Hosting a race is not always the best way to prevent a loss of trails, but in El Paso, Texas, an ass-kicking mountain bike race was exactly what the community needed to reignite the local cycling community and make a name for itself in the endurance racing scene. In 2006, after winning a stars and stripes in the 30+ short track National Championship, I returned home to El Paso and found trails that had been completely trashed by recent flooding, some covered with up to ten feet of boulders. Neighborhoods had been flooded and businesses destroyed. Many of the problems were directly related to poor development; bulldoze-and-build communities divided by large concrete channels replaced natural arroyos. These channels were not enough to control the wrath of 150 years of rainfall. Water spilled over, causing millions of dollars in damage and forcing the community to rethink future developments. With the local trails in such poor condition, my
XXC SEASON TWO: ISSUE SIX
wife, Jennifer, and I started doing some of our own trail repairs, and were forced to train in areas much further away from our local trailheads. The following year, Jennifer and I returned from another summer of racing. The trails were still in disrepair and the local mountain bike club seemed to be more of a social club, its members content to ride the few trails that had not seen much damage. Frustrated, we began to venture out from the typical riding areas into those that had not been ridden in many years. Later that fall, we met Brent Sanders, his wife Susanne, and local bike shop owner Ricardo Vega and convinced them to join us for an epic loop around the Franklin Mountains, above the Rio Grande valley. The elevation ranged from 4,000 feet to just over 7,000 feet. We realized that we had a lot in
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