Andy Wentzel brings it in for 2nd place!

Yesterday’s Antics - WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!

John Schilling's Day 10 Update

John Schilling's Day 7 Update

Mike Symon's Update 25th October

Update from Monday 24th and 300 Women's Winner!

AZT300 Winner! 

No Margin for Error

The Riders

Race Preview

Final update:

As the final three riders make their way north trying to outride the incoming storm. The guys on the North Rim, __Connor__ & __Corey__ should finish today before things get ugly. __Rod__ should reach Flagstaff where he'll need to figure a plan. Snow detours could be in effect for him.

Meanwhile, __Andrew Strempke finished 3rd__ and completed a Triple Crown Challenge setting a new singlespeed record for it.

__Johnny & Zack__ came in next completing a top 5 of all singlespeed riders.
__Ana__ held off __Alexandera__ for the women's win also completing only the second Triple Crown Challenge by a female rider. __Alice Drobna__ did it in 2015 on a singlespeed!!

All 5 riders who took the daunting Lemmon Pusch route, finished the 800 (Connor will do so shortly). All singlespeed of course. Seems to be the theme this year!!

Final update of the AZTR from John Schilling

We've had 3 more finishers since yesterday's update with __Andrew Strempke__, __Johnny Price__ and __Zack Friendly__ all rolling into the Utah border. 

Now the women's race is almost coming to a close. __Ana__ made some massive progress yesterday after the Grand Canyon crossing.She has just left Jacob Lake which is the last checkpoint prior to the finish! Ana didn't stop last night which has allowed her to make massive gains in the past 24 hours.

__Alexandera__ is pressing on and has made her way through the Grand Canyon and is now at 731.4 miles. She's the rider just behind Ana and will hopefully press ever closer to the finish today.

Remaining in the race we have __Connor Adkisson__, __Corey Kronser__ and __Rod-taprider Dagneau__. Corey is just about to take on the Grand Canyon hike and hopefully has some decent conditions for the gruelling traverse. 

Arizona Trail Race Update!

__Andy Wentzel__ brings it in for 2nd place only 10 hours after Jefe. What makes Andy's run in impressive is his ingenuity. With a snapped brake lever to contend with, Andy hacked a new one out of a plastic knife and some tape.

Amazingly, his new brake lever held up for the final 350 miles of the AZT, not a feat to be ignored. Congratulations Andy!

__Andrew Strempke__ is in the final few miles of the race, tickling the finish line whilst the sun rises on his final switchback descent. If he's not in already, it is only a matter of minutes.

__Ana Jager__ and __Alexandera Houchin__ continue to ride through the rugged terrain, inching ever closer to Utah. Ana is currently wheels off the ground, hiking across the Grand Canyon with her bike presumably thrown over her shoulders.

Jefe Branham is IN!

In a total time of 10d 00h 09m, Jefe took the win and set a new singlespeed record. This completes a career Triple Crown for him: Tour Divide, CTR & AZTR. He's also only the second person to win each event, Kurt Refsnider the other. An elite rider, a genuinely good dude and so humble, according to the Race Director. Jefe has a history of breaking singlespeed records as he broke the AZT300 in spring of 2021.

A hard earnt win and he has admitted how hard the Grand Canyon hike-a-bike was, but here's a glimpse into his view from the trail whilst in the canyon. We needed to share his video it as it's a special place.

[https://www.instagram.com/p/CkWYayPt9FF/](https://www.instagram.com/p/CkWYayPt9FF/)

The women's AZTR800 leader, Ana Jager, is currently on track to become only the second woman to complete the Triple Crown in one year, Alice Drobna the other. Ana's sizzling 2022 season includes finishing first female at the Tour Divide and second female at the Colorado Trail Race.

Update from this afternoon - Andy Wentzel should finish before sunset if it is all smooth sailing from here on out and Andrew Strempke (a fellow singlespeeder) recently reached the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, marking the finish of "The Ditch" so he’s hot on their heels.

Andy tried dropping in last night, but he missed the post office hours and was using his Plan B set-up. It wasn't working too well, so he turned around & got some rest back on top of the rim. He's going back to Tusayan this morning to get his original shipment, they will drop in again. Bummer it didn't work out for him, but at least he got some sleep!!

Just received a text from Jefe, he's at the North Rim!! Having some tracking issues at the moment. His quote: "It was sooooo hard!!"

Race at the front is tightening!! Andy is only 7 miles back, will he follow Jefe into the Canyon tonight?? 

I met up with Rod D. this afternoon as he reached Four Peaks Rd. He was having tire issues, needing to add air every 10 minutes, but couldn't locate the link. Frustrating. He opted to go off route to a bike shop in Fountain Hills some 10+ miles backwards off the route. He seems to be sorted now & is back on route partway up the Four Peaks climb.

John Schilling's Day 9 Update - The Ditch!

