson 25:16 9:15 34:31:00