Win a Specialized Crux Comp Carbon Gravel Bike — Wood River Trails Coalition 2026 Raffle

What you're looking at

The prize is a Specialized Crux Comp Carbon, and the Crux is the interesting outlier in modern gravel. While most of the category spent the last five years adding suspension linkages, storage hatches and mounting bosses, Specialized took the cyclocross frame it already had and made it lighter instead. The Wood River Trails Coalition page quotes the frameset at 825g for the FACT 10r layup used on the Comp — the S-Works 12r version drops to 725g — and complete Crux Comp builds are generally quoted around 8.5 kg, or a shade under 19 lb, in a 56.

The build listed is the Shimano GRX 12-speed groupset on DT G540 disc wheels with 2Bliss Ready 700x38mm Pathfinder Pro tires. That is the sensible end of the Crux range: GRX is the durable, unglamorous, genuinely good gravel drivetrain, the G540 is a workhorse rim rather than a hero wheel, and the frame clears 47c rubber if you want to run something fatter than the stock Pathfinders. Note that the 700x38 Pathfinder Pro spec matches the prior-model-year Crux Comp; the current build ships on 700x40s, so the exact bike may be a leftover model year rather than the newest one.

Why it matters

A sub-19 lb carbon gravel bike behaves differently from the rest of the class. On rolling, fast, hardpack terrain — which is most of what the Wood River Valley has — the Crux accelerates and climbs like a road bike that happens to have clearance, and that is precisely the point of the design. It is a race frame, and it rides like one: firm over chunk, sparse on bikepacking mounts, not the bike you buy to load with four litres of water and a frame bag for a week in the desert. If you want a fast day bike or a cyclocross-adjacent racer, it is close to the best-in-class answer at this price. If you want a loaded adventure rig, it is the wrong tool and always has been.

The operator is the kind you want behind a raffle: Wood River Trails Coalition is a registered 501(c)(3) in Hailey, Idaho (EIN 01-0975346, PO Box 756, Hailey, ID 83333) that builds and maintains trails in the valley, and it has run this raffle for years with winners named and photographed on the page going back to 2020 — Andrew Stoddard, Terry O'Connor, Joe Braubaker, Casey Hanrahn and Mike Lynch, Kevin Hicks and Hanna Diamond. Verifiable past winners are the single most useful legitimacy signal in this space, and they are right there on the page.

The fine print worth knowing

This is a raffle, not a sweepstakes, and there is no free way in. Every entry path runs through a payment: $10 contributed equals one ticket, a new WRTC membership earns a ticket per $10 of recurring membership value, a renewal earns a ticket, and recruiting a new member earns the recruiter a ticket. That is legal here in a way it would not be for a corporate sweepstakes — Idaho permits qualified nonprofits to sell raffle tickets outright — but it does mean there is no no-purchase-necessary route to look for. Don't go hunting for one.

The bike you win may not be the bike in the photo. The rules state plainly: "Actual bicycle color and specs may differ from pictured bicycle." No frame size or colour is published anywhere, so sizing is something you sort out after you win rather than something the raffle guarantees. On a $3,500 bike where fit is the whole experience, that is the term most worth knowing before you buy tickets.

Collection is in person. "Bicycle will be available to pick up at the WRTC offices" — Hailey, Idaho. There is no shipping promise in the rules, so an out-of-state winner is arranging their own transport or freight.

Tickets are not deductible. The rules say so directly: "Raffle tickets are not tax deductible, per IRS regulations." This trips up people who assume any payment to a 501(c)(3) is a write-off — a raffle ticket buys a chance at a prize, so the IRS treats it as a purchase, not a gift. The winner also assumes all taxes and expenses related to claiming the prize.

Deadline, drawing and notification. Tickets close at 5:00PM on 9/30/2026 and the drawing is held on 10/1/2026, by random selection. "Winners will be notified by phone within 24 hours of the drawing date" — phone only, so the number you enter with is the one that matters. Entry is open to US residents only, and WRTC staff, board members, their spouses and immediate family are excluded. There is no cap on how many tickets one person can buy.