Local cyclists defend titles at Vail Recreation District mountain bike town series opener

Bear National Team cyclists Landen Stovall and Bayli McSpadden claimed victories once again at the Eagle Ranch Classic, the first event of the Vail Recreation District’s mountain bike town series. Stovall pulled away from Sam Brown in Wednesday night’s pro/open race, covering the 12.6-mile course in 42 minutes, 54 seconds for his second-straight win while McSpadden pulled off the three-peat in 52:49.

“It went so well,” McSpadden said. “I’ve been training a lot and I felt really good today, which is nice.”

Stovall — fresh off a 13th-place finish at the Pan American Championships at Soldier Hollow on May 8 and his first pro podium at the Englewood Open in Fall River, Wisconsin, two weeks ago — said taking it easy last week had his legs rested and ready on the first lap of the town series opener.

“I kind of went and exploded that first lap,” he said. “But then I settled and it felt good.”

Sam Brown (44:04) was hooked to Stovall’s wheel on the second trip up the Hardscrabble Connector Jeep Road. Stovall inched away on each of the course’s gradual climbs, but Brown was able to buy back distance on the downhills.

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“He was out-downhilling me today,” Stovall said.

“I almost caught him by the bottom of Mayer Gulch and then going up the Wall Trail he kind of just threw in a little more and I was just kind of maintaining whatever gap I had,” said Brown. “Eventually I couldn’t really see him so that always makes it hard to try and chase him back.”

Aiden Brown (46:46) rounded out the podium, riding solo for much of the race. Fourth-placer Eric Asselin (48:20) was also in no-man’s land, relatively speaking, pursued throughout by a chase pack consisting of Chris Baddick, Michael Hand and James Kirschner. McSpadden spent most of the race pulled along by the men’s pack, generally unaware of runner-up Haley Dumke (55:50). McSpadden said her focus for the race was “staying consistent.”

“Sometimes I blow up and my pace falls off, but today I felt pretty good,” the 21-year-old stated. “I was like, just keep your pace and try to push on that last lap. That’s been my goal and it’s good to practice that.”

Both McSpadden and Stovall will head to Missoula, Montana, next week for another UCI competition. Then, they’ll hunker down at home to prepare for the USA Cycling mountain bike national championships, held in Macungie, Pennsylvania, from July 17-21. After finishing right behind defending U23 national champion Brayden Johnson in Wisconsin earlier this month, Stovall has ambitious goals.

“Top-10 — a podium I think is possible if I have a really perfect race,” he said.

Brown’s primary targets this year are the Breck Epic and Bighorn Gravel, where he placed 12th last year. “I mean I want to win it. That’s the big goal,” Brown said of the latter, Gypsum-based event. His race calendar is intentionally local, he said.

“I don’t see a reason to travel all around if there’s all these great races in Colorado,” said Brown, who kicked off his season with a bang. He won the CO2UT 125-mile gravel race in Fruita and posted a top-5 finish going against a few fellow Fort Lewis College alumni at the Iron Horse Cycling Classic gravel race in Durango last week.

“Training has been good. I’ve had my biggest base season ever,” Brown said. The 24-year-old spent about a month riding in Spain this winter.

“I kind of stepped my level of big endurance training up for sure,” he said.

For Brown, who realized he’s been doing the town series “since he was old enough to do it,” the Wednesday-night races are primarily “a social event.”

“The main reason I like to ride is to ride with people,” he said before adding that it’s fun to compete with his regular training partners, Stovall and Aiden Brown. “Certainly doing chill group rides is fun, but sometimes it’s fun to mix it up and put in some effort and see what everyone really has.”

On the other end of the spectrum, the Eagle Ranch Classic was the first town series race for Emily Block, who works for Charlie Brown — Sam’s father — at Mountain Pedaler.

“I got dragged into this a little bit,” she said with a smile. “They were pretty much like, ‘we need more women — we’re going to sign you up!'”

Block wound up second in the women’s sport category.

“It was pretty exciting,” the Gypsum resident said. “I was definitely nervous — had butterflies going into it — but it was fun.” 

Block also accomplished her main goal for the evening: connecting with other female riders. After her race finished, she chatted at the finish line with May Jackson of Minturn and Rachael Acker of Eagle.

“It felt very good,” Acker said. “The dirt was fast. It rained a little bit and that was actually really nice.”

Acker said the Eagle Ranch trails are her go-to spot for taking new riders. The course is also her favorite of the seven-race town series.

“It’s just so fun,” she explained. “There’s so much singletrack and there’s lots of spots to pass people that are easy to pass and it’s a good mix of climbing and downhill. It’s very flowy and chill. Very mellow.”

Jackson, a five-year town series veteran, said her main goal this summer is to “just have fun riding my bike with friends again.”

“I came off a really hard, intense year of racing last year so I just really wanted to come back to sport and have fun racing,” she said.

The town series continues with the Davos Dash on June 12. For more information or to register, visit VailRec.com. Full results from Wednesday’s race can be found at VailDaily.com.