Racers do the slalom on Snowbird single track

The 12th Annual Mountain Bout Mountain Bike Race was held Saturday, July 3rd at the Snowbird Resort under smokey-blue skies (thanks to local forest and wild fires).

The legendary race, complete with a few new single-track spurs, was true to its reputation as a brutal hill climb.

John Osguthorpe, riding for Schwinn had to scramble to keep ahead of Art O'Connor of SOBE/Spin Cycle in the Men's Pro/Elite race. Osguthorpe maintained his traction as he ploughed down the loose West Second South route to beat O'Connor by only 7/10th of a second over the 14- mile, 3,500-foot vertical race. Indicative of how tightly matched the Pro/Elite Men were, all ten racers finished within a total of nine minutes of each other.

Park City riders had a great showing throughout the day, beginning with young Hillary Wright who captured third place in the 12 and under race. Hillary, who just launched her mountain bike-racing career, attributes her training with the Young Riders program for her strong finish against a predominantly male field.

Rob Karz, of Park City, narrowly missed a first place win as Mark Sarette of Evanston, WY plucked the lead away by two minutes. Women's Pro/Expert riders showed their moxie under the high noon sun as Mindy Gillespie of Provo, beat out Park City's Roxanne Toly by three and a half minutes over the 11-mile track with a time of 1:33:07 to Toly's 1:36:37.

One of the closest races occurred between Mike Oliver of Bountiful and Brian Morris of Salt Lake in the Beginner Men 19 -29 category. Only 4/10th of a second separated the two as they battled on the rocky descent and over each hurdle of the Bass Highway 700-foot ascent.

In the Clydesdale category, Ed Smith of Contender Bicycles reigned victorious as he held on to his winning ways and beat fellow 200+ pounders over their three laps and 2,100 vertical feet. Jeff Graham, of Provo, UT was second, followed by Dean Hudson Of Evanston City, WY.

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