Women’s Record at Frazer Mountain Madness Disappears into Thin Air
Women’s Record at Frazer Mountain Madness Disappears into Thin Air
Men’s record stays intact with McCalla absent
Race report and photos by James E. Rickman
(July 25, 2009) TAOS SKI VALLEY, N.M.—Nina Baum (Cannondale Factory Racing) got the best of Frazer Mountain this year.
The Albuquerque, N.M., professional mountain bike racer showed a pack of 60 some riders entered in the 2009 Frazer Mountain Madness hill climb that sometimes it takes a woman to get things done. Baum shattered the record she set in last year’s hill climb by more than two and a half minutes. She finished the five-and-a-half-mile climb from the base of Taos Ski Valley to the 12,163-foot summit of Frazer Mountain—an altitude gain of 2,800 feet—in 1:06:03.
At the top, Baum pedaled smoothly over the line, looking fresh and relaxed as if she had just completed a Saturday morning fun ride. She had no idea she had broken her previous record, convinced that her pace had been slower than the previous year. Even though the 30-something rider has had a pretty good year on the race circuit so far, she said she’s thinking about retirement—and that wasn’t just her legs talking.
“Cannondale lost its mechanical support, so we don’t have mechanics with us this year,” Baum said. “I’m just realizing what a big difference that makes during races.”
After a few sips of liquid and drinking in the spectacular view at the summit, Baum said she’d race for at least one more year.
About 12 minutes before Baum’s appearance at the finish line, Damian Calvert (Sports Systems Mountain Top Racing) took this year’s honors as the first person to cross the finish line, stopping the clock in 48 minutes, 44 seconds. The time wasn’t fast enough to beat last year’s record of 46:58 set by Santa Fe’s Michael McCalla, who didn’t participate this year. At the finish line, Calvert barely seemed to be breathing hard.
“I think I breathed it all out on the course,” he said. “I think I let it all out.”
Less than a minute after Calvert’s finish, Cameron Brenneman (Santa Fe Bike & Sport) crossed the finish line. He didn’t seem as fresh as Calvert.
“This is the first year (of the race) for me,” Brenneman said. “I think it’s better not knowing what’s in front of you. I didn’t want to know. It’s definitely a hard climb—there were times I was really wishing I had a third chain ring up front.”
He had a point. The route to the top of Frazer Mountain is an arduous grind on deteriorating double track with an average 9-percent grade. The steepest climb tilts to an absurd 23-percent. Near the top—where the views open up to provide an eagle’s-eye view of Northern New Mexico—the “road” is little more than a grassy path delineated by faint boundaries of rock, the remnants of primitive grading efforts from the good ol’ days.
Nevertheless, there is plenty to keep your mind off the grade. The course is a colorful patchwork of blue columbine, red Indian paint brush, lush greenery and the ubiquitous yellow flowers that dominate Rocky Mountain hillsides this time of year. On the other hand, baby heads and deep ruts scoured by a wetter-than-usual year meant most riders couldn’t spend much time looking at the flowers.
Many racers dismounted and completed the last 100 yards on foot. But not Lewis Gaffney, a local 17-year-old sporting the colors and kit of Team FIT Taos. Gaffney was the first young rider to cross the line in under an hour, and he did it in the saddle.
Truly amazing, however, was the finish some 37 minutes after Gaffney of 11-year-old Haley Ruch, who grimaced as she crossed the checkerboard flags. When asked what would possess someone her age to take part in the madness, she had a simple answer:
“(The race course) is really close to my house and I like to climb,” she said.
The Frazer Mountain Madness is a duo-event race that counts as race numbers eight and nine in the New Mexico Off-Road series. After Saturday’s hill climb, many of the same riders returned on Sunday for a cross country race that combined the first part of the hill climb course with tight singletrack.
New this year, the race also became part of the Alison Dunlap Junior Olympic Mountain Bike Series. The series was created by USA Cycling to provide racing opportunities for aspiring junior mountain bike athletes across the county.
For complete results please visit Frazer Mountain Madness
For additional photos, please visit James Rickman Photography
Race winner Damian Calvert (Sport Systems Mountain Top Cycling) nears the finish line during the 2009 Frazer Mountain Madness hill climb.
Todd Bauer of Albuquerque, N.M., guts it out for third place.
Kyle Shour grimaces with determination while striving for the finish line during the 2009 Frazer Mountain Madness.
Nina Baum seems barely winded as she gets ready to cross the finish line and snag the women’s record for the 2009 Frazer Mountain Madness hill climb.
Theron Hathaway of Gallup, N.M., takes a moment to collect himself after finishing the 2009 Frazer Mountain Madness hill climb.
John Searles of Albuquerque goes for fourth place and a personal best by more than three minutes during the 2009 Frazer Mountain Madness hill climb.
Riders try to finish the 2009 Frazer Mountain Madness by any means necessary.
Getting to the finish line can seem so daunting from below, particularly with the ridge to Wheeler Peak, New Mexico’s highest mountain, just beyond the summit of Frazer Mountain.
Haley Ruch, an 11-year-old Taos Ski Valley resident, is relieved to cross the finish line of the 2009 Frazer Mountain Madness hill climb.
A rider runs with his bike to the finish of the 2009 Frazer Mountain Madness hill climb.
After the hill climb, the little ones got a chance to race in the parking of Taos Ski Valley resort. Here two-year-old Zachary VanDrunen pushes his training wheels to the limit.
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