Durango · Full + Sprint
Exchange Zones
Where the timing bracelet changes hands, and how to make every hand-off clean.
One clock, handed on
A Valkyrie team races against one clock. It starts with your first athlete and stops when your last athlete finishes, and it never pauses in between. Every leg ends at an exchange, where the athlete coming in hands the team’s timing bracelet to the athlete going out.
Time lost at an exchange is team time. The fastest teams are the ones that are ready.
How every exchange works
- Be there early, and be ready. The athlete going out is at the exchange, dressed, fuelled, with bike, board or boat ready, before their teammate arrives. The race does not shuttle athletes between exchanges.
- Boats and boards stay on shore. Paddlers and paddleboarders wait at staging, not in the water. The hand-off happens on land.
- Only two athletes in the hand-off box. The athlete arriving, the athlete leaving, and race officials. Wingmates and friends cheer from outside it.
- Pass the bracelet inside the exchange. The bracelet changes hands only in a marked exchange, across the timing line, or in front of an official. Only the athlete racing wears it.
- Cross the timing line. The athlete leaving starts their leg by crossing the timing line. The athlete arriving clears the box so the next team can come through.
Two bracelets, not one
Your team carries two timing bracelets on race day.
The timing bracelet
Travels the land-and-river chain: trail run, mountain bike, road cycle, river paddle, road run.
The lake bracelet
Used only at Lake Nighthorse, by your paddleboarder and your swimmer.
The road cyclist starts the lake bracelet on its way with a tag at the lake.
The exchanges, in order
Nine hand-offs across the day. Two of them work differently on each course.
Exchange 1
Trail Run → Mountain Bike
Santa Rita Whitewater Park
The trail runner finishes at Santa Rita and hands the timing bracelet to the mountain biker, who starts the mountain bike leg.
Exchange 2
Mountain Bike → Road Cycle
Santa Rita Whitewater Park
The mountain biker finishes back at Santa Rita and hands the timing bracelet to the road cyclist. The road cyclist then rides a short transit to Lake Nighthorse. The transit is not part of the road cyclist’s own leg time, but it is part of the team’s total time, so don’t dawdle. New for 2027: the road cyclist must ride the transit.
Exchange 3
The lake tag: Road Cycle → Paddleboard
Lake Nighthorse, Swim Beach
The road cyclist arrives at the lake and physically tags the paddleboarder. The paddleboarder starts on the lake bracelet.
Full course
The road cyclist keeps going, straight away, on the clock. The road cycle and the two lake legs happen at the same time.
Sprint course
The road cyclist waits at the lake until the swimmer finishes and tags them, then starts the timed road cycle.
Exchange 4
Paddleboard → Swim
Lake Nighthorse, Swim Beach
The paddleboarder finishes, beaches briefly and hands the lake bracelet to the swimmer. The paddleboarder then goes back on the water as a spotter for their own swimmer. Swimmers wait on the beach for the tag, not in the water.
Exchange 5
Sprint only: Swim → Road Cycle
Lake Nighthorse, Swim Beach to the parking lot
The swimmer leaves the water and crosses the timing line to end the swim, then crosses the road and jogs the short trail to the parking lot to tag the waiting road cyclist. This connection is on the clock.
Full teams: the road cyclist left before the swim began, so there is no swim-to-cycle tag on the Full.
Exchange 6
Road Cycle → River Paddle
Oxbow Park, Animas River
The road cyclist finishes at Oxbow and hands the timing bracelet to the paddler, or to both paddlers in a tandem boat. The boat must still be on shore when the hand-off is made. A paddle override start protects the paddle leg late in the day: paddlers who are present and ready but have not been tagged by a set time start on an organiser-issued bracelet. The 2027 time will be published with the course hours.
Exchange 7
River Paddle → Road Run
Santa Rita Whitewater Park take-out
Paddlers finish at the Santa Rita take-out and must leave the water with their boat and carry it to the canoe and kayak staging area. The road runner leaves from the exchange zone at the take-out.
Exchange 8
Road Run midpoint
Full: Santa Rita Whitewater Park · Sprint: Dallabetta Park
The road run can be raced by one runner or split between two. Two runners hand over at the midpoint. A single runner doesn’t exchange but must still cross the timing line there.
Exchange 9
Finish
Santa Rita Whitewater Park
The road runner brings the timing bracelet home. The team’s clock stops.
Full and Sprint at a glance
| Full | Sprint | |
|---|---|---|
| Transit to the lake | road cyclist, untimed for the leg, counts for the team | same |
| At the lake | road cyclist tags the paddleboarder and keeps riding | road cyclist tags the paddleboarder and waits |
| Swim finish | swim ends, lake bracelet done | swimmer tags the waiting road cyclist |
| Road-run midpoint | Santa Rita Whitewater Park | Dallabetta Park |
For Wingmates
A Wingmate is a registered, non-racing member of a team’s support crew. At exchanges, Wingmates are the difference between a clean hand-off and a scramble.
Wingmates may
- be in the exchange area, outside the hand-off box
- hold and stage gear: bikes, boards, boats, layers, food
- drive athletes and gear between exchanges
Wingmates may not
- enter the hand-off box
- pace, shadow or accompany an athlete on course
- follow an athlete in a vehicle on an open road
Anything a Wingmate does is the team’s responsibility.
Plan the day, not just the race. The race doesn’t shuttle athletes, so each athlete needs a way to reach their exchange early. Build your team’s plan around who drives whom, and when.
Parking notes from 2025
Expected again; confirmed with the 2027 course.
- Horse Gulch trailhead: operational vehicles only. Please don’t park there.
- Santa Rita: main parking for the start, finish and Santa Rita exchanges. Overflow parking at Cundiff Park.
- Oxbow Park: volunteers watch gear there from mid-morning. The best plan is to drop off gear and not leave a car there.
- The Bivouac: not an exchange zone, and not a parking or spectator area.
Before race day — team checklist
- Every athlete knows which exchange they start from and which they finish at.
- Every athlete has a ride to their exchange, early.
- Bikes, boards and boats have a plan to get to their exchange, and from it afterwards.
- Your paddleboarder knows they spot for your swimmer after their own leg.
- Your paddlers know they carry the boat out at Santa Rita.
- Your road cyclist knows the transit counts for the team, and what they do at the lake on your course.
- If you have a racer under 18, their supervising adult knows which exchanges to be at.
Still being confirmed for 2027
Exchange maps and diagrams · course hours and cutoffs · the paddle override start time · parking and vehicle access · Wingmate registration details. These are published here as they are confirmed.
Exchange locations and the hand-off sequence come from the race directors’ 2026-09-22 course note, and match the leg records this site already publishes. No leg distance appears on this page, and no exchange times: the day’s schedule is modelled on the run sheet and is not a cutoff until the Race Bible sets one.