Big Wheel Racing

Big Wheel Racing Team Member Donnie Cole won the 2007 Sandia Crest Dualathalon riding a Singlespeed bike!  The course consisted of a mountain bike race up the legendary 8.5-mile King-of-the-Mountain trail to the top of the Sandia Crest Ski Area.  Once up on top, the racers changed over to running and loop on the mountain top (all at over 10k elevation), and then the racers returned to descend back down King-of-the-Mountain.  In Donnie’s own words, he wrote;

Saturday morning I lined up at the starting line for the Sandia Peak Challenge duathalon, which consisted of a ride up King-of -the-Mountain, then a change into the running shoes for a 2 mi. run on the service road to the Ellis trail head parking lot and back, change back into the bike shoes and head back down king of the mountain.  I rode my single speed Gunnar with a 19×32 gearing and threw a couple of Honey Stinger gels in my jersey pocket in case my energy level got low. I was second off the line and was able to maintain my position to the top. My Maxxis Cross mark tires hooked up great. The first guy to the top was doing a two person team so that put me in first place for the solo class. Had a good run and an ok descent and finished in 2:06 which was good enough for 1st place overall.  All in all it was a very challenging event. The Sandia Peak Challenge raised $26,000 for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Jeni Turgeon also raced Sandia Crest Mountain Bike race which consisted of just the 8.5-mile King-of-the-Mountain trail and it’s infamous 1700-ft of climbing!  Jeni raced in the Women’s Sport Category and took 4rth place.

Jens Nielsen and Matt Turgeon both raced the Breckenridge 100 on July 22, 2007 in Breckenridge, CO.   Big Wheel Racing team member Jeni crewed for both Matt and Jens.  Matt raced on the Moots Mooto-x SingleSpeed, and won the singlespeed division of the race, and also placed 8th place over all out of 84 contestants for the 100-mile solo race, and Jens placed 11th. 

A description from Cycling News on the course states;

“After five days of thundershowers and inclement weather, race day for the third annual Breckenridge 100 and its little brother the B-63 greeted athletes with cloudless blue skies and only a hint of a breeze. Starting at 6:00 am at the Riverwalk Center in downtown Breckenridge, the racers began their quest to race three distinct cloverleaf style loops among the high alpine terrain of Summit County. Loop one took riders over Wheeler Pass at 12,374 feet and onto the Colorado Trail to traverse the Ten Mile range at 12,500 feet. Total elevation gain for the three loops is 13,010 feet.”

The race included several professional riders, including former US Olympian, and 8 time National Champion Tinker Juarez, and also US Olympian and 2 time National Champion Travis Brown.  The news report from Cycling News can be found here.

Matt rode his KendaKarma 1.9 tires and with the 29-in wheels found those to be perfect for the course on a singlespeed.  Jens, rode tires from Maxxis- another sponsor of Big Wheel Racing -and used his favorite Crossmarks.  The Moots Mooto-x performed flawlesssly for Matt and he believes that the bike performed much better than any other mountain bike that he has ridden.  Both riders used Honey Stinger energy and protein bars, as is the normal for Big Wheel Racing team members.  Both Matt and Jeni and also team member Brad Davis all race on Moots Cycles, a legendary Steamboat Springs, CO bicycle manufacturer.  Jen’s wife Karen even brought along celebratory Santa Fe Brewing beer at the conclusion!  The team members enjoyed the Fiesta IPA special brew.  The support crew and team members also enjoyed wearing the complemetary clothes from Avant Garb in Albuquerque, NM.  Thanks Mark, and thanks to all of our other sponsors for helping the team out!  We truly appreciate your support and have enjoyed representing your company and products!

The Santa Fe Big Friggin Loop, stop number 3 of the grassroots style New Mexico Endurance Series covered nearly 70 miles and 14,000 feet of climbing on steep, remote trails around Santa Fe, NM.54 participants were in the race and 20 finished the grueling course.

Jens Nielsen (Big Wheel Racing) of Albuquerque, NM won the race at 9:09 with John Stevens (Mountain Top Cycling) also of Albuquerque, NM coming in second at 9:19.

Lyra Parker of Durango, CO won the Women’s Division with a finish time of 11:55.

Matt Turgeon (Big Wheel Racing) of Albuquerque took the Singlespeed Divison with a time of 9:30.

Former New Mexico State Governor Gary Johnson (Taos Ski Valley, NM) finished with New Mexico Endurance Racing Legend John Mazzola (Cedar Crest, NM) and Deb Wrenko (Santa Fe, NM) at 15:58 to close out the field of finishers.

13,500 foot of elevation climbing, 155 miles. This is one tough road bike race in Fresno, CA to the top of Kaiser Pass.  Three members of Big Wheel Racing participated - Jeff Hemperly and Matt & Jeni Turgeon.

305 people began the ride, and 255 finished.  Like we said, this is one tough race! 

Matt did very well, placing 9th overall in 9:39 (sub 10 hours!!!).

Jeff, affectionately known as El Freako from Rico, placed 36th at 10:33. Jeff’s friends, Chuck and Keevin, placed 84th and 86th respectively both at 11:55, and Jeni came in 186th place at 14:09.  

Wow, what an effort!  Way to go BWR.

We brought out some Santa Fe Pale Ale for after race celebrations and it was well appreciated.  Jeni and Matt both rode on Maxxis tires, with Jeni on the Courchevals and Mat on his favorite Detonators.  While most of the roads were smooth, some were rough and the tough Maxxis tires made descending seem like we had full control at all times.  Not a flat or even a drop in tire pressure.  Honey Stinger bars, again did the nutrition trick and all 3 of us were kept full of energy through the race by eating the nutrition bars and also honey gels.