Photo gallery from Firecracker 50

Women's Mountain Biking Association of Colorado Springs racer Kennon Roeber dreamed of wearing the Stars and Stripes jersey of a national champion. On the 4th of July, she did just that, winning the Women's Cat 1 30-39 age-group race at the Firecracker 50 in Breckenridge. The race was USA Cycling's Marathon Mountain Bike National Championship.
Roeber was in the saddle for about 5 ½ hours, climbing 10,800 feet, including the brutally steep Little French Gulch, where she had to get off and push. But this was the race she had chosen as her big challenge this year. When she hit the finish line, the aches and pains went away.
"It just feels good to set a goal and reach it,” she said. “It was hard, but on the second (25-mile lap) I was able to get on a guy’s wheel and I was able to make myself hang on.”
Roeber, 30, is a 1998 graduate of Rampart High School. She played Division I soccer at Utah State. But this is only her third year of mountain bike racing.
The WMBA, which started two years ago in Colorado Springs had a big day. When Roeber took the medal stand, she had teammates Kim Baugh (second place) and Tracy Hankinson (third) on either side of her, making it a sweep of the 30-39 age group.
“I didn’t even know I had placed,” Hankinson said. “When they called my name I was standing in line getting a beer.”
Hillary Hienton, a high school teacher in Colorado Springs who also races for the WMBA team, was the silver medalist in the women's single-speed race.
“I’m just glad I finished,” Hienton said. “It was brutal, but it was good for my heart. I’ve never done anything like this before.”
The WMBA’s Stephanie Ward and Betty Turnage won the Maverick Women team title. Mary Hoyle and Eli Krahenbuhl placed second in the Maverick Coed Team division.
Travis Ekenberg of Colorado Springs also captured a gold medal, winning the single-speed men non-championship division.
Other podium finishers from the Pikes Peak area included: Sharon McDowell-Larseon (ProCycling),  third, women 50-plus; Mark Gouge (Justins), second men 50-59;  Chip Stadjuhar, second, Clydesdale.
The Front Rangers team received a great performance from 15-year-old Hunter Reehoorn, a Cheyenne Mountain High School student, who won a bronze medal in the 14-mile Sparkler race. Reehoorn fell out of a tree in May, sustaining a bruised hip and torn muscles. He wasn’t supposed to be recovered in time for the Firecracker 50.
“The goal was to just finish the race,” said his mother, Diana Tilley.
And Dawn Riedel of Colorado Springs placed second in the Beginning Women’s division.
In the pro races, husband and wife duo, Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Boulder, Colo./Subaru-Trek) and Heather Irmiger (Boulder, Colo./Subaru-Trek) successfully defended their titles from 2009 as the first riders in the pro/open categories to cross the line after 50 miles on the grueling course.

Following are the results for the top pros (other results will be posted when they’re made available.
Pro/Open Men
1. Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Boulder, Colo./Subaru-Trek)
2. Sam Schultz (Missoula, Mont./Subaru-Trek)
3. Dave Wiens (Gunnison, Colo./Topeak Ergo)
4. Jeremiah Bishop (Harrisonburg,
Va./Cannondale)
5. Burke Swindlehurst (Salt Lake City,
Utah)

Pro/Open Women
1. Heather Irmiger (Boulder, Colo./Subaru-Trek)
2. Amy Dombroski (Boulder, Colo./Luna)
3. Krista Park (Madison, Wis./Cannondale)
4. Gretchen Reeves (Avon, Colo.)
5. Kelly Boniface (Steamboat Springs,
Colo./Moots Cycles)