I was really excited to get back to Park City this year for the Point 2 Point, I missed last years race because of a broken collarbone. For anyone that hasn’t had a chance to ride in Park City, do yourself a favor and check it out! They have a very extensive trail network and like a lot of mountain bike destinations, they have been busy with tons of trail improvements and additions. The Point 2 Point is a 75 mile trail race, I say trail race because it is really all single track with about 12,000 feet of climbing, there is a ton of great descending.
The open field was super stacked this year with 5 time defending champ Alex Grant as the favorite, Cary Smith, Jay Henry, Tinker Juarez and Rob Squire just to name a few, the top 20 men would all prove to be very strong. The race started at a more reasonable pace than most other races this year and that was fine with me! About an hour in, the pace picked up and the group was down to Alex, Rob, Tinker, Jay, Cary, Nate Miller, and myself. Alex, Tinker and Rob quickly separated themselves from the group and Nate, Cary, and I settled into a pace with Jay close behind. I wasn’t feeling that great and dropped off of the group with Cary and Nate as Jay jumped to the front and left us all behind.
As the day progressed I felt better and better and after about 5 hours, I was feeling really strong and tried to push as hard as I could up the final never ending climb. Near the end I was able to overtake Cary who was having mechanical trouble. I thought maybe I could reel one more guy in if I really pushed it all the way to the finish, but it was no use. I finally saw a group of three up ahead of me just before the finish but I didn’t have enough time to catch them.
In the end I finished in 6th place just off the podium, Really can’t complain though I had a great day of racing on sweet trails in a beautiful place with a bunch of really fast dudes, can’t ask for much more than that.