Racing – Downhill Midwest

Marquette Fall Enduro 2026 -LSGS Finale

Alex — Thu, 08 Oct 2026 01:15:29 +0000

This may have been one of the most Fall, Fall Enduros we’ve seen. Chilly temps in the mornings, cold rain, and some of the best colors we’ve seen!

Riding the Marquette Mountain lift for practice and for race day was a treat. Views out over the landscapes of the upper peninsula were spectacular. I didn’t look at the color forecast, but they sure felt like peak colors out there! Many trees had not dropped their leaves, so the race trails were still very visible. If you’ve ever ridden wet trails covered with fall leaves, it’s terrifying! So what a blessing to have the colors without the added fear factor.

Saturday morning temps were reading as low as 32 as riders were getting to the hill. Luckily the race didn’t start until 10:45. At that point temps had risen to a more comfortable level for the day. Sport racers went off to do their two stages off the mountain while the experts got to tackle their 4 on mountain stages.

This year the courses were focused on being short and technical.

Jawbone is historically the easy trail of the weekend. This year they added in sections of Snake Oil to add some singletrack, rooty tech to the stage! It was a fun addition to the stage and certainly kept you on your toes much more than the standard Jawbone!

Fidsum (Fiddlers to Gypsum) is fun and fast at the top before diving into the Gypsum rock garden that is often the watch point during the downhill races! This section caught out many throughout the weekend. Riders had options of a pretty straight line down the rocks, or they could meander left to right as they navigate the section. The sand at the bottom of the trail was very extra sandy as Marquette had not gotten much rain in the past month.

Gyplers (Gypsum to Fiddlers) may have been the most technical trail of the morning for the experts. The top section of Gypsum has an off camber rock that drops left into a nastily blown out left hand corner. This corner had a rut dug deep into the sandy soil, with multiple sharp rocks protruding from the left, sure to catch your pedal if you didn’t get your line just right. Coming into Fiddlers, riders expected to be met by the normal Fiddlers chute, but were met with some tape and a freshly raked in section around the chute. Tight and skinny with a steep exit, it was a fun bit of trail to avoid the chute that has gotten very rough over the years. The normal tight and rooty corners of Fiddlers met riders before one more fresh cut finished out the trail.

Plug-Hemi-Easy Rider was very popular with riders. A great combo platter of trails darting off to the riders left side of the mountain. This stage had a mix of high speed and tech with a few jumps spattered throughout.

Racers got to choose their own order for these morning stages before a short break while timing systems were moved around. After the break, the Sport and Beginner riders came over to the mountain for their afternoon, while the experts left the mountain for 3 stages.

Sothern Cross has often been the entrance into either Doctors or Old Yellow, but this year took center stage the entire way down the hill. A technical section up top was taped to ensure riders couldn’t just use the high line to get out of the chunk! Then skipping past the often used turn offs, riders kept charging down Southern Cross, a very fast section of trail!

Chunder Muffin is a classic trail that is chunky from start to finish. Starting with a couple different rock rolls that if you’d like to, you can catch some air off of. Riders then are challenged to carry momentum over rocks of all shape and orientation. If you can keep your speed up and clear some of the natural doubles throughout, you are gifted a much different experience of trail. Catching the doubles allows you to carry enough speed to open up more opportunity to catch air. And you may already know this, but trails can be much smoother when you aren’t touching them!!

Bread Basket-225 is a fun new way to incorporate 225 into the race. Often 225 is raced, but adding in Bread Backet was a fun change. Some jumps here and there and coming into tech at high speeds keeps riders on their toes. With a bit of a rock garden sending riders into the high speed section of 225. Sandy high speed corners awaited you as you fly over the hill. Then the stage ended at the road, which many riders enjoyed as it cut off a bit of stage that is often raced.

Towards the end of the afternoon stages, a few sprinkles fell, but not enough to do anything. Which was a reminder of what was predicted for the evening.

A long afternoon break as racers await darkness to fall. Many riders head into town or the T-Bar to snag some food before the night stage.

