Singletrack/MTB
Gravel/All-road
Dirt-road Touring
Fat-bike
At 1:07:17 on Saturday, Jake Inger rolled into the Picket Post trailhead to win the 2024 Arizona Trail Race 300 with a time of 2 days, 7 hours, and 17 minutes (2d:07h:17m). To say that the bikepack racing rookie nailed his first race effort would be the understatement of the race. Find details here with a fresh set of photos from the trail and finish line…
Hailing from Maine, Inger is no stranger to long efforts on the bike, or to racing, but this was his first time lining up for a bikepack race. He was a bit of a dark horse for everyone except for friend Alex Schultz, who is currently sitting in second for the AZT800.
From the border, the two friends rode together at the front of the race for much of the first eight hours at a pace that Inger called, “Way too fast.” Upon reaching Kentucky Camp midday, he let Schultz ride off the front while he drank four glasses of milk to try to settle his stomach from the effort while Justinas Leveika caught up. The pair went on to ride together through the night, stopping together in Tucson for a resupply. At the finish, he said of the decision to somewhat wait for Leveika that, “It was way more fun to ride with other people.”
The pair made short work of the Reddington Road climb, Italian Trap, and the Molino hike-a-bike where the sole of Inger’s shoe finally gave up, ripping clean off the shoe and making it surprisingly difficult to find the right location of the cleat in order to clip in. The shoe, a recommendation from Schultz, was clearly not up to the task of the AZT300.
Once on the Mount Lemmon highway, Inger left his riding companions to follow the 300 route up the highway while Leveikas and Schultz proceeded up the trail on the 800 course. Now he was properly on his own, and he didn’t slow down.
Rain hit coming down Oracle Ridge, and Inger found himself grateful for the framebag and extra jackets he’d added to his kit at the last minute. Even with a puffy jacket and rain jacket, he found himself cold and contemplated a ride into Oracle to buy an extra layer, but the 10 extra miles of pavement deterred him as he headed out into the Black Hills for the evening and night.
A failed sleep attempt around 8 p.m. resulted in an emergency bivvy dirt nap a few hours later, where he realized that once out of the packaging, an emergency bivvy will never compress down small again. Once again, he was glad to have some extra storage capacity.
Dawn found him coming down from Ripsey ridge into Kelvin for a quick water stop at the ADOT station before setting a blistering ride across the 40-ish mile Gila Canyons section, covering the distance in around six hours. Morning cloud cover provided some much appreciated protection from the sun, and a bit of rain kept everything cool on a section that has a reputation for roasting riders during hotter years of the race.
At the finish, Inger was greeted by race director John Schilling and a handful of friends and race fans. His summary of the ride was fitting: That was a crazy race.
When asked how he felt, he explained that he was more used to doing 24-hour efforts fully pinned instead of the much slower multiday efforts, but still, he said, “I’m not ‘Ugh,’ but I don’t want to keep biking.”
Massive congrats, Jake. You should be very proud of a well-executed and ridden AZT300.
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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