Stinger Buzz

It’s about the middle of the summer riding season here in Colorado and Team Honey Stinger/Trek is hitting its stride. The MSC Blast the Mass was this past weekend and with a familiar XC course for our local Roaring Fork Valley riders, the team had a strong showing and landed two more podiums. Check out photos from the race below:

Len Zanni in the Pro Men's start

Team Captain Len Zanni battled it out with Jay Henry and Travis Sheefer in the pro men’s race to finish in a strong second place.

Jay, Travis and Len grind up the climb on lap 2

Also in the pro men’s race, Max Taam finished 6th, Ryan Dorsey in 8th and Ben Portilla ran his bike across the line (tubulars proved to be a bad idea) but still finished in 13th.

Ben Portilla

Josh Cullen and Michael Hayes had solid finishes in the Cat 1 division.

Josh (center) and Michael (right)

In the pro women’s race, Kelley Cullen continued her winning ways with another second place finish. Sari Anderson, 3-months into her post-kiddo comeback, fought through the hail that started just minutes after Kelley finished and ended up in a solid fifth place.

Kelley Cullen leads out the pro women.

Sari grits her teeth through the hail at the finish.

Dirty girl.

Next up for many team riders: XC Nationals in Sol Vista and the brutal Breck 100.

Team Honey Stinger/Trek showed up in force for the 2nd annual Fat Tire 40 race in Crested Butte on Saturday, the fourth stop of the Mountain States Cup race series. Featuring 40 miles of riding on some of the Butte’s best singletrack, including over 8,000 feet of tough climbing and some pretty technical descents, the race put riders and their gear to the test. Our team brought home some well-earned hardware, as well as plenty of bumps, bruises and big smiles.

Nate Bird, following up on his 7th place finish at the Bailey Hundo last week, had a terrific race and landed on his first pro podium in second place behind local Travis Scheefer. Kelley Cullen finished in third in the pro women’s race, hanging close behind winner Gretchen Reeves and runner-up Jenny Smith for the whole race. Peter Kalmes also finished in second place and Rose Alford finished in fourth place in their respective Cat 1 age groups. Team riders Ryan Dorsey, Ben Portilla, Len Zanni, Bryce Gordon, Michael Hayes, Sari Anderson and Tammy Jacques all finished the race as well – some looking a little more cooked than others, but all happy to have completed it.

Here are some some photos from the day, mostly taken at a creek crossing at the 20-mile mark.

Nate Bird crushing it across the creek en route to a 2nd place finish

Kelley Cullen cruising to 3rd place

Ben Portilla's Specialized S-Works shoes with boa are dialed in

The team’s Specialized S-Works shoes with boa technology were perfect for the wet, technical course, allowing riders like Ben Portilla to micro adjust the fit throughout the race.

Sari Anderson racing just 3 months after giving birth

Sari gave her prototype women’s specific Osprey Verve 4 hydration pack rave reviews.

Len Zanni

Lenny learned you might need more than one (or 2 or 3) extra tubes for a 40-mile mtb race. Nonetheless, he finished the race by running down most of Mt. Crested Butte

It was another great weekend of racing for the Honey Stinger/Trek team.

With a few subtle nudges from his sometime training partner, Lance Armstrong, Len registered for this year’s much-hyped Leadville 100 at the last minute. Len won the Silver Rush 50 earlier this season, but he hasn’t raced in anything longer than 50 miles all season.  Len had the opportunity to pre-ride some of the course with Armstrong two weekends ago and he, Manny Prado and his Honey Stinger teammate Max Taam rode once before the race, but needless to say, he was pretty nervous at the start line.

Len on Lance's wheel

It was brutally cold and wet for the first 60 miles of the race, but Len held on to the lead pack of riders until the Twin Lakes aid station at the base of the Columbine climb. The group split up at the aid station as riders took on food, drinks and in some cases warmer clothes.

Len reports, “Everyone’s hands and feet were freezing but I had been given advice by a friend to start with warmer gloves and a skull cap under the helmet so that helped big time. I’m guessing I downed 12-15 Honey Stinger gel packets and 6 bags of our energy chews along with some other food throughout the day. Eating and drinking enough turned out to be even more important than I expected given the cold conditions.  Huge shout out to our support crew and my wife Jeanne! Couldn’t have finished that one without you guys. ”

Lance made his move on the climb and exploded to a 10 minute lead by the turn around over defending champ Dave Wiens and the rest of the remnants of the lead group. Lance eventually went on to win by over 30 minutes and set a new course record. Both Len and Max stayed strong through to the finish and ending up in the top ten.

Len finished in 5th place, just one day before his 39th birthday. Max finished in sixth.  Interesting side note: five of the seven top finishers were on Trek Top Fuels.

Max and Len relaxing after 7 hours of brutal racing

Down the road in Gunnison, Team Honey Stinger/Trek also had a strong showing at 24 Hours in the Sage.

Kris Cannon powered her way to a  first place finish in the solo women’s category and Nate Bird eschewed gears with three other strong men to win the Single Speed Four category. Full results here.

More images and tales from both races to come…

It was a big weekend for the Honey Stinger/Trek team at Blast the Mass, the 5th stop on the Mountain States Cup circuit and the home of the Colorado State Championships.

For team captain Len Zanni, Blast the Mass was the pinnacle of an already impressive season.

This year Len has been crushing the competition at pretty much every Wednesday night local race in Aspen. He currently sits in third place in the overall points series of the Mountain States Cup. He finished 17th at the National Mountain Bike XC Championships at Sol Vista last month and he won the Leadville Silver Rush 50 a couple weeks ago.

But this weekend featured what might have been one of Zanni’s biggest races yet. Len certainly had some homefield advantage at the Blast the Mass race in Snowmass this past Saturday, but he also faced some of the toughest mountain bike competition on American soil. It just so happens that part-time Aspen local and 7-time Tour de France winner, Lance Armstrong, decided he wanted to join the fray at the Snowmass race. Lance’s appearance definitely added some excitement and brouhaha to what is typically a fairly insular regional mountain bike race scene.

Lenny leading a 7-time TdF winner and the other pro men up the starting hill.

Despite the spectator donnybrook surrounding Lance, Len kept his eyes on the prize and raced his own race. Lance shot out to three minute lead over perennial Mountain States winner and full-time pro rider Jay Henry, with Len holding onto third place in a field stacked with strong regional pros. In the end Lance proved he can ride a bike off road as well as on, and won with a three-minute margin. Jay stayed in second and Len finished in third – his best Mountain States Cup finish all season.

Jay Henry, Lance and Len.

It’s not every day you get to share a podium with Lance. Not bad for a guy pushing 40 with two kids and a full-time job. Nice work Len, we’re proud of you.

In addition to Len’s bronze medal, the Honey Stinger/Trek team made quite the impression at Blast the Mass.

Enjoying his last summer before heading off to college, Aspen local phenom Bryce Gordon smoked the Cat 1 15-18 division by over five minutes and went home wearing the Colorado State Champion jersery.

Reluctant racer Ian Anderson stepped out from behind his pro racing wife’s shadow to pull off a victory and another state champ jersey in the Cat 2 30-39 division.

Ian suffering up the 2nd lap, trying to stay ahead of the ladies.

Peter Kalmes finished in 3rd place in the Cat 1 19-29.

To round out the medal count, Rose Alford finished second in the Cat 2 40+ division.

Other team member finishes at Blast the Mass included Ben Portilla (15th pro men), Nate Bird (27th pro men), Josh Cullen* (6th Cat 1 30-39).

*on his singlespeed.

Full results here.