The night stage went down OG DH as it often does, with a little bit of different taping riders got to try their hand at riding after the sun went down. This has been one of the calling cards of Fall Enduro! Not often are their lights strung up along a trail or archways lighting up your path as you barrel down a trail! Riders head up the hill just after 7pm to arrive at the top of Marquette Mountain just prior to sunset. More sprinkles started as riders started heading down the trail. By the end, riders were certainly riding in the rain! But the crowds stayed out and cheered on the racers!

After the night stage the awards for fall enduro occurred, followed by the Lake Superior Gravity Series Overall awards for the year.

Thanks to FlowTrack MTB there were cash payouts for both the expert and sport categories at this race!

For the day, Ryan Zinzow was able to hold off the charging local of Micheal Noble. Securing yet another win and $1,000 in Marquette.

The ladies battled it out to the end with only 2 seconds separating them at the end of the day. Lillia Regenold took the win and $1,000 on the day over Mara Breeuwer!

Then on to the Lake Superior Gravity Series Overalls!

It’s always exciting to do the math at the end of the season and see how things change at the end. Riders lowest score is dropped and bonus points added for doing all the rounds. That last score can really throw the spreadsheet for a loop!

Coming into the weekend the top five men and women were as seen below.

But at the end of the day we saw a few riders jump around in points!

Mara Breeuwer was able to lay claim to the top spot in the women’s overall! After many battles all year with Lillia, the bonus points made the difference for Mara to take home the $1,000!

After Ryan dropped his zero score from Ride the Keweenaw he jumped up into first place for his second year in a row winning the $1,000 overall prize!

Another year of LSGS racing down. A season with lots of fun events and memories made. Hopefully you were able to make it to a few of them this year and we look forward to seeing you at more next year!

Cheers,

-Alex

Photos by Ryan Stephens Photography!

Thanks to our 2026 Sponsors for making the payouts possible!

Rock Solid Trail Contracting

North Country Cycle Suspension

Lakeshore Bike

Downhill Midwest

GNAAR Mountain Bike Coaching

Intense Cycles Podium Payback

Quick Stop Bike Shop

2026 Miner’s Revenge – LSGS #3

Alex — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 20:27:24 +0000

This last weekend racers migrated to Greenland Michigan and the Adventure Mine for the third stop of the Lake Superior Gravity Series, Miner’s Revenge!

Miner’s Revenge marks the halfway point of the Lake Superior Gravity Series calendar.

Last year was a wild and wild weekend, this year it was dry and hot conditions! With heat warnings and sunshine galore, racers were battling more than just the trails. Some reports even putting temps on race day touching 100 degrees!!

So if you were out there and thought “gosh it’s hot out here” it’s because it was hot!!!

The weekend kicked off Friday night with a new event this year, the Dumpster Downhill! Riders came down the ski run portion of the Scenic Piste on bikes that were literally pulled from the dumpster! Many of the bikes were salvaged from the bikes abandoned at Michigan Tech after the school year.

Riders got two runs on their steeds to conquer the piste. They were on everything from old rigid steeds, seized up hardtails, mini bikes and even a unicycle! Specators and riders alike had a hoot at this inaugural event!

Miner’s Revenge is unique on the LSGS calendar, as both the Enduro and Downhill happen on Saturday!

The day starts out with enduro riders heading out to the trails. Sport racers endured 4 stages and the expert racers tackled 6 stages on the day!

Stages order for the experts looked as follows:

1: Hammer Down (through the mine!)

2: Lions Back

3: Miner’s DH

4: Hunts

5: Scenic Piste

6: Dangerous Curves

Hammer down brings racers through some nice soft corners up top, then right into the mine drift. A long section of trail through the old mine system at the Adventure Mine! Make sure your headlight is charged and that you’re ready to duck! The mine includes a spot that most riders have to dismount their bikes to get under the low roof of the mine! It was wet and cool in the mine, which most riders would have loved to ride through later in the day since it was so dang hot out later! This stage is a very unique experience and something you can’t experience at any other race!

Lions Back is a good mix of old school tech, some punchy climbs and tight sections! Used for during the xc race as a climb, rider came out the bottom of this stage breathing a little extra hard!

Miner’s DH, funnily enough the smoothest and fastest trail of the day. A favorite trail of many racers on the day. There is some fun rocks at the top, some fast flow through the middle and jumps to end the trail!

