{"id":22305,"date":"2025-05-12T16:26:22","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T22:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/riders-enjoy-great-conditions-for-12-hours-of-mesa-verde\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:13:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:13:03","slug":"riders-enjoy-great-conditions-for-12-hours-of-mesa-verde","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/riders-enjoy-great-conditions-for-12-hours-of-mesa-verde\/","title":{"rendered":"Riders enjoy great conditions for 12 Hours of Mesa Verde"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jari
Jari Hiatt from Crested Butte took first place in the solo female division in the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde mountain bike race at the Phil\u2019s World trail system in Cortez. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

CORTEZ \u2013 After rains throughout the week in Montezuma County, sunny skies prevailed again Saturday, gracing the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde cycling race with ideal conditions for the showcase cycling event.<\/p>\n

Each year, athletes are encouraged to dress up in a theme \u2013 and the 2025 edition celebrated the Muppets.<\/p>\n

The 2024 edition had been cut short of the full 12 hours because of inclement weather in the late afternoon, so riders from all over the region who descended upon Phil\u2019s World this weekend were excited to enjoy the event\u2019s full challenge. At the end of a full day of hundreds of cyclists zipping around the 16.4-mile loop, the final results recognized the top performers in four individual and 12 team categories.<\/p>\n

The top male finisher in the solo field went to 16-year-old Benjamin Bigwood from Salt Lake City, who completed eight circuits in just over 11 hours \u2013 the only solo competitor to complete that many loops. Meanwhile, Crested Butte\u2019s Jari Hiatt won the women\u2019s solo race as one of three racers to complete seven laps \u2013 Hiatt crossed the line after her final lap in 11 hours, 14 minutes.<\/p>\n

\"Sixteen-year-old
Sixteen-year-old Kennedy Zimmerman of Pleasant Grove, Utah, took second place in the solo female division in the 2025 12 Hours of Mesa Verde mountain bike race at the Phil\u2019s World trail system in Cortez. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
The 2025 12 Hours of Mesa Verde\u2019s race theme was \u201cMuppets,\u201d and James Drasher from Reading, Pennsylvania, made an appearance as Beaker. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Grand Junction\u2019s Doug Thorp took the solo single speed category by completing seven laps in 11 hours, 12 minutes, while Matt Crowley of Draper, Utah won the \u201cgeezer\u201d race (50 and older) by circling seven laps in 10 hours, 56 minutes.<\/p>\n

In the team events, the most laps of the weekend were completed in the male duo category, where Jonathan Modig of Vail and teammate Logan Greydanus from Crested Butte raced nine laps in 11 hours, 19 minutes and two seconds, narrowly edging the winners of the 3-4 male category, where Golden\u2019s Brenden Beer, Camden Konegni, and Dylan Reid teamed up to finish nine laps in 11 hours, 19 minutes, and seven seconds.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Durango\u2019s coed duo of Diedre and Samuel Morrison also finished nine circuits, taking the top spot in their category with a time of 11 hours, 35 minutes. In the duo female category, Amanda Felder (Sedona, Arizona) and Erin Kelly (Crested Butte) won after racing eight laps in 11 hours, 13 minutes, while the top geezer duo \u2013 Ross Delaplane of Dolores and Randy Flores from Santa Fe raced eight loops in 12 hours, 14 minutes.<\/p>\n

Another Durango group won the 3-4 female category, with Blair Matlock, Brittany Cowan, Kathy Waage, and Rachel Ross taking down eight laps in 11 hours, 10 minutes, while the 3-4 geezer race went to Bettina Mills (Durango), Michael Grajeda (Mancos), Shawn Gregory (Dolores), and Dean Shreiner (Scottsdale, Arizona,), who completed nine laps in 11 hours, 58 minutes.<\/p>\n

The family category went to the quartet of Colorado Springs\u2019 Emmett Frozley, Alex Huppetz, Kier Eastvold, and Durango\u2019s Abram Fields \u2013 finishing nine laps in just over 12 hours, and the 3-4 coed group was won by Durango\u2019s Kerri Willis, Sarah Carmona, Kristi Good, and Mike Sampson, who raced eight laps in 11 hours, 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

In the grommet divisions (19 and under), Durango Devo won the 3-4 team race with Cedar Bremner, Jake Sandau, June Bremner, and Quentin Deluca completing nine laps in 11 hours, 30 minutes. Another Durango group won the 3-4 female title with Betty Holcomb, Ellie Shaw, Rowan Lott, and Tilia Clausen teaming up to complete eight laps in 11 hours, 21 minutes. In the 3-4 male race, a team of Asher Pope, Henry Stevens, Seth Norton, and Tanner Gillespie of Provo, Utah, won their race with nine laps in 11 hours, 45 minutes.<\/p>\n

Proceeds from the race help support more than 15 nonprofit organizations such as the Four Corners Child Advocacy Center, Good Sam\u2019s Food Pantry and the Pinon Project, race director Nic McDonald and the 12 Hours board look forward to continuing their legacy of giving. In 2024, it raised more than $85,000 in cash, goods, and service.<\/p>\n

Operating with a volunteer board, the race relies on the countless hours of the community members to make the whole race weekend flow smoothly. For individuals looking to get involved to either compete or to volunteer in various capacities like venue cleanup, helping with the kid\u2019s races or course marshaling, they can register on race\u2019s website \u2013 www.12hoursofmesaverde.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fantastic weather, festive atmosphere makes Saturday\u2019s event a success<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,39,28,37,36],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77656,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22305\/revisions\/77656"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22305"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}