Last year broke me

I came into The Rift 2025 with a partially healed repetitive stress injury in my shoulder, caused by riding single track on rigid gravel bikes at high PSI. Going into The Rift that year wasn’t going to help as I didn’t change anything about my build; it turns out if you’re riding for any extended period of time, you’re going to get tired, and it’s not just the legs, it’s the whole body. When you’re depleted, you stop relying on your muscles as much and start to take the beating to your actual joints and tendons. This is what hurt me after last year’s race. Bonking at mile 80 and then still having to traverse the volcanic wasteland for the next 40 miles. Tired, locked out arms, taking the beating to my shoulder fully; it took me almost a full year of mistakes and PT to regain confidence in my shoulder to ride something that rough again.

The build that fixed it

Enter WEIS & HUNT. The goal was to build a bike to not just survive The Rift, but to finish strong. After careful collaboration in the design process with Cole, Tom and Logan at Weis (@weismfg), we were able to build out a Gravel Ti Plus frame that supported the FOX 32 Taper-Cast with 40mm of suspension and 2.2” tires front and back, all kept together with HUNT's 40 Limitless Gravel Aero wheel set. Rounding it out was a custom Type 3 (@type3.made) frame bag made by Coleman Camp, with a waterproof zipper flap designed to keep the elements out. On a course with 6 river crossings, this is a big deal. This combination made for a dream machine that would have me finishing The Rift feeling GOOD. So many people I talked to at the finish line were talking about their bodies hurting, and I didn’t even think to realize that I felt fine. My legs and energy levels were completely drained of course, but structurally, I felt great. This year was a success. I improved on my time from last year and didn’t leave the event in shambles. ;)

The volcanic wasteland

The Rift takes you through some of the most alien terrain I've ever ridden. At a certain point, life just stops. The green pastures and flowers you saw while rolling in ceased to exist when it all became black rock and grit, accompanied by snow-peaked volcanoes in the distance. The only living, moving thing I saw all day that wasn't a cyclist was a small spider at aid station 3; that was it.

The terrain itself is bumpy and (physically and mentally) challenging for long stretches, forgiving only here and there. Those forgiving stretches are the only times anyone can pull out a phone to film; this is why almost every clip you see from The Rift makes it look like champagne gravel– nobody's filming the hard stuff. Thankfully there were photographers conveniently stationed at a few key moments to catch what you'd never grab yourself.

Then there were the river crossings.. 6 that I can remember. All of them "rideable", but I'd put the odds of going down at about 50% at the first one. And do you really want to fully submerge yourself at the start of a 120-mile gravel race when it's 55F/12.5C out and might rain later?

At the middle deep river crossing, by the bag drop zone, I fully sent it. Honestly, I might as well have gone for a swim, ha. The impact alone shovels up so much water that it felt exactly like that. I came out feeling dirty and clean at the same time, nasty from the ride, but freshly washed in glacial water. That crossing is also the start and end of a 10-mile lollipop loop, and right as I rolled into the aid station, Julia was already leaving it, her 10 miles done. She had a big gap on me at this point already.

The cherry on top

This brings me to the best part of the whole race. The women’s field started 30 minutes before the men’s, and Julia’s main fuel source wasn’t carbs… it was making sure none of the NYC men caught her before the finish. With 50mm tires on her set of HUNT wheels, she nearly pulled it off; only 1 of the 9 NYC men made it past in the end. She took the women’s overall podium in 3rd place at 9 hours and 10 minutes, beating my time by 40 minutes. An incredible athlete I’m proud to call my partner. 

To wrap things up, for lack of better words, this event is truly out of this world. The environment is surreal and straight out of a sci-fi film, I’m looking at you, “The Martian”. The race demands technical, physical, and mental skills in a way that simply doesn’t compare to anything else. I feel so grateful to be able to race bikes with my friends around the world, building stories we will carry with us for a lifetime.

The crew

Weis Factory Gravel Team @weismfg
Me — @atb.media
Max Hoffman — @maxhoffman
Nikolas Ray — @nikolas.ray
Terry Barentsen — @terrybarentsen
Tom Bloxam — @tombloxam
Logan Sholmire — @logansholmire
Cole Bennett — @weismfg

Friends
Coleman Camp — @colemancamp
Sam Tetro — @ortetmas

Chase Wieler — @chasewheeler.art

Kruis Team — @kruiscx
Julia Wilkins — @julthefool
Sophia Krivoruchko — @babblingbabushka

Aryelle Jacobson