Sky Tavern Sufferfest - by K. Pearsons

This week’s WCCC race weekend was hosted by the University of Nevada, Reno and was well named the “Sky Tavern Sufferfest.” While it didn’t rain like last weekend, the cold alpine air and roaring wind had riders missing our beautiful West Coast weather yet again. At a starting elevation of over 7500 feet and with 900 ft of gain per lap, cross country racers were seeing snow and feeling the thin air as they tackled the fireroad climbs and sandy singletrack descents. Steven Pearl of Humboldt held onto his top position in Men’s A’s with another first place finish in cross country while his teammate Katelyn Hill took first in Women’s A’s. UNR put in the effort to revamp their already awesome Dual Slalom course from last year by adding some more turns and by including a impressive six foot drop. The upgraded course made for great spectating as host team member Tyler Hansen and UC Santa Cruz’s Zora Thomas flew down the course into first place for Men’s and Women’s A’s. Sunday morning brought more bitter cold wind as riders lined up for short track. The course included a crazily steep and sandy climb which was nothing the Women's short track leader Katelyn Hill couldn’t handle. Men’s A’s short track was won by Will Curtis of UC Santa Cruz. Despite the wind rendering the chairlift to the top of the mountain unusable, over 50 riders tackled the afternoon’s technical downhill courses. Ali Osgood of Humboldt State finished with a comfortable 15 second lead in Women’s A’s and UNR’s own riders swept the Men’s A’s with Casey Coffman in the lead. Next week we head to the coast (and hopefully to milder weather) for Stanford’s race weekend held at Toro Park in Salinas.