Fastest bikes at Vail GoPro Mountain Games
With the stages primarily consisting of buff singletrack, Ott opted for a slightly more efficient bike setup than usual.
Last weekend saw a bevy of racing action at the GoPro Mountain Games in Vail, Colorado. Friday it was the Big Mountain Enduro, which was won by Marco Osborne and Cooper Ott respectively. The following day cross country took over on Vail Mountain, with current US National XC champs Howard Grotts and Erin Huck ruling the day. Scroll down to learn more about the bikes that carried these four riders to victory in this photo gallery by Eddie Clark.
Ott chose her Trek Fuel Fuel EX 29er, which has less travel and is about 2 pounds lighter than her normal Trek Slash 29er enduro race bike.
The carbon Fuel EX features 130mm of rear Fox EVOL air-sprung travel combined with a 140mm Manitou Magnum pro up front and a Bontrager 150mm dropper post.
Ott’s drivetrain is built with SRAM XO cassette/derailleur and RaceFace Next SL 170mm cranks mated to a 34 tooth chainring.
Wheels were carbon Bontrager Line 30 wheels mated to Bontrager SE4 2.3” at 23psi with a Huck Norris anti-flat insert in the rear, and a Bontrager SE5 2.3” at 21psi up front.
Pedals are Shimano XTR.
Bontrager gets the call for cockpit duty.
Since he wasn’t familiar with the terrain, Osborne ran his standard EWS race bike, the Cannondale Jekyll.
Osborne’s Jekyll features an 180mm travel Fox 36 up front and the Cannondale specific Hustle and Flow equipped Fox Float shock in the back that can be run in either a 130mm or 160mm travel mode.
For tires Osborne ran the WTB Vigilante 2.3” at 24psi in the front and a WTB Trail Boss 2.25” with 29psi, and both ran on WTB I25 rims mated to White Industries hubs.
Ready for anything.
Brakes are full Shimano Saint, and the drivetrain is a Shimano based XTR 11-speed rear derailleur mated to an 11-46 XT cassette with a 34 tooth Wolf Tooth Chainring mounted on 175mm Cannondale SL cranks with Shimano XTR Trail pedals.
Nice tribute to Will Olson.
Saddle by WTB. Fox Transfer get the dropper nod.
A little anti-slip protection.
Just days before the race, Erin Huck had her race bike stolen, which meant she had to build up and test ride a new Cannondale Scalpel Si 29 that was overnighted to her the day before the race.
Huck ran Stans NoTubes Valor wheels with the same Maxxis 2.25” prototype 170tpi Aspens that she won the Outlier XC at Vail on last fall.
Huck’s Scalpel Si features 100mm of front and rear travel via a RockShox Monarch in the rear and a Cannondale Lefty Carbon XLR up front.
Drivetrain is SRAM based with a XX1 12-speed 10-50 cassette mated to Cannondale Stages power meter equipped Si cranks.
Brakes were SRAM Level ULT to round out a mostly stock bike build.
Crankbrothers get the nod for pedals.
Grotts relied on his proven S-Works Epic 29” full suspension with 95mm of Fox suspension in the rear and a 100mm RockShox Sid up front.
His drivetrain was SRAM Eagle with a 36 tooth chainring and 10-50 cassette with SRAM XX1 175mm cranks and Xpedo pedals.
For brakes he uses the Magura MT8 system.
For Vail, Grotts chose the Specialized Fast Trax 2.3” Grid sidewall tires at 19 psi (front and rear) mounted on carbon Roval Control wheels to ward off flats and to maintain extra traction on the fast downhills.
Of particular note, his bike has Ceramic Speed bearings in all the suspension pivots and bottom bracket, but the jockey pulley bearings are reserved for the bigger World Cup class races.
Always be prepared.
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