All eyes were on Durango’s Howard Grotts at the third of four races for the Epic Rides Off-Road series. While Grotts maintained his overall lead in the series, it was another Durangoan who took the win Sunday.
Benjamin Sonntag, 37, outsprinted Grotts and Utah’s Keegan Swenson to the finish line to claim one of the biggest victories of his career at the Carson City Off-Road 52-mile backcountry mountain bike race in Nevada. Sonntag finished in 3 hours, 34 minutes, 35 seconds, one second ahead of Swenson and Grotts, respectively.
The cyclist originally from Germany boasted a wide smile as he stood on top of the podium
“I think in those podium pictures, my face says it all,” Sonntag said. “It’s definitely a huge, huge relief. I felt like all season I had the form of my life, but I’ve had issues all spring with allergies and my breathing and that slowed me down for racing. This is just such a relief after all the hard work. I trained really hard and have had awesome numbers lately, and I finally put up a result in a race. I’m super happy.”
Sonntag had been building toward more top results. He won the short-track race at the Soldier Hollow Pro XCT in Utah and routinely has appeared in the top 10 at big races.
Sunday, Sonntag rode in a group of four all day with Grotts, Swenson and his CLIF Bar teammate Russell Finsterwald of Colorado Springs. Finsterwald and Sonntag were 15 to 30 seconds back of Grotts and Swenson much of the day, but Sonntag joined the leaders with about 25 minutes to go. Grotts took charge of the pace, and Sonntag had the confidence to keep up thanks to his good form.
“That last little singletrack had a little climb, and I could see those two upping the pressure, and I had to be confident in the sprint,” Sonntag said. “Two years ago I was in a sprint very similar. There are two turns before the line. I was in it two years ago with Finsty and Todd Wells in a sprint for second, and I knew exactly what I had to do. The sprint played out exactly the same and worked out again for me.”
Finsterwald finished 17 seconds back of the sprinters. Ryan Standish, a former Fort Lewis College cyclist from Australia, finished fifth in 3:37:10. Durango’s Levi Kurlander was 17th in 3:50:04, and fellow Durangoan and Orange Seal off-Road teammate Payson McElveen was 18th after he placed fourth in Friday’s fat-tire criterium race in Carson City.
Grotts was 13th in the criterium, as he played it safe and avoided some of the big crashes the last few laps. His eyes were on the big prize of holding off Finsterwald in the series overall.
“I had a small puncture halfway through but was able to bridge back to Keegan,” Grotts said of Sunday’s race. “We did most of the descent together before Ben caught us. We could see Russell chasing, but we were able to hold him off, and he crashed just at the end of the singletrack it sounds like.
“Keegan was first to the pavement, but I pulled on most of the pavement because, looking at the overall, I had the most to gain by keeping Russell off our wheel to set the pace. It wasn’t a crazy hard effort.”
Grotts admitted he didn’t have the legs in the final 100 yards of the sprint, and he thought Swenson was going to take the win, but he was happy to see Sonntag take the victory.
“Ben countered well,” Grotts said “Ben was riding incredibly well today. It’s really cool to see for him. He’s been close many times, and he definitely earned this one.”
Arizona’s Chloe Woodruff capped off a sweep of the Carson City events, as she won the women’s backcountry race in 4:15:11. She was nearly a minute ahead of California’s Katernia Nash and more than four minutes faster than third-place finisher Evelyn Dong of Utah.
Former FLC rider Sofia Gomez-Villafañe, who was second to Woodruff in the short-track, finished 11th in 4:39:53. Durango’s Elle Campbell, a current FLC cyclist, was 17th in 4:50:48. Durango native Emily Schaldach, now of Boulder, was 22nd in 5:00:15, followed by Dolores’ Ashley Carelock 30 seconds back from her.
While Grotts will head to Europe for a pair of UCI World Cup races next, Sonntag will hope to build on his form at the Fat Tire 40 race in Crested Butte next weekend. He will travel home to Germany for its national championships in July and hope to qualify for September’s marathon world championships in Italy.
The fourth and final leg of the Epic Rides series is the OZ Trails Off-Road held Oct. 5-7 in Bentonville, Arkansas. Grotts will carry an advantage of 5 minutes, 15 seconds ahead of Finsterwald into that event. Sonntag is 13:19 back of Grotts.
“Barring any mechanicals, I think I have a pretty comfortable lead,” Grotts said. “Bentonville is not a very selective course, and I think it will be hard to find five minutes.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
