After 2 days, 14 hours and 32 minutes, Will Bodewes of Durango was in first place in the Colorado Trail Race on Tuesday evening.
The self-supported bike-packing race began at 4 a.m. Sunday in Denver near Chatfield Lake and will finish 527 miles later in Durango. Bodewes, who said he wants to break the race’s record of 3 days and 19 hours after finishing second last year in 4:11:30, had a lead of a little over 14 miles at press time.
Bodewes had rode his hardtail bike 318.4 miles as of 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and was 27.4 miles away from the race’s next checkpoint at Cochetopa Park. Kevin Conerly was in second, pedaling 304 miles so far, followed by Kyle Perterson (295.3 miles), Bryan Klahn (287.9) and Hannes Meyle (280.7).
Bodewes has led for most of the race. He got to Wellington Lake 29 minutes before Peterson in 5:25. At Terryall Reservoir, Conerly was only two minutes behind Bodewes’ 10:05, but Bodewes started to pull away after that and got to Georgia Pass almost an 1½ hours before Conerly in 15:25. At the most recent checkpoint near Mount Shavano, Bodewes got there in 2:04:44, 4 hours ahead of Conerly.
Bodewes is averaging 122.8 miles per day. To break the record, he’ll need to arrive in Durango by 11 p.m. Wednesday.
“Personally, I think I have the potential to do it,” Bodewes said before the race. “I might as well try and see what happens.”
Out of the 87 registered riders in the race, 26 have scratched.
Follow Bodewes’ progress live at http://trackleaders.com/ctr22f.php.
