Team Summit/Courtesy photo
Copper Mountain Resort is busy with high-caliber snowboard and skiing competitions through most of the year, with athletes from all over the world coming to compete on the resort’s superpipe, big air and slopestyle venues.
Copper Mountain has looked a little different over the last week as mountain bikers of all ages have pedaled their way up, down and across the almost snow-free ski slopes of the resort.
This past weekend, Copper Mountain served as the hosts of the Colorado State Mountain Bike Championships. Less than three days later, on Wednesday, July 26, the mountain hosted another mountain biking race: Race Breck’s Summit Mountain Challenge Mountain Bike Race — Copper Mountain Melee.
With all races starting and ending in Copper’s Center Village, competitors completed laps on either the 5.86-mile big course loop or the 1.8-mile kids course loop. Both courses climbed up steep ski runs and eventually zoomed back down to a flat and fast finish at the base area.
Like many Summit Mountain Challenge races, the Copper Mountain Melee was well attended by Summit County cyclists, with many athletes bouncing back after competing in the Colorado State Mountain Bike Championships from July 22-23.
Copper Mountain’s summer terrain park served as the backdrop as the junior boys and girls 11- to 12-year-old races got the night underway. Completing two kids course loop laps, Summit County resident Julian Crum powered his way to a first-place finish in the boys race.
Crum finished the 3.6-mile race in 26 minutes, 58 seconds, and was followed by Horning Asher in second and Cooper Wood in third.
Breckenridge’s Lucy Greenwood cruised her way to a victory in the junior girls 11- to 12-year-old race. Greenwood showed off her aerobic capacity and won the race in 27:43 to beat out Summit County’s Maeve Niemkiewicz in second place (32:53).
Following in the tire tracks of her brother, Annika Krum earned her own first-place finish in the girls 10 and under race, completing one lap of the kids course loop in 14:18. Tessa Jacobs (14:21) placed second while Nellie Greenwood (18:03) added a third-place finish to the Greenwood household.
The boys 10 and under race was won by 9-year-old Summit County resident Miles Drumwright (12:43). Gabe Loomis (12:47) placed second and Jackson Boyd (15:18) placed third.
With two first-place finishes by her siblings, it seemed fitting that Siri Krum claimed her own first-place finish in the junior girls 13- to 15-year-old race. With over a five-minute gap between her and Leadville’s Susie Bullock in second place, Krum, 13, easily powered her way to the victory with a time of 37:47.
Bullock (43:01) finished in a blazing time of her own, while Galen Teller (44:16) placed third.
The success of young local cyclists continued in the junior boys 13-to 15-year-old race as Frisco’s Crosby Hume earned himself a huge win. With a background in running, Nordic skiing and mountain biking, Hume used his fitness to win by over five minutes with a time of 39:18.
Wilson Anderson (44:20) finished in second and Owen Harris (44:31) placed third.
Summit Count cyclists continued to spearhead the majority of the race fields in the adult races.
Breckenridge’s Justina Liss (55:38) won the women’s 16-plus sport race with Hannah Erickson of Silverthorne placing second and Chloe Lewis finishing in third. Julie Granshaw (57:53) of Breckenridge was crowned the victor of the women 45-plus race and was followed by fellow Summit County residents Catherine Kivlan and Trish Heisdorffer.
Scott Giffin of Leadville and Jarred Hinkson of Alma ended the Summit County winning streak, topping the open men 60-plus and the sport men 16- to 34-year-old races.
Giffin finished the 60-plus race in a time of 1:03:02, and Hinkson finished in 49:23.
Fresh off his state championship title on Sunday, Summit’s Finn Brown, 15, topped his second race of the week by placing first in the expert men 16- to 39-year-old race. Brown finished the race in 1:06:50 and was followed by Josiah Horning, 17, in second (1:07:13) and Summit resident Carter Niemkiewicz, 16, (1:11:55).
The men’s pro/open race rounded out the evening with Breckenridge professional cyclist Lasse Konecny, 19, easily pedaling his way to a victory in a time of 59:57.
Castle Rock’s Nathaniel Vacura (1:03:50) placed second and Summit County’s Taylor Shelden (1:04:13) placed third.
No women competed in the women’s pro/open race.
The next Summit Mountain Challenge mountain bike race will take place on Aug. 16 with the inaugural Basin Burnout mountain bike race at Arapahoe Basin Ski Area. To sign up for the race, visit RaceBreck.com.
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