Close to 150 competitors are expected for the fifth annual Rolling Thunder cyclocross bike race Saturday in Missoula.
Promoter Shaun Radley has assembled a quality cast of riders for the single-day event, which gets going at 11:30 a.m. with the junior boys' and girls' race. Nine more races will take to the course, which runs in and around Lindborg-Cregg Field off Tower Street.
When Radley and his organizers first started Rolling Thunder in 2006 they got 98 riders to sign up. Last year there were 126 competitors.
"We're really excited. I know I'm super pumped," Radley said. "It started out as a fundraiser for the University of Montana cycling team, then I graduated and it's grown into something bigger. I'm super proud of it."
The event is free to the public; riders, though, must pay ($25 day-of registration). First-timer races for men and women are scheduled for immediately after the junior races. All race registration begins at 9 a.m.
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Most of the top-tiered riders won't compete until later in the day. The men's category 1/2 race is slated for 8 p.m. That one features two-time defending champion Sam Schultz, a professional mountain bike racer from Missoula. Schultz, 24, missed the first two Rolling Thunder events, but he's made up for it in recent years.
"It'd be easy for him to say I'm a pro and not care about the local scene, but he really does care," Radley said. "He's one of the reasons it's taken off."
Radley called Schultz "The future of the sport in America." He narrowly missed making the 2008 U.S. Olympic mountain biking team. Schultz believes he is just one of the many good, local riders who's competing this weekend.
That list includes John Curry of Bozeman, Missoulians Jesse Doll, Kiefer Hahn, Toby Meierbachtol and Doug Shryock, and Andy Schultz, Sam's older brother, who's flying in from Durango, Colo.
"He'll definitely be going for it. He's a pro mountain biker, too," Sam Schultz said. "Kiefer Hahn, man, you can never count out the two-time winner of the Missoula Marathon. People know who that guy is. And Doug Shryock, he's one of the gnarliest guys around."
Cyclocross combines aspects of mountain bike racing and its hill climbs and barriers to cross with road racing and its stretches of sprinting and sharp turns on pavement. The men's final is scheduled to last one hour, which is about 11 laps around the course, Radley said. The top women will do 10 laps.
Spectators are free to view the competition from anywhere along the course, although the beer tent has been a popular stop in past years.
"I would recommend checking out the whole course, find your favorite spot," Schultz said. "Drinks will be close at hand no matter where you go. I'd also look for one of the run-ups or barriers or something technical like a jump. I'm sure people will find their favorites after wandering around throughout the day."
