Nifty Ten Fifty 2026 is a Wrap!

Mister Nifty and Kathryn Curi at the top of Marin Ave.

A big thanks to everyone who showed up to do this iconic challenge which has been going on since 2000. Every year except 2020. Please scroll down to see results below and a few more photos below the results. We had two super stars this year. James Kinney came back again for another round and dominated as usual, both in overall and in age compensated (as a 30 year old male, he gets no compensation). His most impressive feat was Marin Ave, where he averaged 500W. This is Pro Tour caliber at what I believe to be over 7W/Kg!

If not for Kinney's over the top performance, overall winner in the compensated category would no doubt have been former Pro and Nifty vet Kathryn Curi, who, other than on Marin Ave, was EXTREMELY close to dethroning Kinney on the second and third climbs of the day when age/gender compensation is considered. Kudos to Kathryn and many thanks for bringing a Pennisula Posse.

Long time Nifty vet and very strong rider Bill Laddish showed up for another round. Dave Ritzman, with a modest performance on Marin, came back super strong on the latter climbs to score 3rd overall. Lanterne Rouge award goes to Tiffany Ding. Ms. Ding stuck it out while having a long, hard day. She was tempted to quit, but persevered and finished the event with pure determination. Shout out to Tiffany!

The overall Nifty Champions are determined by adding the compensated placing on all three events and selecting the lowest number... but... Claremont/Grizzly/Vollmer counts double as it requires by far the most effort, being much longer and falls at the end of the day with tired legs. So the lowest score possible by winning all three sectors is 4 points.

RESULTS:

Preliminary results below. Please LMK if you see any errors or if you did a climb but are not represented. The combined overall is found at the bottom. Since this is an age/gender compensated event, there are no separate categories for masters, male/female, etc. Everyone competes on a (theoretically) even playing field. But we also show you the uncompensated results separately.

Note: Results will be presented in both overall, and age/gender compensated.

Marin Overall:

1	James Kinney	5:42
2	Joseph Junio	8:05
3	Petro Hizalev	8:07
4	Bill Laddish	8:14
5	Jorg Heinemann	8:24
6	Katheryn Curi	8:33
7	Brad Baker	8:37
8	Dave Ritzman	8:39
9	Antonio Beroldo	9:50
10	JIANXIONG DONG	10:07
11	Torsten Fink	10:29
12	Mark Johnson	10:40
13	Jonathan Lewis	11:07
14	Steven Payne	13:52
15	Geoff Potter	14:49
16	Tiffany Ding	15:10
17	Douglas Samp	18:30

Thorndale Overall:

1	James Kinney	4:30
2	Petro Hizalev	5:26
3	Dave Ritzman	5:33
4	Katheryn Curi	6:15
5	Jorg Heinemann	6:16
5	Brad Baker	6:16
7	Joseph Junio	6:17
8	Bill Laddish	6:54
9	Torsten Fink	7:34
10	Antonio Beroldo	8:50
11	Jonathan Lewis	9:25
12	Tiffany Ding	14:16

Claremont/Grizzly/Vollmer Overall:

1	James Kinney	20:53
2	Dave Ritzman	27:13:00
3	Petro Hizalev	28:10:00
4	Joseph Junio	28:23:00
5	Katheryn Curi	28:31:00
6	Brad Baker	28:34:00
7	Bill Laddish	29:03:00
8	Jorg Heinemann	29:44:00
9	Torsten Fink	36:17:00
10	Jonathan Lewis	39:33:00
11	Antonio Beroldo	40:54:00
12	JIANXIONG DONG	45:24:00
13	Tiffany Ding	49:31:00

Age/Gender Compensated Results:

Marin:

1	James Kinney	5:42
2	Katheryn Curi	6:19
3	Jorg Heinemann	6:58
4	Bill Laddish	7:08
5	Petro Hizalev	7:27
6	Dave Ritzman	7:41
7	Joseph Junio	8:04
8	Brad Baker	8:27
9	Mark Johnson	8:51
10	Torsten Fink	8:54
12	JIANXIONG DONG	9:00
13	Antonio Beroldo	9:44
15	Jonathan Lewis	10:53
16	Steven Payne	12:20
18	Tiffany Ding	12:53
19	Geoff Potter	13:55
20	Douglas Samp	15:54

Thorndale:

1	James Kinney	4:30
2	Katheryn Curi	4:37
3	Dave Ritzman	4:56
4	Petro Hizalev	4:59
5	Jorg Heinemann	5:12
5	Bill Laddish	6:00
7	Brad Baker	6:08
8	Joseph Junio	6:17
9	Torsten Fink	6:25
10	Antonio Beroldo	8:44
11	Jonathan Lewis	9:13
12	Tiffany Ding	12:07

Claremont/Grizzly/Vollmer:

1	James Kinney	20:53
2	Katheryn Curi	21:06:08
3	Dave Ritzman	24:13:22
4	Jorg Heinemann	24:40:43
5	Bill Laddish	25:16:25
6	Petro Hizalev	25:54:48
7	Joseph Junio	27:48:56
8	Brad Baker	27:59:43
9	Torsten Fink	30:50:27
10	Jonathan Lewis	38:45:32
11	JIANXIONG DONG	40:24:22
13	Antonio Beroldo	40:29:28
14	Tiffany Ding	42:04:30

Overall Compensated Nifty Champions:

1	James Kinney	4
2	Katheryn Curi	8
3	Dave Ritzman	15
4	Jorg Heinemann	16
5	Bill Laddish	19
6	Petro Hizalev	21
7	Joseph Junio	29
8	Brad Baker	31
9	Torsten Fink	37
10	Jonathan Lewis	46
11	Antonio Beroldo	49
12	Tiffany Ding	68

It's important to note that no matter where you finished in the overall, simply completing the event is a huge accomplishment. So extra kudos to those who fall in this category. Honorable mention goes to

Jianxiong Dong. While he did "finish" the event, he somehow missed the Thorndale sector so could not be considered in the overall. However, if Dong had finished officially, he might have been close to Tiffany Ding, in which case I'd have been tempted to issue a "Ding Dong" award in place of the Lanterne Rouge. Ha Ha! Hope to see all of you next year!