Bolton and Easter win gravel titles at Wasatch All-Road

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Chelsea Bolton won the pro women's division and Griffin Easter took the honors for the pro men at the 2022 Wasatch All-Road in Heber, Utah. Both Utah-based riders improved from third-place finishes at the inaugural gravel event last year.

"It was awesome and I am a super fan of the Wasatch Wall, so my goal was to go up that as hard as I could," Bolton said. "I was so focused on the wall that I wasn't aware of where I was in relation to anyone else. My goal was to just hit that wall hard. I did this race last year and I wanted to have a faster time up the wall than last year. I'm a slow descender, so, I figured that if I had any chance of getting in the top-3 I would have to hard up that wall."

The Full Yeti course returned for 100 miles with more than 11,000 feet of vertical gain across the Uinta range of the Wasatch Mountains. The opening section of the course brings the "Wasatch Wall", a climb of 5,000 feet of climbing across deep sand and washboards. 

Bolton held off a trio of riders to secure her victory. From the chase group, Emma Grant, who finished ninth at Gravel Worlds in Nebraska, took second, 3:24 behind Bolton, but 31 seconds ahead of a charging duo of Lindsey Stevenson and Crystal Anthony. On the finishing circuit at the Soldier Hollow Nordic Center at Wasatch Mountain State Park, a venue used at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, Stevenson sprinted to the final podium spot.

The men's race also saw a pack of riders survive a long day of climbing to the Soldier Hollow circuit. Easter outlasted Zach Calton for the victory by 40 seconds. Kyle Trudeau finished third, another 26 seconds later. 

"At the end we all three came into the final 4-mile circuit around Soldier Hollow where I managed to get separation and hang on to the line. Not often you get to have a local race of this quality down the road with such quality racers in attendance," Easter said on Instagram.