Racers maybe got a short break as the timing system gets moved between stages. Then right into one of the most technical stages of the day.

Hunts Trail keeps the expert class on their toes! With some technical rocks and rolls at the top of the trail, some loose steeps in the middle, then a FAST section of two track with massive rocks, this may be the scariest trail of the day! This trail is the one that during practice has the most riders looking at lines and contemplating which way they should go!

Scenic Piste is a “trail”, that isn’t normally a trail other than on the race weekend. A rock slab that leads you into the hillside of the ski run. This trail is flat out down the piste! They tape some curves into the grass, and riders have to see how much they trust their side knobs. Many riders found the limits of what their tires would do during this stage!

Dangerous Curves is the final stage of the day. Ending down at the Adventure Mine, riders tackle some very tricky sections of trail to end of their race. Off camber rocks at the top, into some high speed corners and ending with the chunky tight corners. This trails is a challenge to push the pace on!

This year was the first year of having and E-Bike category at Miner’s Revenge. It’s cool to see more races adding this category in. I don’t know about you, but I seem to see a lot of people on E-Bikes these days! For it’s first year, only Steven Carlson and Bryce Rautio entered. It sounded like they both had rough days out there, but Bryce was able to come out victorious!

The series leader, Ryan Zinzow had a mechanical on stage 3, leaving the door open for others to swoop into the podium spots! Kayden McKeown snagged 3^rd on the day, Payton McKeown squeaked into 2^nd, and Bodee McFadden rallied their way into first!!

For the ladies, it was a tight battle between the top 3 in the series! Kyia Anderson put the fight to the young guns to hold on to 3^rd, Lilly Regenold was able to squeeze a second out of the day, and Mara Breeuwer was able to take the win on the day!!

Riders don’t get a long break if they are also doing the downhill! Shuttles started running quickly after enduro racing was over. Many racers didn’t jump on the shuttles right away as they were trying to recover from the heat of the enduro!

The downhill course was running very fast this year with the dry conditions! Sections that, in the wet, were not a problem, became a problem as the dirt broke away to rough rocks! Causing lots of flat tires for riders. Corners were extra dusty and soft, throwing a few riders off their lines and sometimes their bikes!

The best of two runs allows riders to give it their all two times. Many riders pulling back 2-6 seconds faster times on their second runs! Very impressive on such a short course!!

In the end the ladies had an amazing battle. After round 1, Lilly Regenold and Mara Breeuwer were tied!! To the thousandth of a second!! So you know they were both pushing it hard for their second runs! Mara came down first, having gone almost two seconds faster than her first run!! Then Lilli came down with a mechanical… Securing the win for Mara! Lilli still held on to second place with her first run time. And Kyia Anderson was able to get third place. Copying the podium from the enduro!

The men also had a bit of drama for the top crew. Ryan Zinzow dropped his chain in the first round, but was still able to put down the fastest run with a 1:21! But Bodee McFadden was only a second back with a 1:22. It was a tight race, and in the end, both riders went faster on their second laps! But Ryan was able to come out victorious with a 1:19 and Bodee with a 1:20! Kaden McKeown rounded out the podium with a 1:23. He was the top of the 4 riders with a 1:23 time! Racing was tight out there!!

After the downhill racing was over, riders could head over to the Adventure Mine for some Grub thanks to Otter Belly Lodge! Then after awards were handed out, the band Northern Daze rocked the stage for racers!

Another awesome event!

Thank you to the Soke Trails crew for putting on a fun weekend! These trails and events couldn’t happen with out all your hard work!

The next Lake Superior Gravity Series stop is Duluth Trails Festival! We can’t wait to see you there!

Photos by Dylan Juchemich!

Find his photos for sale on Roots and Rain or his SmugMug!

Words by Alex Anderson!

Thanks to all the LSGS sponsors for making this happen!

LSGS Ride The Keweenaw

Alex — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 14:43:45 +0000

Lake Superior Gravity Series Round #1

Ride the Keweenaw

Copper Harbor MI

The Lake Superior Gravity Series kicks off their year with Ride the Keweenaw in Copper Harbor.

