S.F. rider 'huge' at nationals

Local mountain biker takes second place at U.S. National Marathon Championship

Jason Auslander | The New Mexican

7/16/2008 - 7/17/08

These are lean times on the professional mountain biking circuit.

Gone are the salad days of a decade ago when bicycle and equipment companies lavished sponsorship dollars on riders. Today, only 10 to 12 men in the United States can actually make a living racing mountain bikes, while many former riders have turned to the more lucrative field of road bike racing to make ends meet, said Santa Fe pro mountain biker Mike McCalla.

But McCalla — who cannot race road bikes professionally because of a back injury and works at a local bike shop to support himself — still dreams of the mountain-biking big-time. And with an impressive second-place finish at the U.S. National Marathon Championship in Breckenridge, Colo., on the Fourth of July, the 30-year-old McCalla just might have earned his shot.

"Yeah, it was a pretty big deal," McCalla admitted in an interview last week. "The top contenders for the Olympic team who didn't make the team were there."

Frank Sotomayor, owner of Frankie Flats Bicycle Repair in Santa Fe, seconded that assessment.

"It's pretty huge," Sotomayor said. "There were the cream-of-the-crop riders at that race and he was able to beat most of them. And he crashed three times and still came in second. That's pretty impressive."

Though the race was undoubtedly a big deal, McCalla received another reminder of just how far the fortunes of professional mountain biking have fallen when he tried to deposit the $250 check he received for his silver finish in Breckenridge. It bounced.

"I just found out about it and I was like, 'Are you kidding me?' " he said.

The U.S. National Marathon Championship — also known as the Firecracker 50 — consisted of two laps on a 25-mile course described in a usacycling.com account of the race as "dry" and "rocky" and responsible for a "slew of flats and (mechanical problems)." The problems forced several pre-race favorites and numerous competitors out of the race, according to McCalla and the account of the race.

The winner of the race, Jeremiah Bishop of Harrisonburg, Va., broke his chain twice and snapped three spokes. Evan Plews, another rider who was in second place, suffered a flat tire on the final, steep descent, which allowed McCalla to pass him and take second. McCalla finished the 50-mile course in 3 hours, 50 minutes and 48 seconds — 1:10 behind Bishop, according to the account of the race.

"I had three crashes or I might have won that race," said McCalla, who was sporting scabs and gashes on all four limbs last week. "Mountain bike racing is notoriously difficult on equipment. I definitely had some luck."

By comparison, the winner of the women's elite division, Sari Anderson of Glenwood Springs, Colo., finished the course in 4 hours, 29 minutes, 12 seconds.

McCalla said the race featured more Jeep road — as opposed to single-track — than some courses, but it still crammed in plenty of climbing. The course started at 9,600 feet and climbed as high as 11,500, meaning McCalla and the other riders had completed approximately 10,800 feet of climbing by the end of the 50 miles, he said.

Despite the fact that he finished fourth in the race in 2005 and sixth last year, McCalla said he was "quite surprised" about his finish, his best result in a 16-year, on-again, off-again racing career,

"I was hoping I had it in me," he said. "It was the best race I've ever had."

Sotomayor, however, said he was not surprised at McCalla's finish.

"Like I told him (before the race), you just never know what's going to happen on any given day," Sotomayor said.
"He has just as much fitness as those other guys."

Now, McCalla — who grew up in Los Alamos — said he thinks he might be able to get the attention of sponsors and has even received a phone call or two out of the blue from companies who noticed his finish. At 30, he admitted he has only a "slight chance" of quitting his mechanic job at New Mexico Bike 'N Sport bicycle shop in Santa Fe and making a living as a professional mountain biker — and even then, probably only for a year or two.

"It would be incredible to make money at it," McCalla said. "The question is how hard are you willing to work to drum-up sponsors."

And when his racing days are over, McCalla said he'll likely fall back on his bachelor's degree in music education and his master's degree in vocal performance — both from the University of Colorado — to make a living.

"I find balance through alteration of extremes," he said.

Contact Jason Auslander at 986-3076 or :jauslander@sfnewmexican.com.