Maddie Lindley/Courtesy photo
A pair of Vail Health co-workers finished first and second at the Life Time Silver Rush 50 MTB last Saturday in Leadville. Surgical services administrative team member Haley Dumke rode to gold, completing the out-and-back mining district course in 4 hours, 38 minutes and 21 seconds. Coworker Ingrid Stensvaag, a nurse in the surgery center, placed second in 4:52:28.
“Must be something about Minturn and surgical services,” Dumke said. While the two neighbors aren’t regularly gathered around the same water cooler at Vail Health, word spread quickly regarding their feat.
“All of my co-workers thought it was pretty wild we went 1-2,” Stensvaag stated.
Dumke’s dream finish capped off a wild race which contained every cyclists’ worst nightmares. In the first mile, the 31-year-old missed a corner and crashed, destroying her Garmin GPS. With blood streaming down her right arm and leg, Dumke remounted her bike and refocused her reliance from rigid statistics to an internal awareness of her fitness and limits.
“That was hard for me for sure. I was in disbelief when I fell,” she said. “And then I just changed to, ‘I know myself better than data would show, so I’ll just go off of how I’m feeling.’”
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Dumke latched onto the lead group of men as the single-file parade flew up Iowa Gulch on a dusty double track. Under the shadows of Mt. Sherman, the course widened, allowing Dumke to leapfrog different groups. With every pedal stroke, she widening her lead over Stensvaag in second.
The gap was two minutes, 18 seconds at the 14.5-mile checkpoint and almost a full seven minutes at the turnaround. But even with most of the course’s 7,500 feet of climbing completed, Dumke didn’t feel like she had it in the bag.
“You can’t really rely on what the midpoint looks like,” she said. “You think, I got to take advantage of every point in this course that I can. You definitely ride those descents faster than you ever would let yourself if you were just riding any other day.”
The decision to use a full-suspension bike this year — instead of the hardtail she employed in her fourth-place finish in 2023 — paid off on the downhills.
“I could pull a little more out of the descents this year, for sure,” she said.
As Stensvaag approached the turnaround, she cheered on Dumke, who was flying by in the lead.
“I was surprised I wasn’t too far behind her,” Stensvaag said. “It was hard to identify other women out there, so the rest of the race I just rode like someone was about to catch me.”
With less than 10 miles remaining, disaster struck again for Dumke. Multiple front-tire punctures forced her to the side of the trail. Not knowing the precise magnitude of her lead, Dumke frantically fixed the flat, forming a yard sale of tools, patches and CO2 containers in the process.
“I was still thinking in my head, ‘oh, I really don’t want to lose this now because of the flat,’” she said. “I’m not a very mechanically inclined person, so honestly, I was just pretty excited to fix it and keep going.”
But over the final 9 miles, Dumke could feel the tire bleeding.
“That was the new focus of the race — to beat the leak — and see if I could get back,” she said.
Mentally, Dumke fought for positive self-talk as equipment anxiety trumped the usual mind battle against cramps and exhaustion.
“I was just kind of like, ‘you can do this,’” she said. “‘This is going to happen for you today.’”
And it did.
Even with the four-minute delay, Dumke crossed the line 16 minutes sooner than she had the previous year. After that fourth-place — and another fourth at Bighorn Gravel last month, the Minturn cyclist not only got the podium monkey off her back, but snagged her first significant win as well.
“Riding into that finish line … I’m trying to think of the right word. It wasn’t disbelief — because I know I could do a ride like that. I was just so elated really,” she said. “The culmination of the hard work I’ve been doing for the last year, just to see it come to fruition in a way that so obviously embodies self-improvement made me really happy.”
In her first Silver Rush, Stensvaag achieved her goal of a sub-5 hour time.
“The race was brutal but when (it was) all said and done, pretty fun and beautiful,” she said. “Lots of steep, loose climbs and descents, but I tend to do well with steep, awful climbing.”
The performance also lifted the 35-year-old’s confidence going into next month’s Leadville 100.
“I think this result just validates that my training has been effective,” she continued. “If things go well in a month I can definitely do sub-9 hours.”
Just three days after the Silver Rush 50, the dynamic duo — who met about a year ago at work — was back on the singletrack.
At Wednesday’s Boneyard Brawl, they switched spots, as Stensvaag took the Vail Recreation District Town Series win. Dumke flatted again, but this time she broke the valve and had to walk her bike home.
No matter the order, both athletes — who live less than a mile apart — admire each other.
“I know she’s much faster than me,” Stensvaag said. “So, I love cheering for her and I’m inspired by how fast she’s gotten and how much work she’s put in over the past year.”
“It’s been fun to get to know her in the last year,” Dumke said of Stensvaag. “She’s put a lot into her riding as well and that was very clear by her race this year, too.”
At work, Stensvaag said she’s spread the word to her fellow nurses, most of whom were unaware of Dumke’s exploits. Her friend has reciprocated.
“I think every time either of us got congratulated, I’m sure we both mentioned each other,” Dumke continued. “We’re like, ‘but can you believe it? Like, one and two — right here!’”