Congratulations to Justin Dubois, who made it to the northern terminus of the Arizona Trail last night to become the first singlespeeder to wrap up the 806-mile 2024 Arizona Trail Race. Find a few photos of Justin and a quick update on the race from day 9 here…
If there was a race within a race to watch this year, it was the singlespeeders putting on a show. At the front of that show were Justin Dubois and Max Keegan. After Keegan led for much of the race, the pair found themselves at the south rim together yesterday morning, and from there it was a 91-mile race to the finish — with a 21-mile portage across the Big Ditch thrown in for good measure.
Dubois, who is infamous for his hiking speed, was the first below the rim, and even while battling a sore knee, was able to open up a gap on Keegan as day turned to night. Once back on level ground on the north rim in the dark and cold, Dubois opted to sleep in the heated bathroom at the ranger station a mile off route, while it appears that Keegan opted for the pit toilet in the parking lot after arriving a bit later.
It was 24 degrees in the morning on the north rim, and Dubois got a jump on Keegan that he never gave up. Pedaling like a man chased, Dubois logged the fastest split thus far from the north rim to the finish and descended down to Stateline campground during golden hour, arriving at 5:25 p.m. local time (masquerading as a monkey in a mask that he’d carried from the border) for a final time of 9 days, 11 hours, and 25 minutes.
Keegan followed just over an hour behind, arriving at 6:34 p.m. for a final time of 9 days, 12 hours, and 34 minutes.
Behind them, Alexandera Houchin finally closed the gap to Johnny Price and Matt Annabel in Tusayan, just a few miles south of the canyon rim. Both had stopped to sleep, and Houchin rolled straight through without a break. While Price had seen her proximity on the tracker and changed his original alarm set for four hours of sleep to three hours to try to not get caught, caught he got. And when he awoke and realized what had happened, he was straight on the bike and caught Houchin on the approach to the rim of the canyon. From there, the pair dropped into the canyon at 10 p.m. and crossed together, a fitting four-year anniversary from when they first met racing and fell in love. (Let’s all have a moment to reflect that at their stinkiest and smelliest and most tired four years ago, they still fell madly in love while racing each other across the state and have created an amazing life together.) They seemed to still like each other when they came up to the north rim mid-morning with an impressive 11.5-hour portage with only two pack-off breaks. They seemed committed to racing each other to the finish, both with time goals they were aiming for.
Meanwhile, Annabel (above left) made up a bit of time on the pair on the portage and managed to catch back up and pass them on the final 70 miles. As of this writing, the trio are all about 50 miles out and should finish in the early hours of the morning.
Should all three finish before 6 a.m., it’ll make five singlespeeders finishing in under 10 days. And five singlespeeders in the top seven.
And that’s pretty neat.
Further Reading
Make sure to dig into these related articles for more info...
Please keep the conversation civil, constructive, and inclusive, or your comment will be removed.