HALEAKALA — Three years ago, Jesse Williams came across a Cycle to the Sun poster in a bike shop on Hawaii island that displayed a victorious biker at the finish line atop Haleakala.

“Ever since then I’ve been training to come here,” said Williams, of Las Vegas.

On Saturday morning, he was the one celebrating as he crossed the finish line first in the grueling 36-mile, 10,000-foot vertical climb to the summit of Haleakala with a time of 3 hours, 1 minute, 41 seconds — about 3 minutes faster than last year when he placed second.

“First when I saw it, I just thought, ‘I would love to do that race someday,’ so to win it is extremely special,” Williams said at the top of Haleakala National Park near the visitor center. “Regardless of how you do, you get to be at this amazing event and be in one of the most beautiful places in the world, that is truly special.”

The Cycle to the Sun is considered the longest paved climb in the world, according to organizers. As a comparison, the famed Mont Ventoux in the Tour de France is a 5,336-foot climb over 13.6 miles.

Williams almost didn’t have the chance to tackle the trek up Haleakala on Saturday.

“This week was great,” Williams said. “I was sick with COVID early last week, so I didn’t know if I’d come so I was just fortunate to get healthy at the last minute and be able to come. It’s really special, you know, my dad, my uncle and girlfriend all came, so it’s kind of cool.”

After getting a taste of the event last year, he learned to pace himself while making the challenging — and particularly windy this year — ride.

“You have to realize you’re going to 10,000 feet and so you really have to conserve your energy throughout and stay in the pack,” he said. “Especially on a day like today where it’s so windy, you stay in the pack and conserve your energy, that really helps a lot.”

About 200 cyclists from around the world took off from the starting line in Paia early Saturday morning and cranked up towards the summit, sometimes cycling an 18 percent incline.

There were about 20 competitors in the lead group until many began to fade at about 7,000 feet. Williams said it was over the last two miles that he began to push to try and break away for the win.

In that front pack that hung on was eventual runner-up Pete Dunne of Wailuku, the first Maui cyclist to complete the windy and hilly route on Saturday. Dunne finished with a time of 3:02:44, which by 4:30 is a personal record from last year when he placed fifth overall.

Carl Nethercutt of Oahu was third for the second consecutive year with a time of 3:03:01.

“It was good, the wind held us back a little bit down below, but then we got into the lee of Haleakala, it was pretty good,” Dunne said. “We were able to help each other on the way up and as it usually happens, the pack thins out once we hit Crater Road and we kind of get to see who’s who. Today, the Mainland guy got it — he was second last year — and yeah, he’s a fast guy.”

Climbing above 8,500 feet and hitting the third hour into the race is usually when the grueling aspects of the course settle in.

“You notice your effort is still high but you’re not making as much power and you’re going slower,” Dunne said. “You try to supplement with caffeine and nutrition, but don’t overdo it. Today I had a good balance, I fueled well. I had a good strategy. I think that’s where a lot of people fail — they don’t eat enough.”

Though he speaks like a veteran cyclist, Dunne really only started biking just before the pandemic. First with mountain biking and then road biking shortly after. A few years later, Dunne is already among the top Cycle to the Sun finishers.

“I finished fifth last year and it kind of got me stoked on biking,” he said. “We have a good bike community here on Maui.”

* Dakota Grossman is at dgrossman@mauinews.com.