2012 Park City Point to Point Preview

We are five days out from the 2012 Park City Point to Point and the final course has been posted for a few days now on SkidMap.  Unfortunately, I didn't get down to Park City to pre-ride this year but I am pretty familiar with much of the course.  

I loaded the 2012 course (Yellow) into Topofusion along with the 2011 course (Red) so that I could easily see the differences.  Where the yellow track overlaps the red track, the course is the same as last year.  The sections where you can see only yellow indicate the changes for 2012.  There are three main sections of the route where there are changes this year and I have separated them below.

Round Valley:  It looks like the change adds a fuzz more distance to this section but I have no idea how the change will affect the race flow.  Will there be more room to pass?

Round Valley

Deer Valley:  Our time riding around the "Practice Loops" has been reduced from 2011.  The biggest change is the way we get up to Bow Hunter after leaving Deer Valley.  I am a fan of the new route because we aren't climbing up a "downhill" trail against the grain.  Plus, I like the beginning of the Mid Mtn Trail near Deer Valley and the Team Big Bear climb.  I haven't seen the new Boulder Trail yet but I have heard that it is rocky (It's probably called Boulder for a reason).  We will be descending the Boulder Trail in the race.

Deer Valley

Park City:  After refueling at the base in Park City, we will climb a slightly different route to get to Rob's Trail.  We will take Spiro / HAM (New Trail) / Armstrong to the Mid-Mountain Trail.  Being a new trail, it will probably be rocky like the new section of Mid Mountain Trail was last year.  By this point in the race, you may be wishing you had brought a 5" travel trail bike instead of your carbon go-fast bike.  This "looks" like less distance and a little less climbing than last year's route.

Park City

If you have a mapping GPS, bring it and use it.  The PCPP crew does a great job of marking the course but on more than one occasion the Park City locals have removed/sabotaged the course markings at mountain bike events.  Good call using spray chalk vs. pin flags guys!  I will have my Garmin loaded and plan to glance down occasionally just to make sure I am on track.  Nothing kills your race mojo like going off-course so do what you can to prevent it.

See you in Park City!