Brent Winebarger of Durango won the Road Apple Rally’s professional division open race on Saturday in Farmington, edging out five-time winner Todd Wells by less than a second.
Three bikers finished within about 2 seconds of Winebarger, but he held them off to win the race for a fourth time. Winebarger, 44, completed the 30-mile mountain bike race in 1 hour, 42 minutes and 26.18 seconds.
Wells crossed second in 1:42:26.57, followed by Guy Leshem (1:42:27.54), Rotem Ishay (1:42:28.26) and Macky Franklin (1:42:54.88).
The top three were the same as in 2019, the last time the race was held in person, except Wells finished ahead of Winebarger then. Last year’s race was held virtually, and participants recording their times on mobile apps. Winebarger won the race last year as well as the 2018 and 2015 competitions.
McKenzie Winebarger, Brent’s wife, was the first female to finish in 2:04:49.69, finishing ahead of runner-up Tamatha Risner (2:10:27.27) by almost 6 minutes.
McKenzie finished in 10th overall out of the 18 competitors in the pro division.
The race was the 41st edition of the Road Apple Rally, which is the longest continually run mountain bike race in the nation.
Randy Flores won the Cat 1 long course race in 1:49:02.28, besting runner-up Gene Hilton by over 2 minutes as well as 31 other competitors. Jessica Wood led the female contingent, crossing in 2:12:45.22.
In the Cat 2 long course, Hans Martin finished first out of 45 competitors in 2:05:15.63. Julie VanSomeren was the first female to finish in 2:26:37.75
The short course Cat 3 had the biggest field, with 97 bikers. Mike Ziems, however, was the first to finish, in 56:56.72. Katherine Waage won the female division in 1:01:17.56.
