Midwest MTB Report
Summer is in full swing with complementing weather, and the race season for mountain bikers is heating up with series races, ultra endurance races, and gravel events. All trail systems in the Midwest are open and riding about as good as it gets. New trails continue to open, including the Monarch Trail in the Twin Cities as part of the Three Rivers Park system. This week's report includes a post by Minnesota native John Wessling, a race recap from John Peter from the Badlands Ramble, a couple of mountain bike related links, and a look ahead including the next stop in the Life Time Grand Prix, the 200 mile Unbound Gravel, which local rider Jenna Rinehart will be competing in and will be featured in an upcoming report.
Wessling on the Way Up
John Wessling, who has worked his way up the ranks in the mountain bike world, accumulated his first UCI points earned at the Englewood Open in Wisconsin last month. Wesssling shared his journey on a Instagram post we've included in this week's report:
"From 2015-2018 I was training SX & MX athletes full-time. I was not training much week to week & flying on a plane to my athletes races most weekends. To be clear, this was/is my absolute dream job. Ariel and I moved to LA in the fall of ‘18 from Corona, CA & I lost most of my in-person clients due to relocating, so I started training my athletes online. Although I’ve been an athlete most of my life, I was pushing 200+lbs at this point & wanted to start racing mountain bikes at a high level. I didn’t know what it actually looked like to race mtb’s at a high level coming from an XC ski background & with very little bike racing experience outside of local races. Luckily for me LA is stacked with great cyclists who serve slices of humble pie daily. I got my ass kicked over & over again, & finally got in some kind of shape in 2019 where I decided to race my first USA MTB nationals in the Cat 1 category."
"I won two national titles & I caught the bug… Fast forward to 2023- I’m 32 racing Pro & proudly going nowhere with all of this except chasing good competition & filling the racing void that lives inside me. This last Saturday I scored UCI points for the first time in an XCO race. It’s nothing to write home about for most guys I race, but for me it was such an impossible task to have a world ranking just a few years ago- so I’m writing home. The journey to this point has been incredible. The racing itself has been a small piece of the big picture. I feel like I have had a second chance at being an athlete, but more importantly this process has given me a purpose in life like nothing else I’ve ever done. It has made me a better person & coach. It’s also made me even more of nut-job (most of my college teammates wouldn’t believe it could get worse),but I’m okay with that for now. I owe my amazing wife so many weekends & vacations without bikes due to her selflessness & sacrifice, but for now i look forward to soaking this up with her & our dog. The bottom line: if you’ve been thinking about doing an impossible task- go give it your best effort. You may find out who you are in the process."
John Peter Makes Good Out of the Bad
John Peter, whom we featured in an earlier report this season, has been documenting his battle with Bipolar depression and sharing how cycling is part of his journey to stability. He recently recaped and reflected on his journey competing in the Badlands Gravel Battle:
"The last time I was in the Badlands, I was an undiagnosed Bipolar mess. That was 2019 at the Maah Daah Hey 100. Thirteen months later, I would fully break and finally get the help I needed, be diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder and start navigating what life is like with a serious mental health diagnosis."
"For two years, I dabbled in XC mtb racing, but this year, with a film project in the works (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/back-to-the-start-documentary-film#/) about my return to this year’s Maah Daah Hey 100, I threw myself fully into a season of racing long distance events once again. And I arrived at the start of the Badlands Gravel Battle, the fittest I’ve been since 2018, the year I came here and won. The Badlands Gravel Battle felt like the start of closing off a loop. I wasn’t toeing the start line of the MDH100, but I was here in the Badlands, feeling great and ready to race."
"The race itself was a mix of amazing and unfortunate. Let’s start with the latter. In the first 1/3 of the race, I got broken off from the front group when wild horses ran onto the road and split our group in half. Shortly after, I was fiddling with my GoPro and dropped it into a ditch (which took a while to find). A short time later, I shifted my chain into my rear wheel and about 10 miles later did the same thing, the second time taking quite a while to repair."
"But on the other hand, my legs were great and although I was solo most of the day, I was moving well and continued to pull back riders and move up. I ended up 7th overall, with power numbers just under what I did in 2018 when I won. Everyone has gotten faster and horses, dumb moves and mechanicals certainly didn’t help, but it was still a great day."
