WILMINGTON, N.Y. --- For the second time in the race’s five year history, it was a road cyclist who claimed the men’s Wilmington Whiteface 100K (WW100) mountain bike crown. Mathieu Belanger-Barrett (Quebec City, Quebec) used lessons learned from road cycling to win the 68-mile long race in a time of four hours, seven minutes, 34.08 seconds.

“I’ve riden my road bike here, but this is the first time that I’ve mountain biked here, it was completely awesome,” said Belanger-Barrett.  “For the most part, the race was pretty mellow for the first 50K, then we re-grouped with about five to six riders and it was just attacking, attacking, attacking and other cyclists were dropping off one after another.

“At the very end, I think with about 5K left, the riders that I was with made some technical mistakes and I got through and broke away.”

One of the riders in that lead group was David Wiens (Gunnison, Colo.), a six-time Leadville 100K MTB champion and defending WW100 champion.  Weins raced to a third place finish, in 4:08:23.26, while Christian Favata (Rodendale, N.Y.) was second, completing one of the toughest Leadville Series qualifying events with a final time of 4:08:04.00.

Beginning and ending at Whiteface Mountain, the grueling race took the field through some of upstate New York’s most challenging cycling terrain that included twisting jeep and gravel roads, back country trails and demanding hill climbs that measure more than 750 meters each.

From the Olympic mountain, which was the site for the 1980 Olympic Winter Games’ alpine events, and known for having the greatest vertical east of the Rockies, the out and back race weaved its way through Wilmington, Jay, Lewis, Elizabethtown, and Keene along Route 86, the Fox Farm Road, Springfield Road, Hardy Road, Bartlett Road, Lacy Road and Limkiln Road before reaching Route 9N.

From 9N, the race’s most demanding and technical terrain and climbs awaited the field, as they peddle through Styles Brook Road and the Jay Mountain Road ahead of Carlott Road and Blood Hill Road.  From there, the field made its way to Roscoe Road, Bronson Lane, Blueberry Hill and out to Lord Road before returning to the Flume Trails and Whiteface Mountain.

Two-time WW100 winner Rebecca Rusch (Ketchum, Idaho) did not defend her title Sunday, leaving the women’s field wide open.   Veronique Fortin (Gateaux, Quebec), who signed up for the event just before the shotgun shot, took full advantage.

“I have a back injury so before this morning I was really never sure if I would race,” noted the 35 year-old, “This morning when I woke up, my back wasn’t too bad, so I decided to register.”

Bad back and all, Fortin crossed the finish line in 5:03:20.13. “I knew that this course had a lot of climbing, so this race was really hard mentally.

“My back was alright on the climbing, because I didn’t find the course to be too technical. Because I really didn’t know the course I really just tried to pace myself and made sure that I was comfortable, leaving enough energy for the finish.”

Tina Severson (Colchester, Conn.) caught Fortin at about the 37-kilometer mark, but she could keep up and dropped back into second place in 5:07:56.62

“The conditions were perfect out there, the weather was great,” remarked Severson. “I felt really good during the climbs and the descends were a total blast, like so much fun, and the single track brought a huge smile to my face. I just wish that there was more of that here.”

Sian Turner (Truckee, Calif.) was third, crossing the finish line in a time of 5:18:44.46.

One-hundred of Sunday’s 457 athletes are now making plans to race in the Aug. 15 LT100.  Fifty of the LT100 qualifying spots were awarded based on performance in each division for men and women, and the other 50 were distributed randomly from a pool of all racers, who finished under the maximum cutoff time, which was eight hours. 

Sunday’s WW100 also featured a 50K event. David McCutcheon (Saugerties, N.Y.) won the men’s race in 1:53:48.74, while Sophie Matte (Chelsea, Quebec) topped the women’s field. She completed the event in 2:21:35.05.

For more information about the Wilmington Whiteface 100K, http://wilmingtonwhitefacemtb.com/.

For a complete list of results, log onto http://www.wilmingtonwhitefacemtb.com/results/ or http://www.auyertiming.com/results.php.

Media Advisory: For event photos, visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/whitefacemountain/. Photos courtesy ORDA/ Whiteface Lake Placid.

-- WW100 --

Contact:

Jon Lundin

WW100 Communications

Tel: 518.523.1655 ext. 5313