This year’s Park City Point 2 Point was a hot one, certainly one of the top 3 hottest event days we’ve seen over the last 14 years. The temperatures crept into the low 90s, and the trails were dry; thankfully, a few weeks prior to race day, we had some rain activity, so the trails were in good condition.
The 2022 event sold out in 30 minutes, seems the Park City trials still have the same allure they’ve always had. Having over 300 miles of singletrack in the area allows us to have 75 unique miles of trail that are getting close to being entirely singletrack! Participants come from everywhere, and some even tackle this course as their first race; hard to find one more challenging as your first…yikes. Twenty-five different states were represented in the field of riders, which equates to nearly 40% residing outside Utah.
Course tweaks this year had returning riders contemplating fueling and hydrations tactics weeks before the event’s start, and for good reason. This year the route meandered up to the new-ish 9K trail, not adding any more climbing or distance but certainly pushing some spicier trail sections on the riders in an already challenging portion of the event. In the end, riders felt the new section was challenging, but they all found it extremely rewarding.
Can you believe Sam Sweetser finished his 14th Point 2 Point? Unless I’m missing something, he is now the only rider to start and finish every version of this race. And not only did he finish, but he did so in 7th place overall at 6:47. The undisputed King of the Point 2 Point.
Our open categories both had winners familiar with the top step at the P2P. The men’s winner was American cycling phenom, Keegan Swenson, just missing dipping under the elusive 6-hour mark at 6:02. And in the female open group, now five-time winner, Evelyn Dong, ripped the course in 7:36. Crystal Anthony kept in close, coming in second at 7:42. At the same time, Lachlan Morton did everything he could to try and get close to Keegan, finishing just 10 minutes off winning pace. A noteworthy point, it was a pleasure to have Todd Wells back racing this year’s event; early in the race, Todd was rolling hot, and it looked as if we might have another photo finish between him and Keegan, like in 2017.
Women’s Open
1. Evelyn Dong
2. Crystal Anthony
3. Chelsea Bolton
4. Brittany Buckley
5. KC Holley
Men’s Open
1. Keegan Swenson
2. Lachlan Morton
3. Kyle Trudeau
4. Todd Wells
5. Truman Glasgow
The 2023 Park City Point 2 Point will be held on September 2nd, 2023. Registration will open on February 15th at 7 PM MST.