"I’ve always told people that my family doesn’t care about my results (to be honest, almost no one cares about my results…or yours); they love me for who I am. And at no point in my life was this more on display than Sunday at the finish line. Immediately after crossing the finish line, as I was trying to climb off my bike and catch my breath, two of my kids came running up. But instead of saying good job, or how proud they were, they yelled “look what we got at the park gift shop!!! Aren’t they cool?!?”"
"As a coach, I have spent 20 years trying to get athletes to understand this idea, that competitions are fun and results are just targets to aim at. It feels like we are defined by sporting results, academics, job performance or social media likes or clicks because those are tangible things we can see and it’s hard to understand that we are enough because we are."
"We tend to be the person worried that if we don’t hit the target, then the love others have for us will be rescinded. So we sit at the starting line forgetting we have put in the work and we worry that we don't have the right bike or hydration pack to do what we’re about to do, when all the while, all we need to finish this task is to try our best with what’s inside us. You are enough, because you are."
John Peter (JP) creates content like this every week on his YouTube Channel and Instagram profile both named “The Stable Cyclist”.
Why Nordic Skiers Make Good Mountain Bikers
If you're thinking about picking up mountain biking, Jenny Beckman has some thoughts on why you might be pretty good at it! She details them in a recirculated blog post from Gear West.
OnTheSnow Top Mountain Bike Trails in North America
OnTheSnow recently listed their top mountain bike trails in North America. Topping the list was the Rim Trail along Lake Tahoe:
"The Tahoe Rim Trail passes through two states (California and Nevada), six counties, one state park, three national forests and three wilderness areas with riding itineraries that span from lake and waterfall rides to wildflower and peak rides. Of the 165 miles of trail that encircles the largest alpine lake in North America, more than 80 miles are open to mountain bikes. The views are vast, the terrain varied and it can be enjoyed by bikers of all abilities."
Monarch Grand Opening
From the Three Rivers Park District Facebook page:
"Nestled on the western edge of Carver Park Reserve, the Monarch Singletrack is Three Rivers' newest mountain bike trail. Monarch Singletrack has over 10 miles of trails ranging from easy to advanced, including a trail built with adapted cycles in mind. Paradise Playground is the newest addition to the Monarch trail system!"
"Come ride the newest additions to the Monarch trail system at our grand opening celebration of the Paradise Playground! Join us Friday, June 2 from 5–8 p.m. at the Parley Lake Trailhead in Carver Park Reserve to ride the new features, enjoy some light refreshments and get some sweet prizes and giveaways!"
Rain on the Ridge
Giants Ridge had been hoping for rain but unfortunately received so much at once that it eroded much of the trail system that features built up berms and jumps on top of the natural terrain, leading to those areas being temporarily closed.
The report via Instagram:
"2” of rain in 1 hour!"
"We needed moisture, but not quite like we got it last night. Giants Ridge had a major storm roll through last night and it was not kind to the trails!"
"The water came down so heavy and so fast we are seeing more damage to trails in many places than we saw from the spring melt! We have slumped berms, washed out landings, and saturated trails across the park."
"We will be closing the bike park and scenic chairlift operations this weekend."
"If you are planning to come out this weekend we will have the rest of our summer operation open including disc golfing(on a very soggy course), climbing wall, and road bike rentals. These operations will run reduced hours from 10am-4pm."
Looking Ahead
Life Time Grand Prix: Unbound Gravel
The Life Time Grand Prix of Cycling resumes it’s series in Kansas with the 200 mile Unbound Gravel event. Jenna Rinehart has been training hard and long and is ready for a fun and challenging day. Her recap will be posted in an upcoming report. Good luck Jenna and all riders!
Keep the wheels moving!
 |
About the author... Jay Richards maintains a very active lifestyle. He somehow finds time between managing a full-time resort (Maplelag) and bringing up a family of four boys with his wife Jonell, to compete in both mountain bike and a few cross-country ski races. Jay rides for Maplelag Resort, manages the Maplelag mountain bike team and enters his 33rd year of racing and promoting mountain bike races. Have an event or mountain bike related information to share from the Midwest? Feel free to contact Jay at |