SPEARFISH - Corey Whalen loved the trail. He loved the ride, too, right up until that headlong crash on a damp and squishy curve near Crow Creek.

The spill left him muddy, bruised and bleeding from both knees. Even worse, it left him out of the running early on in the South Dakota State Cyclo-cross Championships on Saturday on the grounds of McNenny State Fish Hatchery.

"I was right behind the leader when the wreck happened," the still-unsteady Hot Springs rider said a few moments after wrecking. "I just took it too hard."

But on a day when finger drifts from the Nov. 6 blizzard sunbathed themselves into oblivion, even crash victims found it easy to look on the bright side. And Whalen heaped praise on race coordinators Rick and Bets Cordes for designing a course that wrapped itself around the landscapes in challenging and inspirational style.

"It's an awesome course," Whalen said. "I've raced in Boulder and in other places, and it's on par with them."

Cyclo-cross bikes are midway in design between road racers and mountain bikes. The course rules require changing conditions and undulating routes, as well as stations where riders must dismount and carry their bikes over obstacles. Add a little speed and the potential for injurious error multiplies quickly.

Had there been a par for this bike course, race winner Chad Carpenter would have made a double eagle. The Rapid City dentist led from start to finish through nine laps of a 1.25-mile course that slalomed through hatchery buildings, skirted the outdoors ponds and parted the willows beneath red cliffs of Spearfish shale.

Carpenter lapped several riders before crossing the finish, pedaling off on a cool-down lap and powering up the hill to the parking area to put away his bike and put on some sweats. He won the men's advanced division, as he did in two previous Cyclo-cross events in Rapid City.

Bets Cordes won the women's advanced race. Rick Cordes was the men's novice winner, and Marni Whalen won the women's novice event.

Competing in his first Cyclo-cross, Ben Peck of Spearfish took second in the advanced competition. He said the course got more complicated as the day warmed and the route softened.

"You've really got to focus on the course, because you never know," Peck said.

He was pretty sure of the pile-up potential, however, after Whalen took his tumble. Whalen made it back to the start, switched bikes and rode a lap or two before giving up to tend his injuries.

"I tried. I just couldn't get my legs under me," he said. "Not today."

He would like to return, however. And Bets Cordes plans to give him and other riders a chance next year. She said the first Cyclo-cross at McNenny won't be the last.

"We're just trying to get people excited about Cyclo-cross," she said. "It's a great way to extend the bike season."

It's also a pretty good way to get a passing gander at parts of the hatchery grounds that most visitors don't see. Although Whalen admitted that his sightseeing was limited.

"I got a good look at the dirt scenery," he said.

Contact Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com.