Created by Braden Bringhurst, the latest edition of the Hard MTB league happened over the weekend. The event throws together a bunch of different disciplines, and rewards the most well-rounded riders. Going fast is important, but there is some real rewards for overall bike handling skills.

And if finishing the World Cup two weeks ago, racing Hardline last week wasn’t enough, Asa Vermette headed to Idaho. Frameworks team mate Anna Newkirk also joined the fun. And when the weekend was over they both stood on top of the podiums. Neko Mulally must have been stoked.

Four stages, four very different challenges

The event uses golf-style scoring; riders earn points based on their finishing spots. The lowest overall score wins, with combined time used to break ties.

The event featured four different stages; Raw Slalom, Tech Rhythm, Downhill  Gnar and a Technical Uphill (although for whatever reason the uphill was optional and didn’t count towards final points). Fair to say the event is like no other in MTB.

Raw Slalom had riders racing through gates, awkward, off camber corners and awkward logs. Tech Rhythm had tightly spaced jumps, whoops and berms, like a tight dual slalom course. It looked really tricky. The downhill stage featured log drops and technical jumps. And for the final event of the day came the uphill challenge. It was a completely different type of challenge.

Newkirk puts on a clinic

Newkirk won all the events of the day scoring a perfect three points overall. Maddie Loyd, Kailey Skelton and Bex Baraona put up a good fight but weren’t fast enough in any of the events to top the World Cup racer.

“I was really unsure how I was going to do in here because a lot of the girls are really strong,” Newkirk said afterward.

Vermette battles for every second

The men’s competition was considerably tighter. And with such short courses, the margins between first and second place were razor thin.

Nick Nestoroff, Max Clark, Mitch Ropelato and Asa Vermette traded fast times throughout the day, with as little as seven hundredths of a second separating Vermette from Max Clark in the Tech Ryhthm. In fact Clark beat Vermette in that category.

The downhill stage was obviously Vermett’es to lose and Canadian hero Jacob Jewett did his best to beat Vermette, putting up a 21.18 second run. But Vermette took that by putting in a run of 20.8 seconds.

Vermette also went on to become the first rider to clean the uphill track on a non-motorized bike.

A different kind of mountain bike race

While the format doesn’t make for the best armchair viewing, it’s hard to argue that it looks like a fun day on bikes.

“It was a great event, I had a lot of fun,” said Newkirk. “So, yeah, I’d love to come back.”

It was also very cool to see the Frameworks team attending and Jewett making the trip to the event. Stay tuned to the Hard MTB League website for 2027’s schedule.

Men’s results

Rank
Rider
Slalom
Rhythm
Downhill
PTS
Total

1
Asa Vermette
1
2
1
4
1:40.05

2
Max Clark
3
1
3
7
1:40.92

3
Nik Nestoroff
2
4
4
10
1:42.01

4
Jakob Jewett
4
5
2
11
1:41.87

5
Kyle Strait
5
7
7
19
1:44.31

6
Mitch Ropelato
6
3
10
19
2:31.63

7
Cody Kelley
10
6
5
21
1:45.14

8
Connor Casler
9
8
6
23
1:45.90

9
Eddie Reynolds
7
9
9
25
1:48.11

10
Alex Blanar
8
10
8
26
1:48.85

Women’s results

Rank
Rider
Slalom
Rhythm
Downhill
PTS
Total

1
Anna Newkirk
1
1
1
3
1:56.11

2
Kailey Skelton
2
3
2
7
2:01.95

3
Maddie Lloyd
6
2
3
11
2:03.53

4
Jordy Scott
5
4
4
13
2:04.81

5
Taylor Ostgaard
4
8
5
17
2:07.57

6
Bex Baraona
3
9
7
19
2:09.24

7
Chloe Taylor
7
7
6
20
2:09.36

8
Alyana Van Horn
9
6
8
23
2:12.14

9
Sophie Allen
10
5
10
25
2:12.72

10
Ffion Pickstock
8
11
9
28
2:13.17

11
Olivia Silva
12
10
11
33
2:47.62

12
Mayumi Wakefield
11
12
12
35
2:17.42

Scoring note: Final rankings are determined by the lowest combined stage points, not the fastest total time. Ties on points are broken by total time.