Alexandera is on the move!! She was able to have a courier drop parts at the Pine trailhead!!

Ana caught up to Zack last night, made a short detour this morning to get water at the ranger station.

Our drop bar rider, Corey, has made it through the gnarly descent off Gold Ridge trail.

At the back, James M. is scratching after completing the 300. Trail is more demanding than he anticipated and is now short on time. Rod D. Took a zero day in Gold Canyon, but is now on the move tackling the rugged Jacob Crosscut trail in the early morning darkness. Rod finished the 750 in 2016, so it'll be interesting to get his take on the 800.

10 riders remain, 8 are riding singlespeed. Only Ana & Rod have gears. Tough group.

John Schilling's Day 9 Update! More tales from the trail.

As the race charges into its seventh night, we first must congratulate both Bret and Chris who found their dots bouncing at Picketpost earlier. Huge efforts and determination were no doubt required to finish.

Up at the front of the 800, Jefe still holds the lead but things in the top two positions seem to be tightening. Can Andy reel him in further? in third position, Andrew is making some strong progress in bridging the gap to Andy. He has the formidable final push from Washington Park up to the top of the Mogollon Rim coming up shortly. Will be interesting to see how he responds after the effort required for that.

In the womens race, Ana continues to ride strong and last pinged in Payson three hours ago so hard to say where she is currently.  Alexandera by the tracker is relatively close, though the climb to Payson is indeed a pretty tough one.
Alexandera is facing additional challenges as well. In a call to MTBCast, she relayed that while she thought she was prepared with three sets of brake pads, she has burned through them. The major problem is that somewhat unbelievably, there isn’t a bike shop in Payson. She said she put some orders in to get them sent to a post office, but that overnight delivery was very unlikely. Riding to Flagstaff without functional brakes is not really possible, so she is ultimately going to just need to wait for her delivery. Really tough news for her.

Mike Symon's Day 8 Update, Brake Pad Bonanza

Day 7 for the riders as daylight hits the route. Last night __Jefe__ stopped early to take advantage of warmer camping conditions & was rolling along the Highline trail in the wee hours. Andy had some battery issues with his tracker most of the day y'day, but is back online and has closed the gap to 16 miles.

Most everyone else is moving this morning spread out along the Four Peaks segment.

__Ana__ is holding her lead, currently at 13 miles as she begins the rugged climb towards Mt. Peeley.

Farther back, __Corey__, on his drop bar setup, will be crossing AZ88 into the Goldfield Mtns this morning then climbing up Four Peaks.

Our 800 Lantern Rouge, __James__, from across the pond, is out in the desert void between Oracle & Picketpost. He should have a wonderful day of desert riding ahead of him.

The final two 300 riders, __Bret & Chris__, are on the final segment: Kelvin to Picketpost. Arguably the most scenic of the entire route outside of the Grand Canyon. Bret took advantage of the ATA rain water collector, making camp there last night.

__The 300 took a toll on riders this year, assuming both Bret & Chris finish, that will make 6 finishers out of 25 starters. Tough year!!__

Another beautiful day out on the AZT. 

__Jefe__ continues his push at the front of the pack. A brief departure from the route had him needing to backtrack to where he made his mistake. He appears to be resupplying at the Bashas in Payson in preparation for the last big obstacle between the desert and the high country - the Mogollon Rim. Riders through there should appreciate the work crews have been putting into that section over time.

__Andy__ is a ways back, but hasn’t pinged in a couple of hours with another group of six riders including __Ana__ and __Alexandera__ still navigating in or close to the  four peaks area.

Unfortunately for the riders, __Jefe__ discovered early on today that the very usually welcome Jake’s Corner store is closed for remodeling. Not sure if the bar next door is open but the market isn’t. Luckily, a small market isn’t that much further up the road. It is relatively new but will be very much appreciated by those needing resupply.

Way back still on the 300 portion of the course is another handful of riders making determined pushes to picketpost. Some are scheduled to finish there while others still have aspirations to push to Utah.

Weather forecast for the next 10 days looks good along the entire route, but there are reports of many down trees in the Flagstaff area after the storm front went through over the weekend and included massive winds. Crews are out trying to clear what they can but, it might pose more obstacles for those on the AZT if they can’t clear everything out.


Beccy Waters

Nicky Shaw

Kitty Dennis

Arizona Trail Race Tracking:  Race tracking and commentary for AZTR 2022. A stalwart of the MTB bikepacking calendar including a traverse of the Grand Canyon, the Arizona regularly attracts some of the strongest off-road racers and has remained true to its original low-key self-supported ethos.

Arizona Trail Race AZTR 2022 Tracking

A stalwart of the MTB bikepacking calendar including a traverse of the Grand Canyon, the Arizona regularly attracts some of the strongest off-road racers and has remained true to its original low-key self-supported ethos.

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