About 200 cyclists competed in the mountain bike races Saturday morning.<\/p>\n
MOLINE, Ill. \u2014 Saturday morning and afternoon, cyclists took over Sylvan Island in one of the oldest mountain bike races in our area. The event, hosted by Friends of Off-Road Cycling (FORC), saw about 200 compete in races divided by age and skill level.<\/p>\n
FORC Race and Event Director Mandy Griesenbeck said the island’s industrial history makes it stand out from other trails.<\/p>\n
“There’s nowhere in the country that has a race on an island in the middle of a river,” Griesenbeck said.<\/p>\n
She said the Sylvan Island Stampede attracts mountain bikers from across the Midwest, especially where there’s still snow on the ground. Racers range from five years old to their 70s.<\/p>\n
Gwen Vos has been with FORC for about three years.<\/p>\n
“Honestly, this is my favorite race out of all of them,” Vos said. “It’s a little bit more tight with a lot of people, but that brings people more together.” <\/p>\n
Lorenz Smith is just getting started.<\/p>\n
“This was actually my first race ever that I’ve done,” Smith said.<\/p>\n
They both loved their runs, but it’s the people who really make the day.<\/p>\n
“The entire community is very helpful while you’re racing, everybody’s out here kind of just cheering you on,” Smith said.<\/p>\n
Griesenbeck said there’s a strong community in mountain biking.<\/p>\n
“I see riders that I race with at my races and other races, and it’s the only time I see them, and it’s like a big hug. ‘Hey, how are you? Thanks for coming,'” Griesenbeck said.<\/p>\n
With her team of about 30 volunteers, Griesenbeck keeps the trails smooth and the competition friendly.<\/p>\n
“FORC family works together, and we get it done,” Griesenbeck said.<\/p>\n
Volunteers from FORC maintain eight trails in our area. They invite anyone to try them out as long as you keep them clean.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About 200 cyclists competed in the mountain bike races Saturday morning. MOLINE, Ill. \u2014 Saturday morning and afternoon,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-598547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}