Missoula, MT. The first post-covid UCI sanctioned event west of the Mississippi. Seriously, top level CX is hurting in these parts. I came into this event generally unfamiliar with this race’s organization, but would leave very impressed. They run a weekly, local cyclocross series which seems really rad, and put on a pretty serious XCO mountain bike calendar. It is great that they got this exposure, and I hope they can parlay it into more events. The sport, and the west coast, need this badly.

The weekend was set up with a Saturday series of UCI C2 races providing a great preview of the Sunday championship racing. Nearly everyone competed both days, with a few riders opting to only race on Sunday. There were no U23 categories on Saturday, meaning the fields were a bit larger and that kind of mixed up the race dynamics. Clara Honsinger would take the women’s race, and Eric Bruner showed some solid form winning the men’s race.

The real story of Saturday was the track. While the general event atmosphere had a very grassroots vibe (in a good way), the views were incredible. With mountain views in every direction, every time the light poked out of the clouds it was a scramble to take some amazing shots. Saturday was more relaxed editorially, so I tried to land some new angles and fun landscape shots. Check it out!

Sunday brought jerseys into the equation, and you could tell. The tension ramped up and the racing was feisty. The light wasnt quite the stunner is was late on Saturday, but the results were still excellent!

Isabella Holmgren jumped the barriers enroute to the elite level championship despite just being a first year U23.

Bruner consolidated his form from the previous day and landed the continental champion jersey for the next year.

Awesome event! Would love to come back in future years!