Scott Funston wins a mechanical-heavy Wild Horse Gravel
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Cyclocross racer and Colorado Mesa University virtually-graduate Scott Funston (Blue) won the third Wild Horse Gravel from a entrance team of 3 in an party that bundled 6-time Leadville winner Dave Wiens, globe unique pursuit champion Ashton Lambie, and Olympic medalist Bobby Julich, amid many others.
Nick Gould (Mazda-Lauf) and Nate Maddox had been next and 3rd on a working day that saw a lot of a rider flat or fall their chain on a tough, backcountry program in western Colorado.
Funston put his ’cross capabilities to use to catch an attacking Gould on the ultimate long downhill.
“Cyclocross is my principal matter,” said Funston, for whom Wild Horse was his 2nd-at any time gravel function. “I am pretty satisfactory on the bicycle. The distance is what receives me.”
Even though somewhat brief at 65 miles, Wild Horse Gravel highlighted 5,500 feet of climbing on a training course that topped out at 8,200 feet.
How it played out
Right after a neutral begin, racers wound up the tempo from the modest town of De Beque, Colorado, with Jake Magee (Vantage Freight) stringing out the team as before long as the race right commenced.
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Gould was intense early, taking a solo flyer with the chase taken up by Wiens and Lambie.
Within 10 miles of racing, the entrance group was down to about 10 riders.
Magee would be one particular of many riders sidelined with a flat tire. Tony Olson (Rio Grande) broke a wheel, using him out for the working day. Chris Schroeder was just one of a couple of riders on 1x bikes who would fall a chain, and be pressured to quit and place it again on by hand.
A handful of collegiate riders from the nearby Colorado Mesa University produced a robust exhibiting, which include Troy Fields.
As the training course continued to climb and the highway narrowed into the width of a two-keep track of, Fields, Funston, and Gould identified themselves on your own off the front.
The stiffest climb of the day came about 15 miles from the finish, in which the quality pitched to over 20 p.c and compelled many riders to stroll.
Gould was in a position to fall Funston on this climb.
“Nick pushed the speed up the hill,” Funston stated. “He was beginning to get away from me, then we strike the walls at the prime, and when I kinda came back again to him, but I did it a minimal way too aggressively and I paid out for it. So he experienced probably 10 seconds on me about the best.”
Even though most riders walked, Funston and Gould stayed on the bike.
“The $1,200 was the only thing that saved me on my bicycle,” Funston claimed with a laugh, referencing the winner’s prize cash. “Let me tell you, any other time, I would have been off my bicycle.”
Fields would suffer bicycle trouble, nevertheless, which experienced him sitting down down at the mechanic’s tent atop the course’s substantial position.
On the rapid descent that adopted, Funston caught Gould and the pair rode with each other, imagining that possibly a two-up sprint at the race’s homebase of The Superior Lonesome Ranch would be how the winner would be established.
Alternatively, but one more mechanical came into play. Blazing in excess of a cattle guard, Gould’s chain popped off. As other people experienced accomplished numerous situations in the race, Gould stopped and hopped off to set it back on. Having said that, Gould had a chain guard on his bike, and he was unable to only set the chain back again on. Rather, out arrived his multitool to loosen the chain guard, and up the highway went Funston.
“The dropped chain was a bummer, but I graduate faculty future week, and I really don’t have a task nevertheless,” Funston said. “So I gotta make some income somehow. I just time trialed it in. It was the longest 7 miles of downhill I have ever accomplished. On those people rollers, I was so shot, I was just undertaking maybe 300 watts around the best.”
At day’s conclusion, it was adequate to notch Funston’s first gravel win, with the prize revenue a wonderful school graduation current to himself.
2022 Wild Horse Gravel
- Scott Funston (Blue), 3:06:30
- Nick Gould (Mazda-Lauf), 3:08:45
- Nate Maddox, 3:10:39
- Daxton Mock, 3:13:21
- David Wiens (Topeak-Ergon-Canyon), 3:13:30
- Tyler Jones (Variety Bikes and Skis), 3:19:25
- Joe Goettl (Scheels Utah), 3:20:19
- Ashton Lambie (Jukebox Biking), 3:22:52
- Ben Delaney (VeloNews), 3:29:10
- John Breznicky, 3:33:47