2010 Lock 4 Six Hour Wrap Up

On one of the last warm days of the fall, 153 mountain bike riders challenged themselves to Six hours of trail riding at Lock 4 Park. A USA Cycling Sanctioned event, riders gathered on the picturesque lake surrounded peninsula. Music was played from the center stage, while BBQ and race food was served from the local trail building association. Riders set up pits in Pit row and raced laps around the 9 miles track through the lakeshore woods. For the start of the race, riders did a le mans style start by doing a 100 yd dash by foot to get on their bikes. Off they went, trying to keep a cool head from the excitement, knowing they were about to race 6 hours.

$1500 was up for grabs for the Solo Expert and Single Speed Classes. The Men’s Solo expert class was challenged by 13 racers. Four riders broke away with a steady pace, and it took until lap 7 for Tanner Hurst to finally break free of his last rival Tim Baker. Setting a new course record, Tanner racked up 8 laps for 72 miles in 6 hours at Lock 4.

The women’s field was a party of 5. Like the men, 4 stayed together most of the way, until lap 4, where Laureen Colfelt, from Memphis made her move and pulled away from her contenders convincingly. Laureen races endurance races around the country and is currently ranked third in the nation.

Laureen Colfelt

The largest class of the day was the 2 man relay. 19 teams showed up to go for $750 in prizes. Leading the way from the start it was the Bikers Choice Duo team of Matt Schupp and Craig Evans. Their formula was 2 laps each twice, then 1 lap each twice, and then Craig throwing in an extra lap, to set a new duo team course record for 9 laps for a team. Craig also set a new course record for fastest single lap at 37:20.

The riders’ comments were plentiful about how the trail was awesome, and about how the race was extremely hard. There were husband/wife teams, father son teams and plenty of good friends’ teams. There was one good crash for the day, and thanks to Sumner EMS for being right there to help. Thanks to the Sumner County Department of Tourism, Bikers Choice, Package Solutions, LLC, The City Of Gallatin, Sumner Regional Hospital, Specialized Bicycles, Dillingham and Smith, Trek Bicycles, B.F.Meyers and Hooters Rivergate for their support.