STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Ready to gobble up some gravel? The Great Gobbler bike race returns to Freshkills Park this Sunday with a fresh 14-mile course and plenty of pedal-powered fun—taking riders into park areas usually off-limits to the public.
Presented by the New York City Mountain Bike Association and the Freshkills Park Alliance, the event is expected to draw more than 150 racers. The course begins at Freshkills North Park in Travis and winds through the North, East, and South Mounds.
“Freshkills is more than a park; it’s a platform for doing great things for the people of Staten Island,” said Mark Murphy, president of the Freshkills Park Alliance. “The Great Gobbler is the premier gravel and mountain bike race in New York City, and we’re thrilled to welcome riders from across the region.”
Freshkills Park winds through what was once the world’s largest landfill. Now, it is one of the Big Apple’s biggest green spaces—almost three times the size of Central Park.(Courtesy of Shannon Erickson/Freshkills Park Alliance)
Cyclists can choose between two formats: the Competitive Race—one lap at top speed starting at 11 a.m.—or the Endurance Race, which kicks off at 7 a.m. and challenges riders to complete as many laps as possible within six hours.
Categories include gravel bike, cross-country mountain bike, adaptive mountain bike, tandem, Class 1 e-bikes, and single-speed bikes, plus team relay options for groups of two to four. For casual riders, there’s a Family Fun Ride with a costume contest and a Beginner/Intro Led Loop guided by an experienced cyclist. Project Mjolnir will provide an adaptive mountain bike for participants with limited mobility. On that note, Freshkills Park recently hosted its first adaptive cycling clinic in partnership with Achilles International, giving athletes with disabilities the chance to explore the park’s accessible trails.
Registration fees for the upcoming race range from $27.88 for the beginner loop to $133.75 for team categories. Online registration closes Saturday at noon at BikeReg.com. The event kicks off from 350 Wild Ave., Travis, and concludes with a festival featuring food, drinks, and music by Maker Park Radio.
Sponsors include Jimmy Max, Flagship Brewery, Amazon, and Rivian. All proceeds benefit the Freshkills Park Alliance and NYC Mountain Bike.
Navigable waterways support kayaking expeditions supervised at several points in the year by the Parks Department. In the meantime, trails through the park are fun for cyclers, walkers and runners.(Courtesy of Shannon Erickson/Freshkills Park Alliance)Bonus Fun: BikeReg Race Predictor
Wondering who’ll dominate the Gobbler? BikeReg’s tongue-in-cheek Race Predictor claims to take the suspense out of cycling—just plug in a confirmed riders link and see who’s “destined” to win, sorted by points. If your name shows up in red, you’d better take first place — or live with eternal shame.
The site even jokes: if the Race Predictor has you spiraling into madness, at least you can buy a water bottle to commemorate the descent. Recent races include gems like Dirty Donut, Hellhole Gravel Grind, Road Apple Roubaix, Festivus of Gravel, and the Tour de Donut.
Two handy links for the event are bikereg.com/68739 and nycmtb.org/the-great-gobbler25.
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