Advertisement

With a few weeks until the next two rounds of the XCO UCI World Cup mountain bike series, the domestic scene has kept U.S.-based riders busy. Last week was the Missoula UCI weekend in Montana, and this past weekend, riders were in Nevada for the Carson City Off-Road Capital 50.

The Carson City Off-Road was the third stop of the four-race Epic Rides Off-Road series. We previously covered the last stop in Colorado at the Grand Junction Off-Road in part because of the number of familiar names who are racing the events this year.

The Epic Rides Off-Road series is different from the lap-based XCO races. The main mountain bike race is called a “backcountry race,” which describes the format well. The course is one loop of about 50 miles that usually features a good amount of climbing, technical singletrack and fire roads. In true U.S. racing form, there are also amateur races for both shorter and full distances during the weekend.

The Carson City Capital 50 course was no different, with riders climbing west toward Lake Tahoe and then descending back to Carson City for the finish.

The profile of the Carson City Capital 50 shows a good amount of climbing and descending.

The profile of the Carson City Capital 50 shows a good amount of climbing and descending.

Each Epic Rides Off-Road weekend also includes a Friday night dirt criterium that helps determine starting spots on Sunday. With the UCI World Cups adding a short track race to determine the first two starting rows this year, the series does have something in common with the premier XCO series in the world.

The standout star of the weekend was Chloe Woodruff (Stan’s Pivot Pro Team p/b Maxxis). Woodruff won the dirt criterium ahead of two riders who know short races well in teammate Sofia Gomez Villafane (Stan’s Pivot Pro Team p/b Maxxis) and Katerina Nash (Clif Pro Team).

Woodruff took the top spot again in the backcountry race on Sunday, adding a win to her second-place finish at the series opener. Nash won the previous race in Grand Junction but added another second-place finish to her 2018 tally in Carson City. Evelyn Dong (Spry Cycles) finished third to round out the podium. Belgian Waffle Ride winner Larissa Connors (Sho-Air) finished 4th, Crystal Anthony (Liv Cycling) 5th and Hannah Finchamp (Clif Pro Team) 10th.

In the Men’s dirt criterium, the riders with cyclocross experience led the way. Tristan Uhl (Giant Co-Factory) won in front of Fernando Riveros—whom we saw race the US Cup-CX series last year—and Geoff Kabush (Yeti-Maxxis-Shimano).

The mountain bike heavy hitters dominated Sunday’s backcountry race. Ben Sonntag (Team Clif Bar) got the win, topping Keegan Swenson (Stan’s Pivot Pro Team p/b Maxxis) and Howard Grotts (Specialized). Swenson won the Whiskey Off-Road and Grotts the Grand Junction race, so the series is now split 1-1-1 between the three.

Kabush shook off his post-Dirty-Kanza-200 hangover to finish seventh. We have not heard if he ran aero bars or not.

Full results for the Women’s and Men’s Carson City Off-Road are below.

Women's Results: 2018 Carson City Off-Road

PlaceBibNameTime
115Chloe Woodruff4:15:11
238Katerina Nash4:16:07
31Evelyn Dong4:19:37
44Larissa Connors4:23:37
53Crystal Anthony4:26:29
62Amy Beisel4:28:11
736alexis skarda4:32:50
86Kaysee Armstrong4:33:27
98Megan Chelf4:34:29
107Hannah Finchamp4:36:38
115Sofia Gomez-Villafane4:39:53
1239Kara LaPoint4:41:47
1328samantha runnels4:42:19
1425jennifer smith4:46:16
1533Amy Chandos4:47:08
1624Lindsay Dwyer4:48:24
1734Ellen Campbell4:50:48
1826Nicole Tittensor4:55:07
1910Emma Maaranen4:55:21
2035Rachel Anders4:56:32
219Sparky Moir Sears4:57:48
2237Emily Schaldach5:00:15
2311Ashley Carelock5:00:45
2418Anne-Laure Strong5:14:02
2527Olivia Dillon5:21:42
2632Kate Kelley5:37:27
2720Caroline Colonna5:54:53

Men's Results: 2018 Carson City Off-Road

PlaceBibNameTime
16Benjamin Sonntag3:34:35
214Keegan Swenson3:34:36
31Howard Grotts3:34:36
42Russell Finsterwald3:34:52
54Ryan Standish3:37:10
640Jerry Dufour3:38:21
73Geoff Kabush3:39:34
830Sandy Floren3:42:23
95Alex Grant3:42:24
107Richard Cypress Gorry3:42:24
1136Jake Yackle3:45:36
1256Fernando Riveros3:45:37
1341Nic Beechan3:45:39
1411Cal Skilsky3:47:04
1512Tristan Uhl3:47:43
1657Rylan Schadegg3:48:23
1720Levi Kurlander3:50:04
1815Payson McElveen3:51:37
1917Canyon Emmott3:52:11
2034Tanner Visnick3:52:31
2146Nash Dory3:52:50
2218Alex Wild3:53:59
2344Ernie Watenpaugh3:54:01
2460Cameron Ivory3:55:07
2551Kyle Trudeau3:55:11
2643Clayton Otto3:56:22
2747Elliott Baring3:56:56
2828Nathan Barton3:57:13
2910Liam Earl3:57:13
3052Drew Free3:57:24
3125Justin Thomas3:57:32
3226Tate Meintjes3:58:04
3339Harrison Buckley3:58:51
3435Garrett Gerchar4:00:05
3558Cody Kaiser4:00:19
3637Tobin Ortenblad4:04:26
3738Robbie Stout4:06:22
3865Mathieu Bélanger-Barrette4:08:19
3924Matthew Fox4:10:34
4029Jacob Hull4:12:50
4131Shane Johnson4:16:44
4233Lucas Rowton4:17:22
4361landon farnworth4:18:33
4419Kyle Dixon4:21:36
4559Cody Schwartz4:25:30
4642Nicolas Jimenez4:28:30
4754Spencer Glasgow4:34:03
4850Ryan Petry4:37:05
4921Brent Wood4:37:24
5062Clint Claassen4:37:33
5145William Dowling5:07:25