Vail Recreation District wraps up mountain bike town series with Vail Grind

Holly Trouche told herself the same thing after every town series mountain bike event this summer.

“I said I wasn’t coming back after, like, all of them,” the Vail Health emergency nurse said. “And then I came back for all of them.”

The Vail Recreation District wrapped up its 40th-annual mountain bike town series on Wednesday with the Vail Grind. Each of the four courses — kids (1 mile), beginner (4 miles), sport (11 miles) and expert (13 miles) — started and ended at the base of Gondola One in Vail Village. The two long courses climbed Mill Creek Road to Mid-Vail before descending on various singletrack combinations.

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“I love this route just for leisure, so I was really excited about this one,” said Jordan MacAllister, Trouche’s Vail Health teammate. “The grind was a grind, but it was great.”

Heidi Treichel was a big fan of the opening 2,000-foot gravel ascent.

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“Yes, I am about that grind. It is brutal but it’s also fun because I’m better at the uphills,” the 15-year-old said. Treichel was the first female to hit the course high point and take a right-hand turn down Sidekick to Chair 10. She ended up winning the sport women’s category in a time of 1 hour, 5 minutes and 40 seconds.

“It went well,” the new Battle Mountain student said. Treichel, who also races for the Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy/Eagle Valley team in the Colorado High School Cycling League, moved here from Lakewood in June.

“I like the vibe here and I love how there’s a bunch of races, because where I used to live there wasn’t anything like this,” she said. “It’s fun to be a part of.” 

While 2024 was Treichel’s first town series season, it was Ron Gruber’s 27th. The 61-year-old kept a steady pace throughout the climb and even threw in a surge before descending.

“Today I felt pretty good. I was climbing well,” Gruber said. “I’m a slow descender so I knew I had to get a good gap on people on the uphill.”

Gruber (1:02:52) won the men’s grand master sport (60+) category by almost seven minutes. He also won his division’s season-long category for the third-straight year.

When asked what the three-peat meant to him, he said with a chuckle, “I don’t have to go to the doctor as long as my times stay the same.

“I think it’s a great bike community in Eagle County,” he continued. “We try and support each other and it’s fun to see people get into biking and progress and become pros sometimes.”

Throughout his nearly three decades of taking part in the series, Gruber has witnessed multiple athletes start in the beginner category and eventually advance into the pro/open division.

“I always love to see that,” he said.

One athlete who has grown up in the series is Sam Brown, who took the men’s pro/open win in 1:07:43. Brown threw down a series of surges throughout the initial uphill, but Eric Asselin and James Kirschner were able to reel him back each time. His attack right below Mid-Vail proved to be decisive, however, and the gap he took into Fred’s Lunch trail eventually grew to almost two-and-a-half minutes by the finish.

“I’m pretty happy with it,” Brown said of his season as a whole. The 24-year-old won three town series races this year en route to claiming his second-career pro season title. One of his primary targets this summer was the Breck Epic, where he wound up seventh in the overall general classification.

“I’m fine with how it ended up, but I was definitely looking for maybe a podium on a stage or a stage win,” he said. The stacked Breck Epic field included Riley Amos — who was fresh off a record-setting seventh-place finish at the Paris Olympics — as well as Howard Grotts and eventual winner, Zach Calton, the 2022 Bighorn Gravel champion.

“Those faster guys really made the men’s pro category a bit deeper,” Brown said. On the final stage, Grotts suffered a dangerous crash and was transported to Denver, where he received lifesaving care.

“That was definitely a really hard way to end the Epic, but it’s also kind of a reality check for bike racing in general,” Brown said. “Like, that stuff happens.”

The Mountain Pedaler cyclist will shift his attention to the fall cyclocross season. His highlight from the summer — in terms of local races — was taking down local legend, Josiah Middaugh, at the Beaver Creek Blast on July 24.

“Winning that race was a good one,” Brown said.

While winning an event or age-group title is a thrill several town series participants are always pursuing, it’s not what brings most to the trailhead for the weekly Wednesday night rides.

“Honestly, just getting out in the middle of the week can be hard without having a motivating factor, so this has been really fun to get that mid-week ride in,” MacAllister said. “My goal was more community aspect. Meeting other people, which has been great. Other women riders — it’s always really fun.”

Trouche and Gruber echoed MacAllister’s sentiments.

“This is my first full year of mountain biking, and I was like, ‘I might as well do the races because I can meet people and learn things,'” Trouche said. “My goal was to get better at biking and (the races) definitely helped.”

We’ve all been racing with each other for a long time. We’re all friends,” Gruber added. “I always have fun talking to people during and after the race. It’s kind of just a social group that I love.”