Hannah's Ride Journal — Chasing the Podium at Whiskey 50
Words: Hannah Otto @thehannaotto
Photos: Eddie Clark @eddieclarkmedia
THE WHISKY 50 – ALWAYS COMING BACK FOR MORE
In my opinion, the Whiskey 50 is one of the best mountain bike races in the USA. The balance of celebration, intensity, suffering, and fun is a beautiful combination that leaves people relieved and proud to have finished and anxious and excited to come back for more.
I first experienced Whiskey 50 in 2018. It was my senior year of college, and I naively flew out to Prescott one week before graduation thinking I could crush the course. I remember being the only one to raise my hand in the pre-race meeting when they asked, “Who’s actually excited to climb Skull Valley tomorrow?” Skull Valley is about a 40-minute climb marking about the halfway point in the race. I think the next day as I suffered up Skull Valley, I understood why I was the only person who had raised my hand in the meeting. I battled to a 17th place finish that year, I flew back to college the next day and I proceeded to take a week off of the bike because I was so absolutely smoked from such a hard event. And so began my love story with the Whiskey 50. I was hooked. I had to crack the code on this event. I think that’s how most professional athletes are: stubborn. When we discover something that takes us to our limits, we don’t back down, we come back with more armor.
2025 was my 6th time lining up for the Whiskey 50, no longer the naïve college student, but a professional racer who over the years chipped away at this course to eventually secure multiple podium finishes.
FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS
“With experience comes knowledge and understanding, an understanding that the Friday night crit might just be the hardest race day of the season!”
The Friday night Fat Tire Crit is an event all of its own. Any pro racer tackling the backcountry race on Sunday is required to start the crit on Friday night. You have to race the exact same bike on Friday as you do on Sunday, with the exception of tires, so the crit is a whole bunch of mountain bikers, on (mostly) full suspension mountain bikes with slick tires ripping a road circuit for 20 minutes + 3 laps on Friday evening.
The circuit is about a 45 second climb follow by a descent with several corners that ends up taking about 45 seconds to get back down. We do that 13 times until we are all breathing out of our eye balls and our legs are locking up. It really is great fun, and what makes it so fun is the town of Prescott that comes out full force to scream as we suffer up the climb lap after lap.
The streets are lined with fans multiple rows deep and if you want a front row spot you better get there early to watch us warm up. The fans lean out to cheer in our faces, they dangle dollar bills for any racer who isn’t completely cross-eyed to grab, and some even have squirt guns that they pointed at our backs as we stomped up the hill over and over and over. And as I cross the finish line wanting to collapse and dry heaving on the side of the road with fans anxiously peering over to see if they would see me ‘toss my cookies’ I couldn’t help but smugly smile at the fact that even in a ‘fun’ race the energy from the crowd can really push you forward to stretch yourself and push yourself to exhaustion. Kudos to the crowd for pushing me so far.
After taking in 200 mg of caffeine at 4 pm before the 5 pm crit, Friday night is usually a time when I talk Clayton’s ear off all night as he nods his head falling asleep and I’m wide awake still buzzing with excitement from the evening. Thankfully, Saturday is a rest day for us pro athletes as the amateurs warm up the course for us on Sunday.
SUNDAY – SKULL VALLEY AND SINGLE TRACK
When Sunday morning comes, we parade out of town and onto the trails as our pace gradually crescendos and the group explodes as we take the final turn uphill toward the sprint for the singletrack. I entered in the front group, already breathing hard in the high-altitude air. We continue to climb for almost an hour before we get our first descent down to the infamous Skull Valley that broke me several years earlier.
This year it wouldn’t break me, instead it would be the launch pad into my favorite part of the race, the hour plus singletrack back to the finish line. I love the dichotomy of the exposed, sandy, and windy suffer fest of Skull Valley followed up the twisty and technical singletrack into town. It’s exactly what mountain biking should be, a test of willpower and versatility. And a perfect trail to showcase the versatility of the SCOTT Spark, requiring a light and stiff bike to produce power up the climb and an agile and responsive bike to handle the singletrack at speed.
In the twisty trails you can hardly see riders in front or behind and I strained my eyes to look through the trees for any hint of where my competitors might be. With 15 miles to go I felt like I was already in a mad dash for the finish line, but that high intensity and high stress environment just makes the actual finish line so much sweeter as you return to town and can finally relax for the first time in hours.
The fans reach over the railing for high fives all the way down the finish straight, and a hug from Clayton at the finish celebrates a job well done and a 3rd place finish. And…the giant cardboard checks awarded at the awards ceremony certainly don’t hurt either.
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