The weekend starts off with group rides at Swedetown, the Adventure Mine and Michigan Tech trails, a Family Enduro at the Michigan Tech trails, plus women’s rides!

So many different events around the Keweenaw to get people out and enjoying the spring weather.

The main event of the weekend is the enduro up in Copper Harbor on Sunday!

Saturday night rain came down while racers were resting. The racers welcomed the rain since, although the Keweenaw saw 360″ of snowfall this winter (some snow was still around in the woods and ditches), the trails were already dusty!

Sunday morning started out a bit overcast and foggy. Making things feel a bit chilly for the first climb up Brockway.

Advanced racers started their day out with a top to bottom of Overflow. The rain created some much wanted grip in the loose corners of Overflow. The “A” lines weren’t open for the race, which had riders puzzling the “B” line at the bottom of the trail. Multiple line options through a steep descent while having to turn created a tough spot for riders!

A short climb up to stage two, Log Jam, is where Sport riders join the party for the day. The rest of the stages everyone got to ride! Log jam is a new trail, and the Copper Harbor Trails Club added a sneaky little entrance to the trail for the race. Just to add a little something extra. A fun bit of jumps and drops, Log Jam is a great new addition to the Copper Harbor trails!

Back up Brockway riders go to get to East Woopidy. A fast punchy trail with some tricky flat corners that help get you towards Red Trail.

Red Trail is up next and is one of the most iconic trails in the Harbor. Rocks, roots, a tough climb, it has a bit of it all! It truly showcases a well rounded rider. This year they kept the infamous “roll” open part way down the trails. Riders were very excited to be able to race this section of trail!

At the end of Red Trail, you can find riders keeled over, gasping for air, thankful that the hard part is over. As the next trail is much more straight forward.

The final stage of the day was Snowshoe. A short, but sweet trail with a bit of a river starting part way down! The stage shoots you out right at the road, with a bit of rooty tech to finish the trail. A super easy spot for spectators to see riders end the day!

In the end, the local, and defending LSGS enduro champion, Kyia Anderson pulls out the win for the women. Bodee McFadden gets his first enduro win in the harbor! Congrats to both of them for getting wins to start off the year!

Full lists of results can be found HERE.

This awesome race is put on by the Copper Harbor Trails Club!

Photos by the ever talented Dylan Juchemich

Words by Alex Anderson

The Lake Superior Gravity Series is made possible because of these awesome sponsors!

Presenting Sponsor

Rock Solid Trail Contracting

Enduro Title Sponsor

Onyx Racing Products

Downhill Title Sponsor

Broken Spoke Cycle

Series Sponsors

North Country Cycle Suspension

SR Suntour

Loam Pass

Intense Podium Payback

Reach out to Lake Superior Gravity Series if you’d like to be a sponsor.

Downhill Midwest Round 1

Alex — Tue, 12 May 2026 04:55:19 +0000

The first round of the Downhill Midwest Series kicked off last weekend at Shepherd Mountain in Missouri!

Racers from around the region came out to enjoy some amazing spring weather at the infamously rocky trails of Shepherd Mountain.

Cat 1 and 2 riders got to race Mineshaft. This trail, although categorized as a blue trail, has a good mix of high speed, tight, and technical sections! As one of the local favorites, racers were very excited to race this trail! The start line skipped the flatter top portion of the trail, and we never heard anybody complain about that haha.

Cat 3 riders raced Trolly Track! A longer green trail, this track offered a wide variety as well. From big sweeping corners, to high speed chunk! Racers had their hands full keeping themselves, and their bikes rolling all weekend.

Lower registration numbers allowed riders to get lots of practice time over Friday and Saturday! High lines into corners were getting burnt in, new lines were found between the tape, and riders were getting creative with the track!

With all this practice time, riders took the initiative to stop and look for creative lines!

Friday night the Wheels Up Youth Enduro program came out and lit up the jumps for a fun jam session! Riders got to hit up the trails at night as a fundraiser for the youth program.

Seeding on Saturday had riders throwing down wild times!! Local trail builder and ripper Jordan Scheiderich had a big get off that unfortunately took him out of contention for the weekend. Everyone was curious who would put down the fastest time between him and Henry Lee for the weekend. Henry was 10 seconds faster than the rest of the field on Saturday with a 1:49! For the women, Amelia Renaldi was the fastest in seeding with a 2:14!

