BRECKENRIDGE — With a drove of donkeys awaiting riders at the finish line at the Country Boy Mine, it's pretty safe to say Wednesday's Gold Run Rush was a unique mountain bike race.

But it wasn't the mine or the mules that riders were talking about afterward. Because of all the things that separated this race from the rest of the season's Summit Mountain Challenge, the first that came to everyone's mind was Heinous Hill.

“I like the single track, but Heinous makes the race,” Pro/Elite racer Kevin Kane said of the steep climb in the middle of the course, which the upper divisions had to scale twice. “Otherwise it would just be another SMC race, but Heinous makes it unique and so brutal.”

It didn't appear too brutal for Kane, who crossed the finish line more than a minute ahead of his nearest competitor with a time of 1:13:09.

“Doing the double Heinous was awesome,” Kane added. “I was looking forward to that. ... I love that course, it's my favorite.”

In all, 26 divisions competed on the course — which traveled the trails of Breckenridge's French Gulch — in the SMC's third race of the summer.

Similar to Kane, the winner of the top women's division, Monique Merrill, also had nothing but praise for the course.

“It's in really good shape because of the light rain,” Merrill said after winning the Expert Women division. “ ... Sometimes it can be pretty bumpy, but it was really nice.”

Merrill, a renowned adventure race competitor, also applauded race director Jeff Westcott and the rest of his crew for their work marking the tricky course.

“I've done a lot of races, and it's really easy to get lost,” she said. “I'd be surprised if anyone got lost today.”

In the singlespeed division, Mark Thompson finished at the top, beating out Kevin Dixon by a little more than a minute. Other than Heinous Hill, which he described as “fun,” Thompson felt a great aspect of the race was the weather, or rather the way the weather held off. Thunderclouds hovered over the Tenmile Range nearly the entire race, but competitors never felt more than a few rain drops.

“The lightning was pretty scary when you're up there (on Heinous), but luckily the rain kind of held off until the end,” Thompson said.

Merrill said that rain is kind of a non-issue in these type of races, anyway.

“It was nice it held off, but you don't really notice it when you're out there. You're just noticing the big rocks in front of you,” she said with a laugh.

Some other division winners were Suzanne Auer (Beginner Women), Langston McDowell (Beginner Men 19-34), Hugh Mackey (Beginner Men 35+), Aubrey Arago (Sport Women 19-34), Andrea Valdez (Sport Women 35-44), Kathleen Jenkins (Sport Women 45+), Bryan Emery (Sport Men 19-29), Alex Prax (Sport Men 30-39), Eric Black (Sport Men 40-49), Dan McCrerey (Sport Men 50+), Greg Exline (Clydesdale), Holly Wade (Expert Women 35+), Urba Stanlav (Expert Men 19-34), David Overstreet (Expert Men 35-44) and Richard Knapp (Expert Men 45+).

Breck's Carley Grimes also had a good race, especially considering it was only the second of her career. She finished second to Arago in the Sport Women 19-34.

“It's fun but a lot more work than I expected,” she said at the finish.

And how was Heinous Hill?

“That hill is so hard,” she said. “It's only about a mile but it feels like 5 miles.”

Bryce Evans can be reached at (970) 668-4634 or at bevans@summitdaily.com.