An Interview With Alex Kowalski

My latest video is an interview with Alex Kowalski, winner of the singlespeed category at the 2024 Tour Divide. Alex has enjoyed a fruitful career in bikepacking races, including the Colorado Trail Race and DOOM. In this video, we catch up after riding a portion of the Monumental Loop together. We chat through history with bikes, how he got into racing, the custom Black Sheep he’s ridden to major wins, and his plans for the future. Watch the video below, followed by a transcript of our conversation.

Can you introduce yourself and tell us how you got into ultra-racing?

My name is Alex Kowalski. I’m originally from Venezuela, but I grew up in Florida. Eventually, I moved to Colorado, where I fell in love with outdoor sports. A few years ago, a dear friend passed away, and I started using the bike and ultra-racing as a way to process their death. The races became an outlet for the grief, and ever since then, it’s been my thing. I can’t live without it now. I’m constantly thinking about bikepack racing. It’s a problem.

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Give us some history on the races you’ve taken part in and what you’ve accomplished in the space.

The first race I ever participated in was the New Colo out in Durango, Colorado. It’s notoriously very hard. In the first year it took place, only three of us finished, and within the first 12 hours, only five remained in the race. The first 70 miles were treacherous.

From there, I had signed up for the Ouachita Triple Crown in Arkansas, a 180-mile mountain bike ultra. But then I saw a 1,000-mile race elsewhere and thought, “Well, if I do this 1,000-mile race, the 180-mile one will be a breeze.” I ended up finishing the 1,000-mile race, and ever since then, I have been stacking more races on top of each other. Last year, I rode the Grand Loop, then did the Colorado Trail Race, where I finished in just over five days. It felt like a huge accomplishment to hit that near-five-day finish, especially on just one gear. I should say, I managed to win the Tour Divide’s singlespeed category in 2024, finishing 15th overall. I was really stoked on that.

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Talk through the upcoming year. You’re set to do the Triple Crown Challenge, correct?

Yes! The Triple Crown Challenge is the Tour Divide, the Colorado Trail Race, and the Arizona Trail Race all in one year, taking part in each grand depart. My goal is simply to finish each of these races, ideally earning the singlespeed cumulative FKT for all three. It’s somewhere in the range of 32 days and was recently set by Zach Freundlich.

Which race are you looking forward to the most?

I love Colorado so much. I lived there for 12 years before moving to my current home in Arkansas about three years ago. It’s an incredible place to ride bikes, and I have so many memories in Colorado and on the trail. It’s nice to revisit these places while you’re in an interesting state of mind during a race. Passing through campgrounds you’ve spent nights at with friends, reliving those memories in difficult moments during the race, is cool. So, the Colorado Trail Race, but also the unknown of the Arizona Trail Race, is alluring. I hope we can do the whole thing and that the damage from last year’s fire isn’t so significant that we have to take a bunch of detours, but we’ll see.

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You’ll be singlespeeding all of these races. Can you share a little about the bike you’ll be riding?

It’s a frame model that James Bleakley at Black Sheep Bikes built. I believe he made six of them. They’re called the Speedster. It’s made of titanium and has a beautiful twin-tube design that runs the entire length of the frame. Once I saw that, I knew I had to have one. It’s got some amazing details, and James is a master of his craft.

For the Tour Divide, I’ll run this Fox 32 fork, and then I’ll switch to the Cane Creek Helm suspension fork for the trail races. I ran the Helm last year, and it’s a super cushy fork. I had no hand issues after using it on the Colorado Trail Race last year, so it felt like an obvious choice. It’s certainly worth the extra bit of weight. I’ve also got the Cane Creek eeWings, and I’ll be putting on one of their stems as well. Up front, I have the Whisky Skully bars with a BikeYoke dropper. Hopefully, I’ll be putting on a new set of wheels for my races this year, as I’m not sure Berd Spokes are the best option for 4,000 miles of racing.

Of course, the Mica Rack is in the rear, and I’ve even got some custom mounts I asked James to add on specifically for it.

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Can you offer some insights about your cargo and bags?

Zach Smith, from St. Louis, Missouri, also known as South City Stitch Works, made these bags. I’ve been running this specific set since Spring of last year, and they’ve held up incredibly well. My main frame and top tube bags are a combination of teal and black XPac with Ultragrid white. I’m running most of my sleep kit in the rear with some layers, and the rest is in this wearable Albion vest. I run my electronics and sleeping pad in the frame bag, and then I have my food and toolkit in the small bag on top. To help with water storage, I run the Botched Bikes Dragonfly downtube bottle adapter, and I’ll use it for all my upcoming races as well.

For lights, I’ll be using an Outbound light with a 30,000 mAh battery pack. I have the COROS Dura head unit, which is an absolute game-changer given how little it needs to be charged. It’s one of the main reasons I decided against using a dynamo. If it’s a sunny Tour Divide, I’ll likely only need to charge it a few times over the entire race, which simplifies what needs to be charged.

Sleep-wise, I’ll be using a bivvy with this thin Mountain Laurel Designs 1/8″ foam pad and a four-season Therm-a-Rest pad. I’ll also have a pillow, a 40° bag, and a puffy jacket with riding pants.

Finally, the most important question for a singlespeeder. What’s your gearing for these races?

On the 2024 Tour Divide, I ran 34 x 18. It’s just below a 2-to-1 ratio. However, I’ve been enjoying running a smaller chainring recently, so I’ll likely run a 30 x 16T for this year’s race. For the Colorado Trail, I ran a 30 x 21 last year, and that was spot on. I didn’t feel like I was hiking anything I couldn’t ride. And I’ll keep it the same for the Arizona Trail Race or drop down to 30 x 20. I’m also using an absoluteBLACK oval chainring. If you have a stubborn root or rock that you need to get over, the half-rotation available through the shape is a huge plus.

For more from Alex, follow him on Instagram.

Further Reading

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