Sunday was another beautiful day and racers were ready to rip bright and early!

Sparkles are a key to any good race day!!

Cat 3 started off the morning with Jack Smith IV throwing down the fastest time on the course with a 4:41!

A special shoutout to Merrick Smith, the youngest racer out there this weekend at just 6 years old!

After the Cat 3 group completed, Cat 1 & 2 group got out for their practice laps.

Racing went down and many riders pulled faster laps in their race runs than their seeding runs! Sam Jory went 4 seconds faster than in seeding for a 1:56:91 for the fastest Cat 2 racer, and third fastest time on the day! Carson Brooks snuck in just in front of Sam with a 1:56:78! Such tight racing! Then Henry Lee came in with another smoking lap for the fastest time on the day with a 1:51:44!

In the women’s field Emilie Flanigan went almost 4 seconds faster with a 2:13:94 to slot into third. Saturday’s fastest, Amelia Renaldi, went a second faster on race day with a 2:13:50 to slot into the second fastest woman of the day. And Duluth’s Lili Regenold put down a heater of a run to get a 2:12:01!! All three women were so close!

At the end of the day, racing was tight and riders had fun! Couldn’t have asked for more!

This race couldn’t have been possible without the Shepherd Mountain crew helping everyone get up the mountain!

As well as all of our amazing sponsors!
Title Sponsor

Gold Sponsors

Bronze Sponsors

Intense Podium Payback

Photos provided by the amazing photographers Dylan Juchemich and Ariana Sanchez!!

Racers can find their photos up on Roots and Rain!

Thank you again to everyone who came out! I hope everyone had as much fun as I did!

-Alex

Bike Duluth Festival Race Report

Alex — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 19:51:20 +0000

Photos by Dylan Juchemich and Grayson Wolf. Words by Alex Anderson.

The Bike Duluth Festival at Spirit Mountain went down this past weekend and it sure was an action packed!

Friday saw riders coming in and getting practice laps in for all the events, but the festival officially kicked off at 5pm with the Chainless Downhill Race!

Riders ditched their chains and raced down a modified Cheese Grater to Smorgasbord. Over 115 racers joined in on the fun as this isn’t a typical event you get to see!

Some racers even got festive and dressed up!

E.T. even came out for the occasion

MOOOOVE out the way!

Riders were allowed best of two runs. Spectators and racers alike enjoyed the kick off event!

Saturday morning the enduro kicked off. Slotted to be a seven stage day, riders were ready to be out on the trails for a full day of racing! During the day riders would get to use the lift 3 times, whenever they wanted. So racers got to strategize when they wanted to take a lift break and when they wanted to pedal up the hill.

Riders started off the day all on the same stage. But then as the day went on two different stage groups would open up.

Stage 1 was Sprung a Leak – Candyland – Boot -Steel Toe. With lots of pedaling and corners to start, this stage would end up being the longest stage of the day that counted towards rider’s overall times.

After stage one was completed by all the riders, stages two, three and four would open up and riders could choose which to ride next!

Riders could choose between Port Gitch – Smorgasbord (2), All Weather Trail to Greenman (3), or Sprung a Leak – Candyland – Happy Camper – Wild Cat – Boss Hog (4).

Stage 2 was almost the same as the chainless race on Friday. Smorgasbord is fast with a little bit of tech build in. It’s a fan favorite for all skill levels.

Stage 3 was the most technical trail of the day. Starting with a pedal on All Weather Trail, and a punchy climb to the top of Greenman, racers’ heart rates were already maxed out before dropping into the most challenging section of the day.

Stage 4 was nicknamed Air DH. As the new section of Wild Cat going into Boss Hog has plenty of opportunities to catch some airtime!

After all the racers had completed those stages the second block of three stages opened. But mother nature had something in store for everyone.

Racers got to complete some of the last block of stages, but then a thunderstorm rolled through. And for safety reasons, the lift and race courses were put on hold. After holding off as long as they could, race organizers eventually had to cancel the last block of stages. Only the first four stages of the day ended up being counted towards the results at the end of the day because of this.

