A weather system brought cold temps and light snow to the Whiskey Off-Road 15-Proof course on Friday afternoon before heavy rains cancelled the Fat Tire Crit in downtown Prescott. This made for some of the best dirt in the event’s 19-year history when several friends and I took to the amateur backcountry race on Saturday morning. Similarly awesome conditions remained for the pro 50-mile race on Sunday, including the prize money from the cancelled crit being moved to a hill climb prime that added a new flavor of competition to the event.
I posted up at several locations in Spence Basin near the end of the pro course to get some more rugged images than is typically captured by the chase car of regular photographers.
Cole Paton in the lead at mile 37 with the eventual race winner, Keegan Swenson, on his tail.
Finn Gulickson taking my personal favorite line down a gnarly rock feature on the Juniper Gate trail.
Hannah Otto in the lead down Rocky Top trail, shortly before Alexis Skarda slid around and took the overall win.
Prescott pro cyclist, Erin Osborne, was the first to enter the Aspen Creek singletrack, thus wining the $1,000 Copper Basin hill climb prime. She maintained a third place position throughout most of the rest of the race, all the way to the finish line. This image of her near the end of the singletrack was later featured on the cover of PrescottNOW magazine.
Pro men’s podium: Keegan Swanson (1st), Cole Paton (2nd), Alex Wild (3rd), Cameron Jones (4th), and Sean Fincham (5th).
The top five ladies having fun on the box: Alexis Skarda (1st), Hannah Otto (2nd), Erin Osborne (3rd), Deanna Males (4th), and Michaela Thompson (5th).
My Saturday morning race photo, courtesy of Sportograf. Go Badgers – the middle school race team that I founded and am head coach for!