Masters Men Handcycle: Taylor Takes the Title, De los Santos Rewrites the Race

• Michael Taylor (New York) wins the Masters Men handcycle in 1:32:59 at a 3:33/mi average, holding steady at 5th among men through most of the course before closing it out.
• Alfredo De los Santos (Hopewell Jct, NY) posts the fastest men's split on the 25K–30K segment and leads the men's gender standings for much of the race, finishing 2nd in Masters Men in 1:09:49 — a blistering 2:40/mi average.
• Ricardo Corral (Jackson Hts, NY) rounds out the podium in 1:44:36 (3:59/mi), logging the 11th-fastest men's split on the 30K–34.3K segment.
• Six finishers came in under 1:35 — Taylor (1:32:59), Jeff Chaffin (1:32:57), Latseen Benson (1:33:47), and John Masson (1:33:52) all within 55 seconds of each other.

The Masters Men handcycle field of 35 rolled out before the main running field on a crisp 44°F morning in Arlington — cool, calm conditions well-suited to fast propulsion across the 26.2-mile loop through Washington D.C. And fast it was at the front, where Alfredo De los Santos made his boldest statement between 25K and 30K, posting the fastest men's split on that segment. He spent large stretches of the race sitting 1st among men overall, and his 1:09:49 — a 2:40/mi average — is the fastest finish time in the Masters Men field by a wide margin. Yet by the division's own scoring, De los Santos finished 2nd. Michael Taylor, clocking 1:32:59 at 3:33/mi, took the Masters Men title.

That gap between De los Santos's raw time and Taylor's is a reminder of how handcycle classification works: different equipment classes mean finish times don't race head-to-head the same way. Taylor was a model of consistency, holding 5th or 6th among men at every checkpoint tracked, and he backed it up with the 4th-fastest men's split on the 5K–10K segment. Jeff Chaffin (Cypress, TX) finished 6th in Masters Men at 1:32:57 — two seconds faster on the clock than Taylor — but the places tell the authoritative story, and Taylor's is the win.

Ricardo Corral (1:44:36, 3:59/mi) held 13th among men from the 13K mark onward and never wavered, claiming 3rd in Masters Men with a strong 30K–34.3K split. Behind the podium, a tight cluster formed: Benson (1:33:47), Masson (1:33:52), and Brooks (1:37:20) filled out the top nine. Dustin Herzog (Las Vegas, NV) made the most visible progress of any finisher in the data, moving from 26th to 23rd among men across the race en route to 4th in Masters Men at 2:20:16. All 35 Masters Men finishers completed the same iconic loop that defines one of the largest marathons in the world — and on a sharp autumn morning, the front of this field made it look fast.