Singletrack/MTB
Gravel/All-road
Dirt-road Touring
Fat-bike
Last weekend, Julie Perilla Garcia became the first woman to finish this year’s 1,000-mile Iditarod Trail Invitational in Alaska, completing the challenging journey in 20 days, 2 hours, and 5 minutes. Find a recap and some photos Julie captured along the way here…
Words and photos by Julie Perilla
I started racing the Iditarod Trail Invitational (ITI) in 2015 when I completed the 350-mile race to McGrath. After several setbacks, including a knee injury on my attempt to Nome in 2023, I finally rode the entire Iditarod Trail to win the women’s division in March 2025. The race took 20 days, 2 hours, and 50 minutes.
To say we had an ideal trail for biking is an understatement. In a typical year, Nome racers will not only ride their fat bikes but push their bikes 100s of miles along the way. This year, the low snow, warm temps, and freezing rain cycle a few weeks ago set up the trail for an icy highway/hardpacked surface ideal for riding and moving fast. Except for the day pushing into a constant 15-25 mile headwind across the Norton Bay sea ice, we had fantastic weather and a great trail. Someone asked me along the way if I was disappointed in not having a challenging year, and I replied that I’d done the hard things on this trail: -40 temperatures, 50 mile-per-hour winds, dumping snow, and pushing for miles. I had nothing to prove this time and just wanted to ride my bike and have fun. The trail provided that opportunity.
One highlight of the journey was a completely calm trip up to Rainy Pass and down the Dalzell Gorge on my birthday. The pass was unusually quiet. We hit it at sunrise, surrounded by pink hills, and rode nearly the whole way. This has never happened in my previous three times on this trail. The bomb down the Dalzell Gorge was hardpacked and fast, and it was one of the best downhill fat bike runs I’ve done.
I rode the entire route with my friend and fellow bikepacker Karl Booth of Chapel-en-le-frith, England, who was key in helping me stay motivated and form my move and rest strategy on the trail. Janice Tower was a fierce competitor in the race, and I was happy to keep up with her as she is a legend in the Alaska Biking Community. In their 60s, Janice and her brother Matt were relentless competitors and role models for extreme athleticism at any age. The age in this field proves that we don’t have to stop riding these extreme routes or competing at any age, as I turned 49 on the trail. Winning this race means a lot because I have never won before. If you are not fast, you must keep pedaling until no one else is around.
For more detailed updates from this year’s Iditarod Trail Invitational, head over to ITIAlaska.com.
Further Reading
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