Jeff Kerkove of Buena Vista, Colorado, claimed victory at this year’s Doom, a 390-mile endurance bikepacking race through some of the toughest terrain the Ozarks have to offer. In the process, he set the course’s fastest time at 42 hours, 23 minutes.
“I was fortunate to roll back to Oark at 1:30 a.m. with the win and course record — but holy hell the Doom route does everything it can to shatter your mind and body into a thousand little pieces,” Kerkove said. “The climbing is violent and unrelenting. You’re either going up or going down. There’s not an inch of flat terrain on the full route. You will hike-a-bike up some of the climbs because they are so steep. I think I pushed my bike up nearly a dozen climbs because my legs were either so fried or I couldn’t keep rear wheel traction.”
Maggie Livelsberger of Erie, Pennsylvania, won the women’s category at three days, four hours and three minutes. She is the first woman to have completed the course on a single speed.
Lindsay Shepard said once wasn’t enough — she completed a yo-yo of the course, which is to do the course in one direction and turn around and finish it going the other direction. She completed the nearly 800 miles in seven days, 13 hours, 29 minutes.