Mohican 100- Loudonville, Ohio

By the end of May US mountain bike racing is in full swing with a number of events available throughout the country.  With so many racing options, the challenge is deciding where to invest your hard earned dollar for the best experience possible.

Team Monavie-Cannondale  chose to break from the normal Pro XCT cross- country scene and experience backwoods endurance mountain bike racing at the Mohican 100, the 2nd stop of the National Ultra Endurance mountain bike race series.

Here’s  a few reasons why this was a great decision…

1. The Course:  The typical mountain bike race includes 3-5 laps around a 5-10 mile loop providing the same trail experience multiple times. Although this can be a great test of fitness and skill, it lacks the spirit of exploration that likely drew us to mountain biking to began with.

The Mohican 100 is a single 100 mile loop of single track, jeep roads, and dirt roads through 4 counties of central Ohio. Amish horse drawn buggies are a common sight. The anchor for such an amazing and diverse course are the endless single-track options found in the Mohican State Park. With 11000 ft of elevation gain over 100 miles this course is not for the timid but also not an absolute death march!

During the 1st couple hours of twisty wooded single track Team riders Alex Grant and Bryan Alders could be heard hooting and hollering as they slayed mile after mile of buffed trail. At mile 98, Team rider Bart Gillespie reports “having a fatigued ear to ear grin” while negotiating the last stream crossing and technical sections.  Everyone on the Team agreed this course felt “as much like exploration as racing” and will defiantly be a highlight of the season!

2. The Town: Loundonville, Ohio (population 2900) is known as the canoe capitol of Ohio and maintains multiple loading ramps along the Mohican River. It also is the gateway to the Mohican State Park which is laced with miles of bike trails. The locals rely heavily on tourism and know how to accommodate the out of town-er. Transportation and accomadations are very affordable which is often a critical consideration when dragging a large crew across the country. Loudonville lies within a couple hours of major airports including Columbus, Cleveland, and Akron so even West coasters like Tinker have traveling options. The 6-man Monavie-Cannondale contingent enjoyed an A-frame cabin at the edge of a fishing pond at 3 nights for $270,  you can’t find that in Colorado.

3. The Racing:  “This is exactly what I envision when I think of professional level ultra endurance mountain bike racing” said Jeremiah Bishop when asked his take on the race. A very competitive field with “racing from the gun for 1oo miles with the win being decided in the last few”. A stellar field on a fast challenging course provided down to the wire racing seldom seen in endurance racing.

The race organization was spot on and included everything from smooth registration, well stocked goodie bags, a cool main street starting line, and an amazing and well deserved post race meal.

If you are in the market for a 100 mile mountain bike challenge and want to experience some backwoods exploration combined with a race, Team Monavie-Cannondale recommends the Mohican 100 and Tinker says “don’t forget to bring your fishing pole”.

It doesen’t hurt that Team Monavie-Cannondale’s Jeremiah Bishop won and set a new course record and Monavie-Cannondale placed 4 riders in the top 10!

Check out MTBracenews, cyclingnews, and velonews for additional race reports.