Have you ever wanted to bike in the mountains? Well, the Mountain Biking Club is for you! We went out and asked some of the teammates what mountain biking is really about. The students said that their highlights of the season are just being with their friends, staying active, and being in nature! To hear more about what they love about this sport are a few interviews down below.

There are so many different components to Mountain Biking including the people you go with and the different types of racers or trails. When people think of Mountain Biking, they normally think of riding on trails and working out, but it is so much more than that. We asked different members of the club about their favorite part of the Mountain Biking Club and Grace said, “being able to ride bikes with my friends and going on races”. Jaxon Bakker said his favorite sport is, “being able to go out and ride his bike and stay in shape for two hours.” Toby Richardson said, “being able to ride bikes and have fun.” Drew McDowell said, “riding with friends.”

Just like any other sport or club you join for a reason that can range from you have been doing that activity since as long as you can imagine or you just wanted to try something new. We wanted to see how the members got involved and here is what they said: Grace got involved by meeting the head coach and he told her about the team whereas Jaxon got involved with his brother who taught him and introduced him to the club. Toby said he got involved with his brother and his friends joined so he decided to take a chance and try it. Drew said, “I got involved by hearing about it from family and friends and through emails.”

One of the best parts of mountain biking is the chance to ride in all sorts of different places whether that is around the country or in the Rocky Mountains in our own backyard. Each trail is different from each other and they each have different terrains. Our members gave us insight on their favorite trails: Grace’s favorite place to mountain bike is Keystone, Jaxon’s favorite place to mountain bike is Trestle in Winter Park, Toby’s favorite place is Crested Butte, and Drew’s favorite place is Vail.

When Mountain Biking on the trails, many have many hills with a steep incline or a steep descent. We wanted to know which one was more enjoyable while Mountain Biking. All of them agreed that downhill was the best and it is easier because you are able to go faster and it even contributed to Jaxon's 5th place in a downhill race.

Just like any other sport there are lots of mental challenges that you have to overcome. Weather and wipeouts are some of the toughest challenges that this sport presents and we wanted to know what it is like to endure these challenges for these athletes: Grace said you have to keep riding fast even when you want to give up. Jaxon said, “when I crash it hurts his feelings.” Toby said, “seeing people pass him during a ride.” Drew said, “when you don’t feel like pushing up a hill but you have too.” Grace's best wipeout was the teeter totter incident. There was a teeter totter and she did not know it was a teeter totter so she slammed into it and did a front flip over the bars when it swung open. Jaxon’s best wipeout was when he flipped over the bars and did a double back flip, which he thought, “it was sweet.” Drew's best wipeout was when he went over the bars on the easiest part of the trail. Toby's best wipeout was when he ended up over the handlebars on a street strider. 

    When competing sometimes the hardest challenge is not even about the other competitors it is about the trail. It is a big accomplishment to even finish the trail because sometimes the trails are so hard that most bikers will not even end up finishing the race. When you are involved with a solo sport that consists of biking in the mountains,  you tend to have to do wipeouts, but they will always make you stronger. Everyone has an ideal weather that they would love to ride in so we were wondering what the best weather to bike in was and here is what the members said; Grace said, “the best weather to bike in is slight rain.” Jaxon said, “the best weather to bike in is fog and cold weather.” Toby’s best weather to bike in is cloudy and cold weather.  Drew’s best weather to bike in is, “a little bit of rain and when it’s cloudy.”

Overall, we have met with four amazing students from the mountain biking club. They have gone through many ups and downs to get where they are today. They have all learned and continue to learn what it is like to be a true teammate on the mountain biking team and you can too!