Singletrack/MTB
Gravel/All-road
Dirt-road Touring
Fat-bike
Congratulations to Will Bodewes, the first rider to finish the 2022 Colorado Trail Race! Will rolled in late last night just before a big lightning storm, finishing the 530-mile course in under five days. Find details and photos of Will and his Kona Raijin here…
Photos and interview insight by Jennaye Derge (@jennaye_d)
Will Bodewes rolled into his hometown of Durango, Colorado, just before midnight last night, finishing the Colorado Trail Race in 4 days, 18 hours, and 36 minutes (4d:18h:36m). Apparently, he made it to the finish at Junction Creek Trailhead just before a massive lightning storm. Will’s brother was waiting for him with pizza, and a few Durango locals showed up with food and champagne to show their support.
When asked how the trail was this year, 25-year-old Will responded, “As compared to last year, it was a little harder. It rained every day, which is fine, but it was a little wet. I went at it a little too hard. Initially, I was trying to go for the record, then I went hard for the first 13 hours and had a total stop time of 20 minutes. I was cooked after that. It took me a little while to get back into the rhythm.”
All told, Will slept for about five hours during his nearly five days on the trail, “I got a little weird. At the road detour yesterday, I went through it all in the dark and I was very much asleep. When I was that sleep deprived, I didn’t want to stop biking. I was paranoid about stopping, even though all I needed to do was sleep for 30 minutes, and I would have been fine, but I was still going and there was no one else around.”
Will rode the CTR on a 2014 Kona Raijin Titanium with a 1×11 drivetrain and custom frame bag by Rogue Panda. He had three mechanicals along the way, one of which was running out of chain lube due to a leaky bottle. Will bought a bottle of olive oil at a grocery store and used that. “It actually worked great,” he said. “And I was drinking it as well because I started to run out of food at the end. I broke my chain at one point, and for about a day and a half, my derailleur wasn’t working. It was a user error issue, unfortunately, so basically I only had like three gears I could use. Those were the two big ones. I didn’t have any flats, which was awesome.”
When asked how he felt after the race, will responded, “I think you can imagine.”
Upon finishing, Will was well ahead of the next rider on the course. At the time of publication, Kevin Conerly is about 15 miles from the finish and is set to take second place in the next hour; you can follow along on the Tracker here. Will’s time of 4 days, 18 hours, and 36 minutes is about a day behind the overall record on the CTR, set by Neil Beltchenko in 2016 (3d:19h:50m).
Related Content
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.