With a great mixture of fast and technical courses, riders had a blast even if they didn’t get to finish all of the stages!

Luckily for these riders, their crashes on this stage didn’t matter after the lightning cancelation.

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!! After the rain Saturday, the weather was looking perfect for some Downhill action! Riders got to practice Wrecking Ball to Calculated Risk all morning until Seeding Runs occurred just after noon. Unless you were one of the riders who signed up for King of the Mountain. Then you were racing the long cross country course right up until it was time for seeding (some people only did their race run).

This course has been raced here at Spirit Mountain many times over the years! This year they did switch up a little taping. Changing the entrance to the terrarium, and opening up an inside corner lower down the course. The trails is a great mix of high speed and technical sections. Perfect for testing riders willingness to push their limits!

Some pushed their limits a little too far…

Race times were tight, and riders had a blast!

A huge thank you to the trail crew is in order. With all the rain Spirit Mountain has received this year, a good chunk of the trails that were raced on this weekend were still closed just a week ago! Trail crew pushed hard to get them running, and they were running great!

Thank you Spirit Mountain for hosting this awesome event and Bike Duluth Festival for putting it on!

Check out this cool video by Minnesota MTB

Alex Anderson uploaded his race runs to YouTube if you want to see the trails!

Miner’s Revenge Race Report

Alex — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 13:48:06 +0000

The SOKE Miner’s Revenge race weekend went down this last weekend at the Adventure Mine in Greenlad Michigan.

This was the first time this year the Lake Superior Gravity Series racers were lucky enough to have dry weather, but the riders sure did not stay dry. With temperatures well into the 80’s everybody was getting their sweat on during the races!

Photos by Dylan Juchemich

The weekend started off Friday night with a Whip Off on the final jump of Miner’s DH!

The Whip Off was a hit with riders and spectators alike. A lot of riders participated and many more joined in for the warms up prior to the official start of the competition.

Riders had 20 minutes to hit the jump as many times as they wanted. Going for as much height, and as much Whip as they could muster!

The whip off was a lot of fun and I’m sure they’ll be doing that again in the future!

Saturday morning, racing commenced! The enduro was up first, with 6 stages for Expert, 4 for Sport and 3 for Beginner.

Each time up the hill was a push up the ski run, with all stages coming off the same peak.

Of course the mine was involved. With this year racers having to race through the entire mine. Even having to get off their bikes to duck under the low ceiling height spot!

Racers started with the mine stage. With being an almost 4 minute stage, was the longest of the day. Some fun singletrack brought you down to the mine entrance. Where racers were greeted with cool air, lots of water, and lots of pedaling!

For stage 2 the theme of pedaling was continued with Lions Back. The second longest stage at over 2 minutes. If you navigated the slippery right hander into the uphill climb on this stage, you did well! I heard many stories of people getting caught out by that corner.

The last of the morning stages was Miner’s DH. The same trail used for the downhill course, just with a different start and the large jump in the middle of the course was taped off.

After a break for the timing to get switched around, the afternoon started with Hunts trail. The most technical stage of the weekend. Riders dropped into a couple steep rock sections, followed by some fast and rooty singletrack and finished off with a very wet road!

A new addition to this years race was Scenic Piste. Which had racers speed tucking their way down the ski slope, into some tight turns at the bottom! This was the shortest stage of the weekend with the fastest time being 30 seconds.

Finally the enduro ended with Dangerous Curves. A technical trail with, you guessed it, some dangerous curves in it!

Times were tight in the men’s field, with Mike Cortright winning by only 7 seconds. Anett Tribet won the women’s expert category by well over a minute!

The afternoon was calling for a chance of thunderstorm. But yet again racers were blessed with beautiful weather for some racing!

The race was held on the Miner’s DH course that was raced for stage 3 of the enduro. But the start line was moved back, and the large gap jump was opened up for racers to use!

Trucks shuttled racers to the top of the course! Which was a welcome relief for anyone who had also done the enduro!

The course had plenty of pedaling! If you weren’t breathing hard, you weren’t going fast!

Racers went fast and pushed their limits on the short course. With Sam Ocarroll coming away with the win!

Spectating was fun!

Racers had fun!

