A handful of racers from five states conquered the Inaugural Red Rock 200 Bike Race on May 16, 2009. The Red Rock 200 follows a course starting in St. George, and traveling through Ivins, Kayenta, Gunlock, Veyo, Enterprise, Newcastle, Cedar City and back via Snow Canyon State Park. While testing their mettle for 200 miles with 10,400' feet of climbing, racers enjoyed the incredible scenery of Southern Utah.

It was a particularly challenging day of racing. The winds came up before dawn, and howled in the faces of riders for the entire first half of the race, which is heavily front-loaded with climbing. In the late afternoon, temperatures were in the high 90s, low 100s. Fortunately, the last half of the race has only 25% or so of the total climbing; so while it was hot, at least it was mostly downhill.

Mark Larsen of St. George, Utah, won the day and set the course record at 11 hours 8 minutes. For much of the day, Mark rode with Candon Sevey, Wayne Smith and Robert Verhaaren from Mesa, Arizona. In Newcastle the group was asked if they planned to ride together all day; and the answer was yes - until they learned that the Red Rock does not allow sprint finishes. If the race ends in a tie, the winner is crowned based on who in the group is the most senior racer. Perhaps Mark, who was indeed the eldest of the four (not by much) didn't want to win that way -- so after Cedar City he jumped off the front and never looked back. He held them off with a five minute edge.

Kudos to Ellen Guthrie who took the women's division with an impressive time of 12 hours 6 minutes - the third best time of the day. She crossed the finish line with four fine men: Colt Albrecht, Jason Hafen and Scott Smith (3 out of 4 of the 2007 Hoodoo 500 4-Man Relay Champions) and Dave Elsberry.

Jim Auwen (2008 Hoodoo 500 solo finisher), Ed Botrell and Elizabeth Tenuto followed as the final three Official Finishers.

Champion Mark Larsen received a personalized trophy engraved with his name and finishing time. Everyone at the post-race celebration won prizes from Hammer Nutrition, Detours Bags, Koobi Bike Saddles and Planet Ultra.

Special thanks to the St. George Area Sports and Events Commission and the St. George Area Convention and Visitors Bureau for their generous support of the Red Rock 200; and to Hammer Nutrition for providing excellent nutrition for our support stations as well as goodie bag schwag for all racers! We appreciate the hospitality of the Best Western Abbey Inn where we hosted the start/finish, and the Temple View RV Park where we hosted the post-race party.

Heartfelt thanks to the wonderful Red Rock 200 Staff: Andy McArthur (for whom this race was created, and who we expect to see out there racing solo in 2010), his family, Marsjon, Alia, James, Jake and Sami, and his brother, Jim McArthur with Jim's son, Kayden; and your hosts Deborah & Brian Bowling.

To view photos of the race and the spectacular scenery along the route, click here.

We’re already looking forward to the next Red Rock 200, taking place in May 2010! Join us! And spread the word about this new and exciting event!

Solos:

*Unofficial Finish: Time limit for solos is 14 hours.

Relay Teams:

*Unofficial Finish: Time limit for 2-person relay teams is 13 hours.