Rebecca’s Private Idaho has delivered its eleventh year of gravel racing, with Sarah Max and Griffin Easter sweeping up overall victory in the women’s and men’s categories of the event’s Queen’s Stage Race. They both won the first two stages and then held onto enough points by making the podium in the final headline event.
It is the eleventh year of the long-running Sun Valley gravel event in Idaho – spearheaded by powerful gravel force Rebecca Rusch – with the initial gravel race in 2013 having evolved to include the Queen’s Stage Race. The event is made up of three timed stages run over four days, from Thursday August 31 to Sunday September 3.
Max, sitting in 12th in the Life Time Grand Prix series, was embroiled in a tight battle for overall honours with Cecily Decker, who has added gravel racing to her skiing in recent years. Decker ultimately took second overall with Ami Stuart third in the women’s category. The men’s overall couldn’t have come down to a finer margin with Michael van den Ham and Alex Howes both pushing overall leader Easter hard in the final stage, a 103 mile long gravel race. Though third place in the final stage was still just enough to claim overall victory.
“A battle to the end,” said Easter in an Instagram post. “Hung on for the overall GC. The past two years I made my move in the “El Diablito” section and solo’d to the line. This year was NOT the same. Michael van den Ham and Alex Howes made this edition of Rebecca’s Private Idaho a tactical chess match each of the three stages. A big cheers to you both for making the race a true race.”
The three stages of the Queen’s Stage Race covered 186 miles with 10,646 feet of altitude gain, starting with a tough 35 mile course on Thursday, a timed hill climb on Saturday and on Sunday a gravel race which is the headline event of Rebecca’s Private Idaho. To find out how each of the three timed stages of the Queen’s Stage Race played out read on and don’t forget to scroll through the galleries too.
Stage 1 – The Harriman Trail
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- 35.2 miles
- 2,584 feet of elevation
- Single and double-track
Starting and finishing at the Baker Creek Parking lot, the tough single track, hike-a-bike section and chunky gravel made this a stage one that race organisers described as ‘arguably the most challenging’.
It was a tight victory for Easter on the opening day of competition, taking top points as he finished just a second ahead of Van den Ham on the timed segments. Howes came third, delivering a podium that would look familiar when the overall standings were tallied on Sunday. In the women’s category Max, on the other hand, carved out a clear victory, with Decker finishing second while it was Amity Rockwell who slotted into third place.
Stage 2 – Dollarhide Hill Climb
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- 50 miles
- 3309 feet
- 4.5 miles timed
The ride which started and finished at the Limelight Hotel may have been 50 miles long, but much of the stage, with its early pavement giving way to gravel roads, was not timed but had to be ridden to deliver a result regardless. It was at the base of the Dollarhide at 20 miles in that the individual time trial began, with riders setting off 30 seconds apart as they took on the timed 4.5 mile steady climb to the summit at nearly 8,700 feet.
Max and Easter again took top points in the second stage, both claiming victory with a margin of around 30 seconds. It was a near repeat podium, with Easter, Van den Ham and Howes on the men’s steps and Decker joining Max on the women’s podium, except this time it was Ami Stuart who made it to the third step.
Stage 3 – The headline event of the Queen’s Stage Race
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- 103 miles
- 6,208 feet
- The mother of all stages
There is no doubt this was the main event, with stage 3 taking on the original route of Rebecca’s Private Idaho as it set off from Festival Meadows in the Sun Valley and swept through the backcountry of Salmon Challis National Forest. There was some rain, which made for tacky roads and mud spattered riders and bikes.
In the women’s race Max and Decker didn’t let each other out of sight for nearly 100 miles but an attack on the final downhill helped the skier claim the final stage in 5:33:49. A chasing Max came over the line second, which after her two stage victories was enough to claim the overall stage race win. It was again Stuart who took the third podium step.
In the men’s category Van den Ham won the tightest of sprints for the line with Howes. He claimed victory in the final stage after five hours, five minutes and 31 seconds of racing. Easter came over the line third to win a tight battle for the overall Queen’s Stage Race, as it left him with an advantage of just one point on Van den Ham. Sam Hansen wrapped up the non-binary category while Thiago Costa won the Para Male-Upright category.
The riders – some who were racing over the three stages and others just for the day – continued to roll over the line for hours to come, with the last spending nine hours out on course.
“I truly believe you grow when you do something hard and you bond when you do it with other people around you,” said Rusch in a statement. “Watching the new connections develop and old friends who only see each other here once a year reconnect means more to me than any podium I have been on. Cycling can change the world, and this is an example of that.”
| Position | Rider | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Griffin Easter | 1481 |
| 2 | Michael van den Ham | 1480 |
| 3 | AlexHowes | 1452 |
| 4 | John Vanderveen | 1408 |
| 5 | Carl Decker | 1377 |
| Position | Rider | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sarah Max | 1490 |
| 2 | Cecily Decker | 1480 |
| 3 | Ami Stuart | 1434 |
| 4 | Amity Rockwell | 1417 |
| 5 | Megan Florizone | 1392 |
