March 24, 2026
Hi Team,
It’s been a busy week of racing in the Midwest! My friend Griffin and I road-tripped out to the US Pro Cup mountain bike races in Arkansas, and made a stop at Mid South Gravel on the way out.
Mid South is one of the big early-season gravel events in the US, attracting most of the American and European gravel pros that race in the LifeTime Grand Prix. For the first time this year, the promoters decided to have a separate pro race on Friday afternoon before the Saturday mass participant events. It was nice to have a 1pm start and finish in the evening with crowds at the finish. The course was 106 miles of chunky Oaklehoma gravel on long, straight roads, not the most enjoyable in my opinion. The pavement rollout went by fast, and before I knew it, we were flying down a gravel road at 30 mph in a cloud of dust with rocks flying everywhere. Hoping to stay out of the chaos of the peloton, I hung at the back until we hit the first small climb and carried my momentum up the left side until I was on the front. The timing was perfect as that’s exactly when a few of the top guys decided to launch an attack, and I was able to follow it. After an all out five minute effort to hold onto the wheels, I found myself off the front with the top ten names in the race. The pace didn’t let up, but I glued myself to the back of the group, and an hour later, we grew a gap of over four minutes to the main peloton. Unfortunately, we got stopped by a long train crossing that erased most of that gap. The group panicked thinking we were going to get caught, and drilled it through a crosswind section where I finally got dropped. I soft pedaled and recovered while I waited to get caught by the next group, but after a couple of minutes of seeing no one, I realized I had missed a turn and ridden off course. By the time I made my way back to the course, I was off the back of the race, but I found a few other guys to ride with for the remaining 60 miles to the finish. We kept a steady tempo and picked up riders that had cracked, working well together for the most part. I took some long pulls before we sprinted to the finish together, and I ended up in 26th. It was fun hanging around the finish to catch up with the gravel racers, and we got to watch an exciting 9 up sprint finish to the women’s race. Despite it not being my favorite course, I feel like I made the most of this race and got a good workout in, normalizing my FTP for the first 1.5 hrs like a full XCO effort.
Excited for some real cross country mountain bike racing, we carried on to Arkansas for the US Pro Cup. We were staying with my friends in Bentonville, and it was nice to have a few days to get settled into the remote work routine and ride some fun trails. On Tuesday, we drove down to preride the new course, which was more technical with added rock gardens and a big drop. It seemed to suit me better, and I was excited to race it the next day. This is my first year out of u23s as an elite rider, and I lined up on the last row behind the top 40 men in North America. I went out as hard as I could and moved up a few positions on the start loop, but was still pretty far back when we hit the first singletrack. I was towards the back of a long string of riders, pedaling just as hard as the guys on the front just trying to keep up. I was able to pick off a couple of riders as they fell off the back of the group and tried to keep my effort consistent. Unfortunately, that’s when some stomach issues hit, and the discomfort held me back from pushing as hard as I wanted to. I think this was caused by taking a little too much baking soda (20g), and I might try the Maurten bicarb system or pills instead next time. I was able to limp through the rest of the race and avoid any mechanical issues to finish 22nd.
After a tough race on Wednesday, I prioritized recovery and decided to skip the short track on Friday to give myself time to relax and get my work done. While I usually enjoy racing short track, I thought it would be best to physically and mentally recover before the second XCO. Saturday’s race was an HC classification, and my goal was a top 25 result to earn some UCI points. Conditions were hot and dry with temperatures hitting 90 degrees, so I did everything I could to stay cool and warmed up with an ice vest and extra water. The start was just as hard as Wednesday’s race. Knowing that it would be much easier to gain positions while the race was tight, I tried to sprint up the outside on the start loop but got pinched backwards in the first bottleneck. Stuck in traffic, I tried to stay calm and keep my heart rate down on the first lap of what I knew would be a long and hard race. I made passes when the course opened up and stayed latched on to the back of the train of riders. My legs felt good and I was able to push hard on the climbs and recover on the rocky descents. Unfortunately, I hit one of the creek bed bottom outs a little too hard and flatted my rear wheel on lap 3. I was able to ride the insert to the pits and swap to my spare wheel, only losing about 40 seconds in the process. With four laps still to go, I stayed on the gas and used a little more caution on the descents to avoid flatting again. Making it around with one lap to go, I finally caught the riders I had been with before my flat and had a great last lap battle finishing in 22nd. Although it was the same placement as Wednesday, I felt much better and rode 20s faster laps to stay competitive with a lot of the top guys. I’m hoping to build on this momentum in my next races this spring and summer!
Justin Peck