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Special Sunday Edition – The Pagosa Quad, New Mexico Shines!

After a day of snow, Saturday began clear and 10 degree cold at the West Fork Ski Trail.

Clay Moseley of Los Alamos won the solo division (10k skate) overall leading from the start in the skate race. He said he worked pretty hard on the run to make some time on Steve Ilg of Durango who was racing as part of a relay and started with a 5k classic ski. After the run Clay took it somewhat easier on the bike to avoid any injuries having not biked much during ski season. Steve Ilg had great ski and run legs handing off to his teammate Randy Stueve of Durango for the bike and swim. Randy left everyone in the dust during the bike leg to hold the win for the team division.

Sanna Sevanto of Los Alamos was leading the women’s race well into the bike leg when she finally got caught by Molly Hummel of Durango, a long time cycling pro who has turned triathlon pro in the last 5 years as well. Molly killed on the bike for the win but Sanna held on for 2nd. Lynn Bjorklund of Los Alamos (who holds multiple women’s running records, including female course record for Pikes Peak Marathon) finished a strong 3rd in the women in her first multisport event which she had to take swim lessons for (they clearly paid off!!).

The women’s winning relay was made up of a fast Pagosan, Emily Dietz, for the frigid run/bike legs and Dina Pesenson of Los Alamos for the ski/swim legs. Last year’s women’s winner and local, Chantelle Kay, had a strong 4th place finish in the ladies despite the whole new level of competition this year with more participants.

The temperatures at race start were around 8 F requiring some creative dressing especially for the bike leg. After the event most participants agreed they fared much better on the bike than expected, with only some cold toes at the end of the bike ride, which were nicely remedied by the hot springs pool finish and post-race soaking.

Huge thanks to Pagosa Nordic and friends for putting this on!! As you can imagine, this was a very work intensive event for volunteers and organizers, distributing and picking up gear from all transitions, shuttling racers etc. They were all amazing sports and clearly enjoyed themselves – what a great bunch of people! As with all low-key events like this one, the volunteers outnumbered participants and the sense of community and everyone having a blast, just could not be beat. It was great to see many folks coming out to this event from Durango, Chama and surrounding area.

It’s definitely a great event to start your season with to remind yourself what multisport is all about!