Singletrack/MTB
Gravel/All-road
Dirt-road Touring
Fat-bike
A hats off and hearty congrats to our dear friend, Alexandera Houchin, who became the first woman—and fourth singlespeeder—to cross the finish line at the 2024 Arizona Trail 800 race, saying, “I dropped him on the descent!” as she rolled into Stateline Campground. Find photos and and the full story about her finish here…
In a heated battle for fourth-place singlespeed, and sixth overall, Alexandera Houchin emerged at Stateline Campground at 11:50 a.m., two minutes ahead of Johnny Price. “I dropped him on the descent!” she told the crew waiting. This also makes Houchin the overall women’s winner of the AZT 800. Their final finishing times were 10 days, 5 hours, and 50 minutes, and 10 days, 5 hours, and 52 minutes, respectively.
Houchin, current women’s singlespeed record holder on the route, is no stranger to the AZT — both its beauty and brutality — and she used that knowledge, plus her knowledge of her competitors to her advantage. While she struggled in the cold over Mount Lemmon in the southern bit of the route and the heat through the central part of the state, she found her stride approaching Flagstaff. She’d lost contact with Price early on the race and had been leapfrogging with Annabel for several days — including when he made the Payson post office for his package pickup and she’d missed it for hers. This resulted in having to go to a hardware store to buy poles, chemical hand warmers, and other supplies that were in her post office box locked away for the night. Then after leaving town — frustrated that the post office closed at 4 p.m. instead of 5 p.m. — she realized she needed to charge her electronics and had to retreat to a hotel room. One can only surmise the devastation of the mishaps, but she continued on after a sleep.
Committed to trying to catch Annabel, she realized that he was taking two hours in each town stop, and she was only three hours behind him, so she decided to push from Mount Elden, north of Flagstaff, all the way to the north rim without sleeping, hoping to catch him by skipping the Tusayan resupply. What she didn’t expect was to see Price was also in Tusayan, shacked up in a hotel.
Ultimately, Price caught her on the way to the south rim after noticing that he’d been passed, and the two portaged the canyon together in an impressive 11.5 hours, a full hour faster than what Houchin did last year. She made it down to the river in 2.5 hours, which is faster than most people do it without a bike on their bake. Hours later, their laughter and chatter could be heard from miles up the trail as they made their way up to the north rim in the early hours of the morning.
While Houchin originally planned to sleep for five hours on the north rim, the pair decided to push on together, hoping to finish under the 10-day mark. Ultimately, the sleep monster got to be too much, and wanting to enjoy the last miles of really fun trail in the daylight, they decided to get a solid sleep just north of Jacob Lake and finish in the morning.
Telling of her massive sleepless stretch, Houchin said, “The push from Elden to the north rim was the hardest I’ve ever tried.” Which, coming from her, is saying a lot!
At Stateline, Houchin and Price were greeted by the singlespeed crew with cheers and snacks. This marked the finish of Price’s singlespeed Triple Crown, having successfully competed both Tour Divide and Colorado Trail Race earlier this summer.
Matt Annabel had rolled in at 2:45 a.m. the prior night after having passed the duo while they were off-trail getting some water — neither party realizing that the pass had happened for some time — and finished in 9 days, 20 hours, and 45 minutes. The sleep monster had come for him as well, but he was able to fight it off just enough to get down the final switchbacks and finish well under 10 days.
The singlespeeders pushed each other from start to end in what was an impressive show of try-hard. Never once did Justin give up the pursuit of Max, never did Johnny stop chasing the lead duo, nor did Matt stop pedaling hard. And Alexandera never gave up the pursuit of the boys. They pushed each other to the limit, and they were able to do it because of their friendships, both on and off the bike. And maybe one of the greatest forms of friendship is asking each other to show up with their best selves, day after day, for 800 miles across Arizona.
This crew did exactly that. Their love for the trail, for the race, for each other, is easy to see and feel. They showed up to race, and race they did. And once they all made it to Stateline, they circled up the camp chairs with a pile of snacks and drinks to share and whiled away the day like only a group of singlespeeders can.
Congratulations, Alexandera, that was such a ride to watch! And to the rest of you one-geared lot, thanks for the show!
Check out the Arizona Trail Race 2024 Tracker page to follow along on the live tracking map, watch for ongoing race updates, and tune in for more event coverage. Find it here.
Further Reading
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