Seward’s Chaz DiMarzio, 46, overcame a broken handlebar and steady rain to win his fourth Soggy Bottom 100 mountain bike race Saturday, Aug. 2, on the Resurrection and Devil’s Creek trail systems.
The race is about 107 miles long, starting and ending in Hope, with over 100 miles of continuous singletrack.
With a trip to Cooper Landing, and a side trip down the Devil’s Creek trail on the way back, the route has over 10,000 feet of climb and descent.
DiMarzio’s winning time was 10 hours and 51 minutes. Last year, DiMarzio won in 9:22, while he set his personal best of 8:52:34 on the course in 2021.
“I always say the people who take 13 or 14 hours to finish this thing have a much harder day than I do finishing in nine,” DiMarzio said. “But this year, I was pretty much one of those people.”
Rain slowed the course down Saturday.
“It was supposed to improve slightly as the day went on, which I guess it kind of did,” said DiMarzio, who has finished all but five races since the event began in 2004. “This is the first, I think, ever Soggy that essentially rained from start to finish.”
DiMarzio said there were times the rain stopped, but even during those periods the brush remained wet. When a rider crashes through that brush, a “car wash” effect ensues, with the cold water robbing the body of heat.
These were the worst conditions, start to finish, that DiMarzio has seen in the race. He said in the early 2010s, the first two-thirds were dry, but a downpour on the last leg of the race turned the trail into a river on the way down to Hope. It was so bad DiMarzio withdrew 15 miles from the finish.
DiMarzio said riding in 50-degree rain all day presents a unique challenge.
“You just get cold, especially the hands and feet,” he said. “You have to have a dialed system for that type of stuff, and you’ve got to be able to keep moving to generate enough warmth.
“And then the other one is it just makes all the rocks slippery, or there’s a bunch of wood bridges on the Hope side that are off camber and super slippery when they’re wet.
“Basically every challenge of an event like this is exasperated in those conditions. It’s harder to eat, it’s harder to drink, it’s harder to literally do everything.”
The course record was set by Will Ross in 2022 at 8:28:39, but just finishing Saturday was an accomplishment.
With the forecast calling for rain all day, only 14 individuals started the race, with half dropping out. There were no women’s finishers.
In terms of brush, DiMarzio said the trail was not in perfect condition, with the worst section coming most of the way between Swan Lake and the intersection with Devil’s Creek.
He said the reason for so many DNFs was definitely the rain. The relay riders did not have to spend as long in the rain. The relay had eight teams do three legs each, and only one relay leg was not completed.
The rain also almost robbed DiMarzio of a finish when he was cruising by Juneau Lake on the way to Cooper Landing.
“Just a stupid moment where I was trying to take on a gel,” he said. “I just took both hands off the bars because my gel was so cold in my flask that I had to squeeze it with both hands to get it to come out.”
DiMarzio’s front tire hit a rock and he went down on his left side, bending the handlebar just inside the brake lever. That meant he couldn’t use the brake or shifter on his left side.
With the trail relatively easy riding until the intersection with the Bean Creek trail, DiMarzio knew he had time to ride and formulate a plan.
He was originally going to ask Nico Baudin, a relay rider in front of DiMarzio, to borrow his handlebar at Cooper Landing.
At the Juneau Creek bridge construction, Tim Bernston, another relay rider who DiMarzio has raced with for years, caught DiMarzio and told him the broken handlebar was a tough way to end the race.
“I said, ‘Who said it’s over?’” DiMarzio said. “Then I proceeded to ask him if I could borrow his handlebar.”
DiMarzio said he then began the perilous descent into Cooper Landing lacking 80% of his stopping power due to the lack of a front brake.
He thought he would fall numerous times, but the only time he did is when Bernston fell in front of DiMarzio, and DiMarzio ran into Bernston. Luckily, Bernston’s handlebar wasn’t damaged.
In the course of repairs in Cooper Landing and then adjustments when back on the trail, Peter Noon passed DiMarzio, but DiMarzio took the lead again at the top of the climb to the Bean Creek intersection and never looked back.
Nicholas Harman was second at 11:26, while Noon was third at 11:28 and Seward’s Bjorn Nilsson was fourth at 11:28.
DiMarzio said all his experience in the race paid off and thanked his wife, Tasha DiMarzio, for all her support over the years. DiMarzio has been no worse than second in the race since 2012, not counting three times he didn’t finish.
“It gives me an advantage from an experience standpoint, because I know what I have to do,” he said. “But that experience also is a bit of a disadvantage, because I know what I’m in for.”
The team of Bernston, Casey Fagerquist and Greg Matyas won the relay at 9:23.
Seward’s Tasha DiMarzio and Emily Mailman teamed with Baudin to finish fourth in 12:10.
Soggy Bottom 100
Saturday
Individual
1. Chaz DiMarzio, 10 hours, 51 minutes; 2. Nicholas Harman, 11:26; 3. Peter Noon, 11:28; 4. Bjorn Nilsson, 11:28; 5. Anthony Vitellaro, 14:29; 6. Reid Haflich, 14:44; 7. Michael Fee, 14:44.
DNF — Ryan Bateman, Margaret Power, Declan Priddy, Anna Rupper, Matti Silta, R Brian Woodbury, Lucy Hankins.
Relay
1. John Lackey is my Spirit Animal (Tim Berntson, Casey Fagerquist, Greg Matyas), 9:23; 2. Good Legs, Bad Attitude (David Kingston, Gilia DeGange, David Kingston), 10:56; 3. Glitter and Bad Decisions (Najeeby Quinn, James Howery), 10:59; 4. The Pushki Pruners (Nico Baudin, Emily Mailman, Tasha DiMarzio), 12:10; 5. Pinocchio’s Pals (Paul Matthews, Alison Matthews, David Finocchio), 12:22; 6. Glizzy Grinders (Bryson DeRonde, Michael Hooper, Colin McKenzie), 13:20; 7. Midnight Meow (Diana Biggs, Rosie Fee, Maggie Malouf), 13:30; 8. Wet Hot American Bottoms (Noah Lohr, Ali Parker, Anthony Parcarelli), DNF/12:07.
