Yesterday I was out riding the White Rim in Canyonlands National Park with some buddies ( mine was NOT the impressive feat) and we were overtaken by a fast solo rider who slowed to chat with us for a few miles. He was a sort of rabbit for USA MTB champ Keegan Swenson who was attempting to break the recently set record of 5:45 for the 100 mile track on an old uranium mining road. We were going clockwise and the record attempt was going to run in a counter-clockwise. So the ‘rabbit’ was just to give him a wave hopefully well past 1/2 way for Mr Swenson.

Sure enough - before too much longer we saw an approaching rider in Stars & Stripes drilling it with a huge grin and raising a rooster tail of red dust. Even looking for him, none of us got our phones out in time to catch a shot before he was out of sight. My guess is he was at 23-25 mph across the broken road at about mile 60. ( This is done without support for an ‘official ‘ FKT ).

He ended up taking 15 minutes off the record and finishing in 5:30 and I thought he deserved a shout-out here on ST since he most likely finished alone in a parking lot with maybe a mechanic to greet him.


https://www.instagram.com/...rce=ig_web_copy_link

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" I take my gear out of my car and put my bike together. Tourists and locals are watching from sidewalk cafes. Non-racers. The emptiness of of their lives shocks me. "
(opening lines from Tim Krabbe's The Rider , 1978