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Mt Alpha Represent - Sam, Jen and Riley Official Registration Photos |
Folks are curious how I improved an hole hour of last year, there are few factors different this year.
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2. I trained on hills. Yup, all I have been riding is hills, hills, hills.
3. The weather was perfect. Not hot, little bit a rain for track and cloud cover. Ahhhhh, so nice.
What is the Butte 50?
The 50 mile version of the Butte 100 includes epic amounts of single track (75%) on the Continental Divide Trail in the Highland mountains.
50 Mile Course at a glance
- 52.4 total miles
- 8,500 ft. elevation gain
- 4 Total Aid Stations- Numbered #7-10 (according to 100-mile course)
- More detailed course descriptions will be included in the Race Bible
50-Mile Course
The 50-mile racers must be at the start area at Homestake Pass at 7:45 a.m for USA Cycling roll call; the race began at 8:00a.m. Starting loop
4.8 miles; 551 ft. elevation gain; 4.8 mi. cumulativeFor me, I decided to not start racing until after the first aid station. I used the starting loop as a nice warm up and let racers pass me by. I didn't go slow, but I wasn't at "race pace"
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Start area to Aid Station (Thompson Park )
7.7 miles; 1,563 ft. elevation gain; 12.5 mi. cumulative
- Black Tail descent immediately follows start loop; single and double track, quite technical,with a bottle neck
- Short ride on an asphalt connection, through a housing division to Black Tail Trailhead; 3 mi. climb and 3 mile descent to Hwy 2 crossing and Thompson Park area
Aid Station (Basin Creek)
8.8 miles; +1,192ft.; 21.4 mi.After this Aid Station I turned on my "race mind" and started to work harder. The temps were cool and still with nice cloud cover, so I worked to stay with Kellie Carim down through this section.
I have been racing Kelly for years, sometimes I beat her, but usually she kills me on climbs.
I knew she would beat me in this race. She is an amazing climber and has deep cardio fitness with Skate-Ski racing in the winter. I am super excited for her improving her time from last year by a half hour! Good Job Kellie!
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- Climb to “The Chimney” on singletrack and some RR bed
- Descent on dry singletrack (watch for wash-outs)graduating to dual track, established double track, then gravel road into Basin Creek Aid station #
10.7 miles; +2,593 ft.; 32.1 mi. cumulative
- The Basin Creek climb consists of a very dry double track
- 4 mile climb to CDT left turn (King/Queen of the Mountain checkpoint) 2-mile climb remaining on buff single track
- Beautiful single track to Highlands aid station
This is the hardest part of the race I think. Such a long hard climb, and a lot of it is too steep to climb. I talked with Tinker Juarez (Legendary Pro MTBiker) after he won the Butte 100, and he said that he finally cleaned the Basin Creek Climb. Wow, I pushed my bike up so many steep sections with a bunch of dudes.
Jen and Tinker after the race. Tinker beat his time from last year for a new Butte 100 record!
Aid Station (Highway 2)
11.3 miles; +1,266 ft. elevation gain; 43.4 mi. cumulative
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- “8 Miles of Hell” right out of aid station along CDT buffed/slight dry single track
- Continue on CDT through the Limekiln intersection (a beautiful portion of course)
- Nice downhill to Aid Station #10 at Hwy 2
- Note: a USA Cycling official will be enforcing racer cut-offs at Hwy 2 aid station #10. Those pulling in after 7:00 p.m. will not be allowed to continue, no exceptions.
Aid Station to Finish
Now I love this section. I have ridden this area of CDT maybe 20 times, so I know it better than any other single track. I knew exactly when I could attack the Mountain, and when I could get a few seconds of rest.
After hammering up the final climb, the 2 girls that I dropped caught up to me and passed me. I knew that I had to push it hard to pass them again on the downhill.
I caught them on the downhill and dropped the descent as fast as I could. I did not see them for the rest of the race to the finish. However, the girl behind me was only a 1 minute back! After over 7 hours of racing, that is pretty close.
9.0 miles; +1,344 ft.; 52.4 mi. cumulative.
- Final significant climb (after Beaver Ponds trail junct.) Stay on CDT
- Buff single track through boulders and woods
- Descent to I-90 intersection-should start hearing car noise
- Right turn on concrete, over the overpass and into the finish line
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I was super happy to take 3rd. Sharing podium with a Pro (Ivy Pederson) and 2nd place Kellie Carim was awesome!
Division: Butte 50 Women Pro/Cat1/Cat2
1 - IVY PEDERSEN 6:28:34.728 BOZEMAN MT
2 - KELLIE CARIM 6:49:42.229 MISSOULA MT
3 - JENNIFER BARDSLEY 7:27:04.938 MISSOULA MT
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Yeah, dirt and beer. You know your day was good.