Wilderness 101 Mountain Bicycle Race
Encyclopedia
Marathon mountain bike races
Marathon mountain bike races, often referred to as cross country marathon , are a very demanding form of mountain bike races covering at least 40 kilometers usually in mountainous terrain. Events held in Europe are typically just a little longer than the average cross country mountain bike race...
101 mile (162 km) mountain bike race
Mountain bike racing
The Union Cycliste Internationale recognised the sport of mountain bike racing relatively late in 1990, when it sanctioned the world championships in Purgatory, Colorado. The first mountain biking world cup series took place in 1991. Its nine-race circuit covered two continents—Europe and North...
held annually in late July. The race starts and ends in Coburn, Pennsylvania
Coburn, Pennsylvania
Coburn is a census-designated place in Centre County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. The course is a single loop covering roads, forest roads and trails. The total climbing in the race is approximately 12,000 feet (3,658 meters.) The majority of the course is within the Bald Eagle
Bald Eagle State Forest
Bald Eagle State Forest is a Pennsylvania state forest in Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry District #7. The main office is located in Laurelton in Union County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The forest is found in Centre, Clinton, Mifflin, Snyder, and Union Counties...
and Rothrock
Rothrock State Forest
Rothrock State Forest is a Pennsylvania state forest in Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry District #5. The main offices are located in Huntingdon in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania in the United States....
Pennsylvania State Forests. The event is organized and run primarily by Shenandoah Mountain Touring (located in Harrisonburg, VA) and has been one of the stops of the National Ultra Endurance Series
National Ultra Endurance Series
The National Ultra Endurance Series is an ultra-endurance mountain bike race series in the United States. The series is eight stops around the country; each approximately 100 miles off road...
since 2006.
History
The Wilderness 101 was first held in 1991. The same organization held the race again in 1992 and 1993 and then unfortunately stopped holding the race. In 2001 an unrelated company specializing in organizing bike tours and races, Shenandoah Mountain Touring from Harrisburg, VA, re-established the race. This organization has now held the race eleven times from 2001-2011. This organization plans to hold the event for the foreseeable future as the popularity of the event continues to increase.The 1991–1993 race courses were primarily fire-roads and roads. One year even included a short section along the margin of a highway. The 2001 and later race courses contain substantially more trails and degraded fire-roads. Each year the organizer tries to add more trails (single-track and double-track) as new trails are opened or their condition improved. Even when new trails are not included, the course often has to be changed to avoid areas closed by forestry operations, changing trail conditions or due to requests of the managing agencies.
The inaugural winner of the 1991 race was Harry Winard with a time of 6:59. He was a Penn State student at the time and according to an interview in the Oct 1991 Dirt Rag, only decided to race the event the week before. Harry won the race on a Bridgestone
Bridgestone
The is a multinational rubber conglomerate founded in 1931 by in the city of Kurume, Fukuoka, Japan. The name Bridgestone comes from a calque translation and transposition of ishibashi, meaning "stone bridge" in Japanese....
MB-0 mountain bike with very narrow and smooth tires (1.5"
Avocet Cross) and a set triathlon aero bars. The modern courses with more trails and rougher trails would reduce the chance of someone winning on such a bicycle. These changes also prohibit comparing the finishing times from the earlier events to the current events.
Little is known about the 1992 race beyond the name of the winner, Allistair Neil. As with the 1991 and 1993 event, it is unknown if any women started or finished the 1992 race. John Stamstad
John Stamstad
John Stamstad is a member of the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. He was famous for his domination of long distance mountain bike races. He entered his first long distance road bike race in 1985. The non-stop race was across Missouri from St. Louis to Kansas City and back...
, a famous pioneer in endurance and ultra-endurance mountain bike events, won the 1993 race. In these early editions of the race, each finisher was given a t-shirt after finishing that listed their placing and finish time in felt iron-on letters and numbers.
Jay Duff won the first of the re-established event in 2001. His finishing time of 7:07 cannot be compared to the times of the 2002 and later events as a significantly larger amount of new challenging single-track sections were added. In 2011 new record finishing times were set for both men and women. Four time winner Jeff Schalk finished in 6:26 and Vicki Barclay finished in 7:42.
Results
| Year | Starters | Finishers | Male Winner | Time | Female Winner | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | 364 | 314 | Jeff Schalk Jeff Schalk Jeff Schalk is a professional mountain bike racer. He put his career as a structural engineer on hold in 2006, moving to Washington, D.C. to pursue racing full time with the Trek Volkswagen East Coast factory team... |
6:26 | Vicki Barclay | 7:42 |
| 2010 | 298 | 273 | Jeff Schalk | 6:34 | Cheryl Sornson | 8:06 |
| 2009 | 325 | 281 | Jeff Schalk | 6:58 | Pua Sawicki | 7:44 |
| 2008 | 287 | 243 | Jeff Schalk | 6:41 | Cheryl Sornson | 8:37 |
| 2007 | 177 | 127 | Jeremiah Bishop Jeremiah Bishop Jeremiah Bishop is a professional mountain bike racer from the United States. He primarily competes in the Olympic discipline event of cross-country cycling.... |
6:52 | Betsy Shogren | 8:36 |
| 2006 | 278 | 218 | Harlan Price | 7:33 | Betsy Shogren | 9:28 |
| 2005 | 229 | 207 | Chris Eatough Chris Eatough Chris Eatough is a mountain bike racer, part of the Trek Racing Cooperative team. He is a six-time 24-hour solo World Cup champion and five-time 24-hour solo National Cup champion.-Career:... |
6:59 | Tiffany Mann | 9:14 |
| 2004 | 208 | 194 | Chris Eatough | 7:10 | Tiffany Mann | 9:23 |
| 2003 | 167 | 145 | Chris Eatough | 7:04 | Lee Schwarz | 9:23 |
| 2002 | 101 | 91 | Mike Keefer | 7:23 | Tiffany Mann | 9:40 |
| 2001 | 61 | 56 | Jay Duffy | 7:07 | Sue George | 9:27 |
| 1993 | John Stamstad John Stamstad John Stamstad is a member of the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame. He was famous for his domination of long distance mountain bike races. He entered his first long distance road bike race in 1985. The non-stop race was across Missouri from St. Louis to Kansas City and back... |
unknown | ||||
| 1992 | Allistair Neil | 7:14 | unknown | |||
| 1991 | Harry Winard | 6:59 | unknown |