Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — It's baaaack.

The Steamboat Springs Town Challenge Mountain Bike Race series will return to action this week with the fourth race of the season.

The Sunshine cross country race will be held Wednesday at the Steamboat Ski Area.

The event will include five different race courses set up for each individual class. The Sunshine loop or long course will challenge the expert, sport and sport veteran men's groups.

The sport master men, women's expert and women sport will head out onto the gondola loop. This course will also be used for the novice men and junior class for racers between 13 and 17 years of age.

The women's novice will will tackle the Yoo Hoo loop, and the Short Cut loop will be used for the junior class for racers 10 to 12 years of age.

The final race group will compete on the Preview loop. This race will be for riders 9 years old and younger.

Each race category will start at 1 minute intervals to spread out the riders. Course descriptions are available at the Parks and Recreational Services offices or at the Sore Saddle cyclery. Riders can preregister at the Parks and Rec. office by noon Wednesday or at the race start at the bottom of the Gondola between 5 p.m. and 5:45 p.m. The race will start at 6 p.m.

It's four races into the 2000 season, but the standings are still very unsettled.

In the expert class, Doug Demusz shuffled into the top spot in the last race. Marc Sehler is leading Dan Chovan by one point in the men's masters and Brian Hannon is a new leader in the men's veteran class.

There is also a new leader of the

Women's Expert class as Sarah Fisher moved into the top spot after the last race. The post race party is open to all and will be held at Boomerangs following the completion of the race.

To reach John F. Russell call 871-4209 or e-mail him at jrussell@amigo.net