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FAIRBANKS -- After coming close in 2007, Jeff Oatley had to wait a full year for another shot at breaking the 200-mile record in the Fireweed 400 cycling race.

But after recently winning a 148-mile race in Haines and a 24-hour mountain bike event in Whitehorse, Yukon, Oatley liked his chances on Saturday.

“I was thinking 8 hours, 45 minutes was possible,” Oatley, 39, said of the scenic course from Sheep Mountain on the Glenn Highway to Valdez.

Such a time would have shattered Tom McMillan’s record from 2004 by 16 minutes.

However, aided by a steady tailwind and a massive chain ring, Oatley’s goals changed after he blitzed the first 100 miles Saturday at a pace of almost 26 miles per hour, his fastest “century” ever.

“I did the first 100 in 3:51 so at that point I knew I could go a bit faster than 8:45,” said Oatley, who also holds the record in the Fireweed’s signature 400-mile event. “I was feeling good, conditions were good.”

For much of the second half, after turning onto the Richardson Highway in Glennallen, Oatley faced the challenge of a moderate headwind, not to mention an arduous climb up Thompson Pass. With his father occasionally sprinting alongside to hand him drink bottles, Oatley was slowed significantly only once — to replace a flat tire a mile from the finish. He didn’t even halt to relieve himself, instead urinating twice in transit.

Oatley, mostly riding a high-tech Orbea time trial bike, crested the pass, cruised through Keystone Canyon and completed an epic ride in 8:32:55.

For perspective, Oatley rode more than 34 minutes faster than the 200 road race winner, who, unlike Oatley, was allowed to draft in a pack and thus conserve energy. Oatley was also 11 minutes quicker than the winning four-man relay team.

Eric Breitenberger, 47, of Fairbanks accomplished a similar feat, winning the 100-mile solo race in 4:14:19, which was 26 seconds faster than the 100 road race champ.

“It was a pretty steady and focused (effort),” Oatley said Sunday morning after camping in the Mineral Creek Valley just outside Valdez. “It wasn’t suffering at all until a couple times in the last hour and a half.

“It’s not really suffering. You just start to hurt. You kind of know you want to stop but it’s not that bad.”

In much windier conditions in 2007, Oatley raced a 9:08:51. So what made the difference this time?

“One of the things I was really focusing on was pedaling the downhills because there’s so much descending. A lot of people tend to slack on the downhills,” Oatley said.

Specifically for the Fireweed, Oatley installed a 55-tooth chain ring and strived to pedal descents at 100 revolutions per minute.

“If you keep pedaling hard, especially that big of a gear, you’re gonna go pretty fast,” Oatley said.

Now all that remains for a Fireweed distance triple is Matt Novakovich’s 100-mile record. In 2004, the Anchorage rider sped 50 miles down the Glenn and back to Sheep Mountain in 4:08:12.

Oatley is uncommitted about dropping down in distance, however.

“The 100 is pretty short for me,” said Oatley, also a veteran of the Race Across America.

Then he added jokingly: “If they would just count my 3:51 from (Saturday), that’d be fine.”

A Fireweed record of more than 700 cyclists participated in races ranging from 50 to 400 miles. Other top Fairbanks results included:

50 road race: Logan Hanneman, second, 2:04:59; Nick Ferree, fifth, 2:15:57.

100 road race: Reese Hanneman, sixth, 4:18:45.22; David Norris, seventh, 4:18:45.50.

200 solo: Sergey Streltsov, second, 10:08:15.

200 relay, 2-woman: Heather Best/Gail Koepf, second, 10:08:22.

200 relay, 2-person mixed: Amanda Byrd/Steve Clautice, fourth, 10:21:02.

200 relay: 4-woman: Laura Leblanc/Kate Bennett/Heather Edic/Tawna Morgan, fifth, 10:40:06.

200 relay, 4-man: Wyatt Mayo/Gerry Hovda/Robert Hovda, sixth, 9:56:02.

400 solo: Rocky Reifenstuhl, second, 24:46:27.