Colorado Triple Crown: 2016 AntiEpic Day: Event Recap

Monday, April 4, 2016

2016 AntiEpic Day: Event Recap

In spite of the recent heavy snowfall, AntiEpic riders experienced a nearly perfect early April day with bright blue skies, generally light winds, and easy-to-ride packed dirt and gravel roads.

The RMCC took the reigns of the 2016 AntiEpic Gravel Grinder, an event founded by ridinggravel.com founder, Ben Welnak, in 2012. Two courses were offered to this year's participants: an epic 176-mile long course with 10,000+ feet of climbing and a mini-antiepic 76-mile course with 5,800+ feet of climbing. Both courses start and end in Monument, CO (elevation 7,000 feet), traveling north through the Greenland Open Space and returning along the northern perimeter of the Black Forest. During the return route to Monument, participants are tested by a constant barrage of steep rollers. The long-course riders have the added bonus of riding 100 extra miles on the peaceful ranching roads to the northeast of the Greenland Open Space to Deer Trail before making the long journey back to Monument. In spite of its name, the AntiEpic Gravel Grinder is never short on beautiful Colorado scenery, including tranquil prairie vistas, picturesque mesas, and tantalizing dirt roads that disappear over every horizon. Throughout the day, participants also have striking views of the snow-capped Pikes Peak to the southwest. This year's event had 13 brave-hearted long course riders and 21 mini-AntiEpic riders. Congratulations to all of this year's participants!

God made dirt. Dirt don't hurt...well, maybe a little bit!

2016 AntiEpic Gravel Grinder event summary:

Course

Long course: 176 miles, 10,000+ feet of climbing. Because of the recent heavy snowfall, this year's long course used the alternate course, which has an eight-mile detour around the dreaded (muddy) B-road, Co Rd 98. Time limit: 16 hours
Short course: 76 miles, 5,800 feet of climbing. Time limit: 9 hours

Participants:

Short Course

21 preregistered riders, 6 non-preregistered rides (C'mon, guys! You're killing me!)
21 ride starters, 1 DNF, 1 DNS, Of the riders who started, 14 were men, 7 women (You go, girls!)
20 official finishers (95% finishing rate) successfully completed this mini-AntiEpic course in < 9 hours (>8.4 m.p.h.)
Congratulations to Kevin Masten, who posted are speediest men's time of the day: 5 hours, 3 min (15 mph...that's pretty damn quick on this course!)
Congratulations to Jane Fredman, who posted the fastest woman's time of the day: 6 hours, 14 min (12.2 mph)

Long Course

21 preregistered riders
13 ride starters, 7 finishers (54% finishing rate) successfully completed the AntiEpic long-course in < 16 hours (>11 m.p.h), 6 DNF, 2 DNS, 6 no-shows
Paul Galliart and Trent Hovenga completed the epic AntiEpic course with the day's fastest time: (Trent insisted that Paul was actually the fastest rider of the day!) Congratulations to both of you!
Kami White, riding tandem with her husband, Andy, was our lone female long-course rider! (Great ride, Kami!)

Results:

Complete results are posted on the Triple Crown Blog and will be posted RMCC website soon!

Special thanks to this year's volunteers! We can't run these events in their current timed format without your help!

Corinne Warren: provided water support for both courses and fortified riders with home-made cookies and muffins and helped record finishing times for long-course riders. She also helped with emergency SAG support at the end of the day.
Mark Warren: recorded finishing times for short-course riders
Mark Lowe: official ride starter and time recorder for long-course riders.

Photo gallery: (If participants have other photos, please forward them to me and I can post them!)

Poised to start epic AntiEpic day, long-course riders face chilly 34 degree temperatures at the crack of dawn.

Short-course riders are prepared to start their mini-AntEpic ride!

Girls on dirt: Laura Costantini, Annie Fox, Mindi Hoffmaster, and Kimberly Nuffer use the AntiEpic short course to prepare the Dirty Kanza 200 in early June.