You should come have fun next year!

Thank you to the race organizers, sponsors and volunteers!

Thank you Dylan for all the great photos!

Check out videos of the trails on Alex Anderson’s YouTube channel!

Marquette Trails Fest Race Report

Alex — Thu, 27 Jun 2024 03:27:52 +0000

This weekend Marquette Trails Fest went down as the rain came down. Even though the weather wasn’t the best, the racing was fantastic! (Photos by Dylan Juchemich. Words by Alex Anderson)

Dual Slalom winner Ryan Zinzow in the zone!

The weekend started strong with Dual Slalom on Friday.

It rained some in the middle of the day, but by the time racing began, the rain had stopped. Leaving perfect conditions on the track for the riders!

Transition and Quick Stop Bike Shop were on site cooking hot dogs for the hungry racers and spectators!

A big crowd showed up to cheer on the racers and there was some amazing competition throughout the evening. Youth racers started off the event with Kaden McKeown coming away with the win!

The women’s field saw some amazing racing. Tight racing all night lead to the final heat between Lexi Curran and Sam Paternoster. Both racers were pushing it to the limit, and unfortunately Lexi found that limit. Hitting the ground, allowing Sam to cruise to the win for the night.

The men’s field was no different. 26 men started the evening, but only one could walk away victor. Ryan Zinzow showed off them BMX skills all night. Coming out the start gate hot every lap and didn’t cool down till after the finish line. Fueled by Hams and Goldfish from the Transition food tent, he came away the winner on the night.

More Dual Slalom Action!

Saturday, or should we say Saturated Day! I don’t recall the rain letting up at any point during the day. But that didn’t deter racers from taking on the trails for the Enduro!

Volunteers stood in the rain all dang day for racers to be able to race. Thank you volunteers!

Six stages awaited the Expert racers, while four stages lay ahead for the Sport group! The morning stages were Jawbone, Easy Rider and Combo Platter. The afternoon saw Flow, Southern Cross and Chunder Muffin.

Wet roots kept things… interesting…

With all the rain, the trails were extra slippery! If you kept it on 2 wheels all day, you should get an award! Many racers struggled with vision, as you were either looking through muddy, wet goggles. Or you were playing the safety squint game with all your might!

Yet again, we see Ryan Zinzow come away with an event win in the Expert Ment category. While Abby Strigel claims victory in Expert Women!

How long do you think it took Mason to get the mud out of his eyes?

Sunday, the driest day of the weekend! We see racers line up for some high speed, downhill action!

As the mud on Landin’s bike would tell you, it wasn’t a dry track!

It may not have been raining, but the track certainly wasn’t dry. An upper section had water running through it, there was a two foot deep puddle, and plenty of other miscellaneous moisture to keep things, spicy!

This year was the first year of doing seeding runs, and all the racers were happy to see the integration. It kept race runs clean from needing to pass and kept it exciting at the bottom.

Spectators lined up to watch the rock garden and were met with some great racing!

Ryan Zinzow cleaned up again, with his 3^rd victory of the weekend!

Mara Breeuwer was the fastest female of the day!

Some more great photos from Dylan!

This year was again the biggest Marquette Trails Fest to date! Thank you so much to all the volunteers and people who put on this great event! We hope to see you out there next year and hopefully we break that record again!

Race Recap: Ride The Keweenaw Enduro

Alex — Fri, 31 May 2024 18:54:13 +0000

Last weekend, Ride the Keweenaw hosted the first stop of the Lake Superior Gravity Series!

The week leading up to the event, Copper Harbor saw plenty, and I mean PLENTY of rain! This had the East Bluff trails closed all week until Friday for pre ride. When first tires got on trail, it was apparent why they had been closed!

Josh Knapp driving through the mud! (Photo by Dylan Juchemich)

Even with all the hard work the trail crew had done during the week leading up to the race, the trails were axle deep with mud!! Loam Ranger and Thunderbolt are two trails that were particularly soft. As hand cut, natural trails that haven’t been open long, there were spots that had a lot of topsoil holding water. The other trails, having been more established and armored, ran well. They were running slow, but they handled the moisture well.

Saturday the Lake Superior Gravity Series hosted a Jump Jam on lower Dueling Banjos.

