Anchorage’s Brian Bonney and Alicia Tower picked up titles Saturday at the Soggy Bottom 100, a mountain bike race on the Resurrection Pass and Devil’s Creek trails.
The trail is just over 100 miles long and has more than 10,000 feet of vertical gain and loss. Riders start in Hope, take Resurrection Pass to Cooper Landing, ride back up the Resurrection Pass trail before dipping down to the Devil’s Creek trailhead, then ride from the Devil’s Creek trailhead back to Hope.
This full course was used this year for the first time since 2018. In 2019, the event was shortened to 70 miles due to wildfire. In 2020, the event was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In that 2019 race, Seward’s Chuck DiMarzio, the 2013 and 2018 champion, had the lead before dropping out of the race after crashing.
DiMarzio, who has started every Soggy Bottom except for one since the event began in 2004, battled Bonney on Saturday.
DiMarzio led the race into Cooper Landing, arriving in 3 hours, 25 minutes and 33 seconds, which was 6 seconds ahead of Bonney. Bonney lost 26 more seconds on the transition, but won the leg from Cooper Landing to Devil’s Creek by 3 minutes and 33 seconds.
DiMarzio would win the leg from Devil’s Creek to Hope by 2 minutes and 28 seconds, but that was not enough to catch Bonney. Bonney won at 8:51:02, while DiMarzio crossed at 8:52:34.
While DiMarzio did not get the win, he did come back from his crash two years ago to set a new personal best in the race. Bonney’s winning time did not equal the 8:33:02 course record set by Soldotna’s Adam Reimer in 2017.
Tower came into Cooper Landing second among women, losing the trip over by 3 minutes, 15 seconds, to Anchorage’s Ana Jager. That didn’t matter when Tower dominated the next two legs to win at 11:09:14, while Jager was second at 11:44:50. Kinsey Loan still holds the course record for the women with her 2018 ride of 10:32:27.
The relay victory went to Anchorage’s James Stull, Brian Waldo and Branden Lashua in 8:18:53.
Soggy Bottom 100
Saturday
Men solo — 1. Brian Bonney, 8 hours, 51 minutes, 2 seconds; 2. Chuck DiMarzio, 8:52:34; 3. Miguel Arias-Paic, 9:05:02; 4. Dante Petri, 9:05:03; 5. Toomas Kollo, 9:15:41; 6. Oliver Sternicki, 9:42:11; 7. Aaron Thrasher, 9:51:03; 8. Jack Novak, 10:16:17; 9. Mike Filipowski, 10:20:01; 10. David Seramur, 10:25:04; 11. Nathan Zgnilec, 10:27:03; 12. Nathaniel King, 10:42:13; 13. Jim Jager, 11:19:40; 14. Dan Bailey, 11:46:22; 15. Mark Moeller, 11:58:47; 16. Tommy Vanvliet, 12:34:45; 17. Jamin Agosti, 12:48:48; 18. Jonathan Tower, 12:58:11; 19. Spencer Martin, 13:51:24; 20. Devan Andersen, 14:19:37.
DNF — Mark Stewart, Joshua Duffus.
Women solo — 1. Alicia Tower, 11:09:14; 2. Ana Jager, 11:44:50; 3. Corrie Smith, 11:56:18; 4. Hailey Stark, 13:01:42; 5. Hope McGratty, 13:55:01; 6. Aurora Hablett, 16:14:44.
Team relay — 1. James Stull-Brian Waldo-Branden Lashura, 8:18:53; 2. Lee McAuliffe-Paul Hosmanek-David Stanfield, 8:30:00; 3. Jason Rowland-Chris Robertson-Zac Cole, 9:20:57; 4. Nicholas Straka-Bryan Hudson-David Gamez, 9:48:06; 5. David Slyker-Eric Teixman-Ben Napolitano, 10:31:23; 6. Rebecca Noblin-Julie Fields-Eric Parsons, 10:54:35; 7. Morgan Aldridge-Kelly Carson-Elizabeth Rexford, 12:02:12; 8. Ann Spencer-Patrick Schmidt-David Spencer, 12:07:09; 9. Caleb Brown-Alex Long-Dylan Van Rozeboom, 12:28:13; 10. Bjorn Nilsson-Samuel Koster-Lucy Hankins, 12:37:19; 11. Chris Cavanaugh-Andrew Romerdahl-Christopher Schutte, 12:52:26; 12. Pam Weiss-Pam Todd-Genevieve Nolan, 12:55:21; 13. Chris Jung-Chet Fehrmann-Melissa Eaton, 12:57:06; 14. John Notestine-Brian Mead-Jasmin Martin, 13:47:43; 15. Amber Bethe-Molly Fierro-Frances DeBlare, 15:16:57; 16. Wanda Burdick-Carlene Van Tol-Roger Parr, 16:29:18.
