A Mid-Race Update from the 2025 Arkansas High Country Race

Words by Aaron Arnzen, photos by Aaron Arnzen, Kai Caddy, and Monica Foltz

Over 50 riders lined up outside the train depot in downtown Russellville, Arkansas, for the 7th iteration of the Arkansas High Country Race. In addition to the full 1,015-mile High Country route, this year’s race included the 430-mile Central Loop and 250-mile Ozark Odyssey for the second year in a row.

Just after lunch on the first day, the scratches were already starting to roll in, most notably from the experienced Lithuanian and one of the race favorites, Justinas Leveika. As we would expect from any rider as accomplished as himself, any decision following his DNF was met with a handful of varying opinions across social media platforms. In our honest attempt to best understand the situation, we’ve tried to focus on facts, rather than assumptions or theories, distinguishing between them whenever possible.

Around mile 60, Justinas encountered a catastrophic equipment failure in the way of a broken freehub body on his rear wheel. Many of you already know his decision to restart the route the same day was met with criticism, and out of respect for the racers still on course, the ethos of the ARHC, and Justinas himself, we’ll be following up in much more detail on this story soon.

As the rest of day one continued to present itself, we saw the large group of Full Loop riders work their way through the rugged and remote Ouachita Mountains. By midnight on day one, race leader Matt Pike was passing his second race checkpoint and selfie stop near Dick’s Gap Overlook at mile 212. Trailing Matt in this counter-clockwise direction included the three Twin City riders Bryan Dougherty, Nick Elliot, and Ben Oney, as well as the first place singlespeed rider, Tanner Frady of Oklahoma City. Each of them were refueling at the Rich Mountain Country Store at mile 162, an iconic resupply for ARHC riders over the years.

As the ARHC race organizers have allowed since its inaugural grand depart in 2019, riders can choose which direction they follow the race route. Riding in the clockwise direction was Springfield, Missouri native Jacob Waterman. After knocking out the two big Pilot Rock and White Rock Mountain traverses, Jacob was closing in on Bentonville near mile 177 around 1:00 a.m. The sole Full Loop woman, Katherine Anderson of Tulsa, rode a steady effort on the first day stopping for a quick sleep around mile 1,140 after descending White Rock Mountain.

Day two on the ARHC Full Loop continued to be full of surprises. Race leader Matt Pike rode through the night, continuing to move at an absolutely blistering pace throughout all of the Ouachita Mountains before stopping at a hotel past Little Rock at 4:15 p.m., already 410 miles in. Meanwhile, the three Twin City followers weren’t letting off their pace, each of them rolling into Hot Springs around 7:00 p.m. on day two, not too far away from one another at mile 311. Nick Elliot in particular was really starting to establish his intentions during this race as seen on his Instagram stories. Alongside his goals to ride fast and hard, Nick made it clear he wanted to soak up as much of the ARHC beauty as possible across the race’s mandatory selfie checkpoints.

Riding in the other direction, Jacob Waterman was holding onto second place overall by mileage, with a super strong day of riding above the Buffalo River, passing Jasper and tagging his fourth selfie checkpoint of Richland Creek at mile 380 around 4:00 a.m. Katherine Anderson ran into a little precipitation in the Northwest corner of the route, causing her to work through a couple miles of peanut butter mud before things smoothed out as she rolled off Cave Mountain Road and into Boxley Valley.

Later the following morning on day three, we learned that race leader Matt Pike’s hotel stay was extended a bit, as he officially withdrew from the race. Being the extremely professional and reserved man that Matt is, his mental and emotional output weren’t aligning with his physical output, leading to his DNF after much consideration. Later that morning we also saw Ben Oney bow out of the race after a big reset in Hot Springs.

While Jacob Waterman maintained the lead riding in the clockwise direction, Brian Dougherty started to gain time on his Twin City competition Nick Elliot as they worked their way along the faster Northbound paved stretch, starting to cross paths with clockwise riders from the Central Loop. Nick’s issues with his achilles continued to worsen before making it to Mountain View and also bowing out of the race.

As the sun rose on day four, Katherine wrapped up a nice stay at the Witt Springs Community Center, a neutral cycling hostel and massive checkpoint in the middle of the relentless stretch of riding across the Northern Arkansas Ozarks. Inside the same building later in the afternoon, counter clockwise race leader Bryan Dougherty also pulled the plug due to complications with saddle sores and an invested interest in not wanting to risk infection. With a DNF count totaling nine, the race back to Russellville continues to get interesting by the hour.

Jacob Waterman continued to maintain a healthy 162 mile lead over second place rider and singlespeeder Tanner Frady. Despite a growing battle with Shermer’s neck, Jacob made steady progress through the remote Ouachitas, eyeing one of his final resupplies in Hatfield, 187 miles from the finish. Those 187 miles include four of the biggest climbs on course, including the highest point in the state.

Looking to the North, Tanner is maintaining a 40-mile lead over third place rider Craig Shultz. Out of St. Paul Minnesota, Craig has also made steady progress up to this point, making the most of his recent move from eighth place to third place in the overall standings. Trailing Craig by just 10 miles is Katherine Anderson who’s pace has really started to pick up as she works her way South on the longest road stretch of riding into Little Rock. Being the only woman starting this years full ARHC race, Katherine’s fan base continues to grow as she crosses the halfway point of the race.

Other notable mid-race happenings to keep an eye on include Second Place singlespeed rider Andy Phillips is eyeing his second ARHC finish. After working through pedal problems near Hatfield on day two, he’s keeping the three-way singlespeed race close and interesting, as each of them are finishers from last year’s iteration.

Third place singlespeed rider Preston Williams is the only rider this year that rode the optional singletrack variation of the full ARHC route. This niche offering within the ARHC race series adds roughly 50 miles of singletrack down South in the Ouachita’s and has a unique track record from singlespeed riders like Lindsay Shepard, Eric House, and Randy Windle. The current FKT is held by Eric House at 7 days, 19 hours, 14 minutes.

ONE FINAL GLIMPSE INTO THE 2025 OZARK ODYSSEY

Full of firsts, this year’s Ozark Odyssey race has officially come to a close.

Circling back through the overall podium, we saw Aaron Messer set a new course record, followed by Dave Easley in second place with a new singlespeed course record. George Raines of Little Rock Arkansas finished a mere 40 minutes later, adding another singlespeed to the Odyssey podium.

Day three action started around 2:00 a.m. with Patrick Worthley adding a third singlespeed finish to this year’s top four, all of which were on mountain bikes. On the contrary, 68-year-old Stan Prutz of Baton Rouge, Louisiana finished fifth on a gravel bike rocking 38mm tires. Following Stan, the remaining Ozark Odyssey riders continued to roll in with more frequency, welcomed by a growing crowd of finish line spectators with cowbells in hand.

Next up was the first ever pairs finish on any ARHC race offering with Jeremy Houchin and Chloe Moore from Bentonville, Arkansas. Chloe is also the first ever female known to complete the Ozark Odyssey Route, after race leader Gabrielle Henry scratched at mile 210. Before a crash coming off of Woods Mountain Gabrielle was in contention for third overall at the time, a ride to be nothing but proud of.

Rounding out the 2025 Odyssey finishers were Northwest Arkansas riders Joseph Biard, followed by Jorge Engroba. A big congratulations goes out to each of this year’s finishers tackling an incredibly demanding mixed terrain route that, mile for mile, is the hardest offering within the ARHC.

Check out the 2025 Arkansas High Country Race Tracker page for updates, where you can follow along on the live tracking map and stay tuned in for more event coverage. Find it here.

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