Red Bull’s Divide & Conquer may be turning its back on the San Juan Mountains, but another local adventure race is still going strong. On June 10, more than 150 adventure racers battled it out in the sixth annual Durango Adventure Xstream Adventure Race.

Competitors at the Adventure Xstream Adventure Race competed in a 60-mile or 100-mile courses testing their skills in trail running and mountain biking across challenging and variable terrain. Teams also navigated the course through 15 check points, completed a 250 foot Tyrolean traverse and kayaked down a stretch of the Animas River.

The midnight start began with a rush of teams picking coordinates, plotting the course and darting off into the night in numerous directions. The 40-plus-mile trek took teams between seven to 10 hours to complete as many of the nine check points as they could within the given time period. Hometown favorite, Team Durango.org, came in off the trek section having reached all the points just minutes before Team Go

Lite/Timberland and Team BagelWorks Montbell. Following the trek was mountain biking on the Hermosa Creek Trail, a 250-foot Tyrolean traverse and another grueling mountain bike segment over Jones Creek. Then racers transitioned into their kayaks for the final paddling stretch of the race to the finish line. 

Team Go Lite/Timberland (Keith Bushaw, Chris Boyd, Brad Mclean and Jen Segger) took first place in the 24-hour race, four-person, co-ed category with a time of 15 hours and 32 minutes. Second and third place went to Team Durango.org and Team BagelWorks/Montbell, respectively.

First place solo male finisher in the 12-hour race went to Ken Armstrong, of Durango, racing for Team Health FX, with a time of 7 hours and 6 minutes. Jan Nesset, also of Durango, crossed the finish line second in 7 hours and 46 minutes.

Full race results can be viewed at www.Gravity Play.com.

– Will Sands