Xavier Chiriboga Wins the 2024 Colorado Trail Race

Photos and interview insight by Jennaye Derge (@jennaye_d)

Late last night, Xavier Chiriboga, a 42-year-old farmer from Quito, Ecuador, crossed the finish line at the Junction Creek Trailhead in Durango and grabbed the first-place finish in this year’s Colorado Trail Race, completing the challenging 527-mile route in 4 days, 15 hours, and 55 minutes (04:15:55).*

Xavier Chiriboga may not a household name in the world of ultra-endurance bikepack racing, but I’d encourage you to take note; I’m sure you’ll hear about him again. By trade, Xavier is a cheesemaker and farmer in Ecuador. He’s also a champion cattle penner, believe it or not. His first bikepacking race was the 2021 Trans Ecuador Mountain Bike Race, where he rode an old mountain bike with a makeshift frame bag made out of a shower curtain and won by a full day and a half. Regular readers of the site might recall Xavier from our Stagecoach 400 race coverage in 2022 (find that linked in the Further Reading grid below). As we reported, Xavier put together a bike last minute on his arrival in the US for that event. It was a $399 Chinese open-mold carbon frame with a knock-off drivetrain from Ltwoo that he rode twice before the race started. Still, Xavier managed to pedal that bike 37 hours straight with no sleep and broke the previous course record by more than two hours.

It appears that Xavier had a pretty clean and sleepless race in this year’s Colorado Trail Race, too, despite it being a rookie run for him. Based on Trackleaders’ Race Flow diagram, it looks like he only slept for two hours on Tuesday night, although the speed/time plot shows that he stopped for about three hours. That’s over four and a half days at full tilt with very little rest. What an effort. At the finish, Xavier mentioned the worst part about his ride was that he ran out of food yesterday. Otherwise, he said the weather was great, and he didn’t have any issues with his gear. Congrats, Xavier!

This year, Xavier rode a slightly fancier bike, although it was also a last-minute borrowed frame from someone here in the United States. As you can find in our Rigs of the Colorado Race roundup linked below, he was aboard a Canyon Lux World Cup CF 6 with HUNT Proven Race XC Dynamo Wheels and a mix of SRAM Components, complete with wireless AXS shifting.

For those just tuning in, Justinas Leveika was also at the finish line to greet Xavier. Justinas completed the race a few hours earlier in 4 days, 7 hours, and 17 minutes. However, Justinas took a ride in a car to have a broken wheel repaired. As we understand it, this was a rule violation and his time will be unofficial, even though he returned to the site of the incident to resume his ride. Unlike the Tour Divide, the rules of the Colorado Trail Race state that if you have a ride-ending mechanical, you have to use your own power to seek assistance. As stated here, “If your bike breaks and you wish to continue the race, you must hike, walk or crawl to the next town to get it repaired. Once fixed, you must return, under your own power, to the exact spot you left the route. This is a completely self-powered race. If you get in a motorized vehicle, your race is over.” Ultimately, the race director will have the final say in this matter, but that’s what we know at the moment.

*Note that Xavier’s 04:15:55 finish time isn’t yet confirmed as there appears to be an issue with Trackleaders recording Xavier’s final time; we based it on camera metadata from our photographer at the finish line.

Check out the 2024 Colorado Trail Race Tracker page for updates and to follow along on the live tracking map, and stay tuned in for more event coverage. Find it here.

Further Reading

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Inspiration

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Bikepacking Bikes

Rigs of the 2024 Colorado Trail Race

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Dispatch

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