It was great seeing so many people of all ages and abilities show up and enjoy some air time! Photos by Alex Anderson

Saturday night more rain moved in just to really make sure the trails were fully saturated for race day! Sunday was a bit overcast, which kept the humidity at bay and created a really pleasent day for racing. As long as you paid no attention to the hoards of gnats at the top of the hill! Kudos to all the volunteers that were up at the top all day fighting the clouds of bugs off!

Overall it was a great day of racing! Nobody escaped the day without getting dirty, even if you stayed upright! We look forward to Ride the Keweenaw again next year!

Find full results list over at Superior Timing!

Photo by Dylan Juchemich

If you missed out on the slip and slide, check out this video from 5th place Alex Anderson to give you an idea of how wet it was out there!

Support those who helped put on this event:

Copper Harbor Trails Club

East Bluff Bike Park

Lake Superior Gravity Series

Superior Timing

Big Evil Race Results

Alex — Wed, 22 May 2024 01:34:39 +0000

Saturday saw almost 50 racers show up to Mont Du Lac resort to tackle the first of the Big Evil Races for the year.

Some thunder in the morning pushed practice back an hour, and when the first riders got on course, it was a complete slip and slide. I don’t think anybody was able to make it down for at least the first 5 laps of the day! Many riders opting out of the early practice sessions to wait for the dirt to dry out.

Lucas Miller put out a few fun highlight (and lowlight) videos on Instagram. Higher Base Media supplied us with the great photos and plans to put some video highlights up on his Instagram as well!

After the dirt dried out though, it made for a fun race! With a fast top section, and a lower section that had multiple line options, it was clear riders were enjoying themselves.

Racers did one seeding run and then headed back up the hill for their race runs!

You can see the podiums below, but for a full list of results and times head over to Roots and Rain!

Thank you to everyone who came out and made the event such a fun time!

And thank you so much to the crew who put it on! Adam, Ethan, Ryan and Wyatt! Ya’ll are legends!

And of course, thank you Mont Du Lac for letting us have such a fun event at your venue! They are going to be running shuttles Thursdays and Saturdays for anybody who wants to come out and pay a few bucks to not have to pedal uphill!

Ride the Keweenaw Weekend

Alex — Tue, 21 May 2024 22:29:09 +0000

The 2024 ride season has arrived, and we are back in Copper Harbor with another year of incredible events. The upcoming season will feature four weekends of fun spread out across the summer, and of course, there is something for everyone!

We kick off the lineup Memorial Day weekend with Ride The Keweenaw, three days of exploring the best singletrack across the Copper Country, culminating into the first Lake Superior Gravity Series Enduro of the year.

The event kicks off on Friday, May 24th at 6:30 PM with a guided group ride through the caverns at the Adventure Mine; make sure to bring a light as it gets dark down below the surface! Riding your bike underground is a unique experience that should not be missed.

Saturday, May 25th, starts bright and early at 9:00 AM with a guided group ride at the Michigan Tech Trails. All adults will be required to have trail passes; all of the proceeds go directly back to the Michigan Tech trails. At 10:00 AM, we begin the second annual Family Enduro, which is presented by Singletrack Flyers. This is a great opportunity for kids and families to experience a short Enduro race in a competitive, but not too competitive, environment.

From there, we pack up and head across the bridge to the Churning Rapids trails in Hancock, where we will have another guided group ride that begins at 1:00 PM and will leave from the Christensen Road trailhead off M-203.

We close out Saturday with Women’s only pre-ride of the Enduro stages for Sunday’s race, which begins at 2:00 PM; registration is required.

On Sunday, May 26th, we line up to race an all-new Copper Harbor enduro course featuring trails entirely on East Bluff. Registration and check-in are open from 8-10:00 AM at the Grant Township Hall in downtown Copper Harbor. Space is limited, so register early if you plan on racing! We will follow with awards at the Donny Kilpela Memorial Park at 3:30 PM and finish the weekend with a final celebration featuring live music and the unveiling of this year’s limited-edition ArtBike Posters at the Mariner North at 4:00 PM.

Come on out, enjoy the long weekend and ride some bikes! We look forward to seeing you out there!