Racing the Arizona Trail

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The Arizona Trail 300

Suggested Start Date: Thursday, April 5th, 2018 - 8:00am
AZT Trailhead, Parker Canyon Lake
No entry fee, no prizes, absolutely no support

The Arizona Trail 300 is a self supported, wilderness mountain biking race held on a portion of the cross state Arizona Trail. The race follows the trail as closely as possible from Mexico to Superior, AZ, covering some 300 miles of varied terrain (elevations range from 1600 to 8100 ft). The trail surface is primarily singletrack, but the race will detour on dirt and pavement to bypass wilderness areas the trail passes through.

This is not an organized or sanctioned event in any way. It's simply a group of friends out to ride their bikes on the same route at the same time. We'll probably compare times afterwards, but more importantly, we'll compare experiences -- the highs and lows the trail and mountains offered us.

All we provide is a route, a suggested start date(*) and tabulation of results. Period. There is no race organization, no checkpoints, no support system, nothing. You are completely on your own, just as you would be if you chose to ride the Arizona Trail, or any other trail, on any other day.

(*) Anyone is welcome to ride the route at any time. We provide a suggested start date if you want others to ride with/against. ITTs (individual time trials) are encouraged and will be ranked with that year's results. However, please, if you are going to show up on the suggsted date, plan to start at the suggested time as well, out of respect for other riders.

If you want to be included in the "results" you need to follow the rules of self-supported travel set on the rules page. This means things like support crews and water caches are not allowed. This is done in order to ensure a level playing field.

Route

Using a GPS device is the preferred method of following the route. Cue sheets are also provided for those that do not wish to use a GPS.

---> Click here for route details and GPS downloads <---


(click to enlarge)



3D image from TopoFusion

RULES

Please take the time to review the rules and spirit of the race:

AZT Rules

Contact

Scott Morris - smorris@topofusion.com

First, please consider posting your questions to bikepacking.net's Ultra Forum. There is a yearly forum thread there with common questions asked and answered. There's a helpful community of AZT riders that can help, and that way your questions (and answers) can help others with the same questions.

Discussion

Each year there is a discussion thread including updates, SPOT info, declarations of intent, heckling, etc is over at bikepacking.net in the Ultra Racing Forum. Please check in there in the weeks leading up to the race for the latest updates.

There is no registration, but if you would like to let the world know you will be starting, by all means post in the forum thread. Thanks. The 'event' is limited to 75 people total.

Older Words, Links

  • 2012 bp.net thread
  • 2011 bikepacking.net thread
  • 2009 bikepacking.net thread
  • 2008 MTBR AZT 300 thread
  • 2007 Results and stories
  • 2006 Results and stories
  • Scott's 2006 race report
  • Scott and Lee's trip on the AZT