Stinger Buzz

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

This past weekend, the 1st ever Bailey Hundo 100 mile mountain bike race went on in Bailey, Colorado and surrounding area (a lot of it!).  It was a cool event – sponsored by 4 state senators.  Instead of an entry fee – riders had to raise a minimum of $100 to ride – proceeds benefitting the trail system around Bailey, Trips For Kids, and the new Colorado High School Cycling League.

With a stacked field including legends Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, Dave Wiens, and Travis Brown – Team Honey Stinger/Trek was out in force and ready to show their stuff against the other big guns.  Team racers in this badboy were Nate Bird, Scott McCalmom, Ryan Dorsey, Max Taam, Ryan Hamilton, Daniel Mantheny, and Josh Cullen.  Bird was the day’s top finisher coming in 7th place in a time of 7:31.  Not far behind was McCalmon coming in 9th followed by a slew of other Honey Stinger riders.  The team definitely made its presence felt with over 25% of the top 20 – all but one rider came in that top 20 to make an impressive showing on the day.

For pics and results check out the Bailey Hundo site, and also check out an ego-boosting article on the sole Steamboat rider, Bird, in the Steamboat Pilot and Today.  Bird has been strutting (pun very intended) around the Honey Stinger office offering his autograph to coworkers all week – as of yet there have been no takers.

Video from a ride this past weekend on the trails and roads near Aspen and Snowmass, CO with a few of our team riders! Plenty of Honey Stinger products, Trek mountain bikes, Osprey packs, Smartwool socks, BOA enabled mtb shoes!

On Honey Stinger’s home turf, sponsored triathletes Molly & Matt Smith showed they are ready to out run the competition this tri season.  On a perfect, Colorado day, both of “the Smith’s” took home some hardware.

In a sprint finish at the line, Molly ousted a very competitive women’s field to shave almost 3 minutes off her time from last year and take the final podium slot with a 3^rd place overall women’s title.  She raced a 1:32.

 Matt went out strong and kept a good pace that was also good enough for a PR time of 1:22 earning him 5^th place male and brought him up a slot from last year in the 30-34 age group with the age group win.

 “I downed my Honey Stinger at mile 7 of the race, which is my usual plan, but with a big hill at mile 9 of this course, having the extra energy gave me the advantage to surge up the hill and hold off some of the other women.” Says Molly.  She adds, “I know it was also the Honey Stinger that left me with the energy to out sprint 3 other women at the line!”

 Both Molly and Matt race for the Runners Roost Colorado Elite Race Team and are officers for the Rocky Mountain Triathlon Club.

Scott McCalmon charges at Teva

So many races, so little time.

Two weekends ago (sorry for tardiness), Team Honey Stinger/Trek adopted a ‘divide and conquer’ approach with riders heading to both the MSC Chili Challenge in Angel Fire, NM and the Teva Mountain Games in Vail, CO.

The Teva Mountain Games, which has grown to be the largest adventure sports festival in the country with over 40,000 spectators and 3,000 athletes, featured a XC course with over 1,000 feet of climbing each lap. A huge field of pro and expert riders showed up including big guns like JHK, Jay Henry, Georgia Gould, Heather Irminger and Katie Compton. The weather was beautiful, if a little hot, and the race featured a new (built the week before?) singletrack on Vail Mtn called Hank’s Hideaway that started soft and loamy but soon turned to a dusty, brake-bumped dust pit.

JHK and Georgia had convincing wins in the pro field, both winning by almost three-minute margins. Stinger rider Scott McCalmon finished in a strong 17th place in the Pro category and Max Taam, in his first MTB race of the year, finished in 23rd.

In the expert field, Honey Stinger rider Peter Kalmes raced to a second place finish in a tough field of almost 70 dudes. Rob Russell from Honey Stinger also finished on the podium with a third place in the Singlespeed category. Check out a full report and great photos from the Mountain Flyer magazine.

Angel Fire treated riders well as pro riders Ryan Dorsey, Colin Osborn and Len Zanni placed 7th, 10th, and 12th respectively. It’s a long haul down to Angel Fire from anywhere but the cross country course is one of the best around as it really rewards the all-arounder as none of the climbs are too steep, there’s technical climbing and descending and the super fast downhillers can generally make up some time. Next Mountain States Cup stop is Snowmass in July.