Race Day XC: New England's New Mountain Bike Series

In this episode of the New England Endurance Podcast, host Art Trapotsis interviews John Day, the race director and founder of Race Day XC, a new mountain bike race series in New England. John shares his background in endurance sports, including motocross (yes, an endurance sport!) and cross-country mountain bike racing, and discusses his vision for creating a world-class XC racing series. The conversation covers the logistics of event planning, course design, and the unique features that will set Race Day XC apart from other racing events. 

Race Day XC has the potential to be an incredible series with 9 races already on the calendar (in 5 of the 6 New England states!). Hear what John has to say and get excited for mountain bike racing in New England.

Key Takeaways

• John Day has a rich background in endurance sports.
• Race Day XC aims to bring world-class XC racing to New England.
• The series will feature nine different venues across New England.
• Events will be designed for both racers and spectators.
• Inclusivity is a key focus, with categories for all ages and skill levels.
• John's experience in motocross informs his approach to mountain biking events.
• The series will operate under USA Cycling rules.
• Unique features will enhance the spectator experience at events.
• Race costs reflect the quality of the experience.
• Community response has been overwhelmingly positive.
• The goal is to create a unique racing experience.
• Encouragement for newcomers to join the racing community.

Art & Eric embark on a journey to showcase and celebrate the endurance sports community in New England.

Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:00)
Hey, welcome to this episode of the New England Endurance Podcast. I'm your host, Art Tripotsis, and today we're talking about cross-country mountain biking. We're joined by John Day, the race director and founder of Race Day XC, a brand spanking new mountain bike race series here in New England. Welcome, John.

Speaker 1 (00:20)
Yeah, thanks so much for having me on. This is awesome.

Speaker 2 (00:22)
Absolutely. So John is no stranger to starting and growing incredible events. He founded the J-Day Off-Road Race Series in 2010, which it grew wildly popular and successful. John has now taken on the next big challenge, is cross-country mountain bike racing with his elite cycling background, which I'd like to chat about and his passion for the sport.

He is determined to bring world-class cross-country race series to New England with Race Day XC. So John, I'm super excited to have you on the show. I've had a number of friends out there who are in the mountain biking scene, want to know more about this race series. What's going on? Who is this guy? Where does he come from? Where are these races taking place? So you come from the motocross world, but it sounds like you also ride non-powered bikes.

Speaker 1 (01:14)
I do, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:15)
Tell me about that. You're a cyclist.

Speaker 1 (01:18)
I'm a cyclist, honestly, fitting for the podcast. I'm an endurance junkie all across and a runner, a cyclist, a motocross racer. And I don't think a lot of people realize motocross is probably the most popular discipline when it comes to dirt bike racing. It's probably what you see on TV. But the second biggest discipline, off-road racing, it's much like maybe an XC race.

but on dirt bikes. So five to 10 mile courses, two to three hour races on the trails. And I spent the majority of my life racing dirt bikes like that. whether or not you want to call it an endurance sport is up to debate, but.

Speaker 2 (02:01)
Well, I will say this. I have a friend who does this off-roading business here you're talking about and he posts his off-road motorcycling on Strava. Yes. And you can see that his heart rate is in like the 130s to 160s and occasionally will get up to like 180 probably when he's trying to get his bike over something. So I'm sort of becoming convinced it might be an endurance sport.

Speaker 1 (02:26)
It's so awesome you say that because all along I've been saying this. I don't think a lot of people realize dirt bike racers, like you said, you'll be out on a two to three hour race going over rocks and roots and your heart rate is 180, 190 or maybe whatever your threshold or VO2 is for two to three hours on a weekend and.

I've seen this somewhat my whole life. lot of us dirt bike racers, when we start dabbling in traditional endurance sports, it's amazing how that engine kind of carries right over and people are often like, oh my God, you're really good at cycling or you're really good at running. And it's like, yo, I've been doing a threshold workout for 10 years every single weekend for two hours. So a lot of it does transfer over. And, you know, I also grew up running cross country and

if you were a dirt bike or are a dirt bike racer the most common cross-training is XC mountain bike racing or running and You know so always dabbled in that as training but then probably you know six seven years ago really started taking the mountain bike seriously and That's kind of how this this race day X series race day XC series the idea all started

Speaker 2 (03:44)
That's a great segue into my next question is what inspired you to start this race day cross country series?

Speaker 1 (03:50)
Yeah, so as you mentioned before, I started the JDF Road Series as a young pup, really, probably, I think, 22 years old. And that eventually grew into something really, really special here in New England and even around the world as far as the dirt bike scene goes. And yep, it still exists.

Speaker 2 (04:11)
And what happened to it? Still exists?

Speaker 1 (04:17)
I ran that series. started it ran it for about 10 11 years and sold it 2022 I want to say and you know by by that point had done a couple hundred events probably about 11 years worth of actual race series you know so one to 15 or actually many years were much more than 15 year 15 races but many many seasons put it that way. Did you

Speaker 2 (04:46)
started

with the intention to sell it or that just happened after sort of getting burnt out or what.

Speaker 1 (04:51)
That happened, it's quite the story and I'll say no, to be honest, when I started it, it wasn't, there weren't really any businesses that existed that were putting on events, especially in a small niche world for dirt bike races. And in 2009, 2010, a successful event was 180 guys on dirt bikes. It's not really a very big sport, especially that discipline that I mentioned.

So it wasn't really even a thought that it would be a full-time job or eventually a business that I would sell. But through that race series and just kind of growing that series, growing the sport here around New England, it was almost like we were not only growing as a race series, but the sport in general. It was.

quite an incredible effect. You'd have people coming back and saying, yeah, I brought my neighbors to come spectate. A year later, you'd see them with dirt bikes and they're racing. And the sport literally grew over the 12 years here in New England, which is probably what I'm most proud of. And then after like a 10 year run, it was.

I had some big decisions to make really. The series had somewhat plateaued in the sense that it was the second biggest series in the country as far as numbers would go. There was a national series or there still is a national series. if we were going to grow as a series or expand as a series, we had really two choices. We either had to change from being a New England regional series or we would have to

essentially try to take down or overthrow this series that has existed for 50 years. And I didn't want to do either of those, the series that already exists, the GNCCs, those are the that's the that's if you grew up dreaming of being a factory racer, that's the series that I'm talking about. And they do a great job already. I had no intention of trying to reach out to

50 years worth of factory sponsorships and deals and try to overtake them by any means and on a different level. I love this area in New England. I really do. I do. I live in Norton, Massachusetts. It's not too far from here. I think

Speaker 2 (07:13)
I do live around here.

Speaker 1 (07:23)
As a kid, always thought, you know, first thing I'm doing when I'm 18 is I'm getting out of here. I can't stay in this place. And then as, you know, becoming a professional racer and traveling around the country and the world, it was funny. As soon as I started going to these different parts of the world, I started realizing how special the place we have here. And then the same thing with the series.

Speaker 2 (07:39)
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (07:42)
I didn't want to, we had this awesome race series already in New England. I didn't want to expand any farther or take away from this special almost like cult following we had from New England. I didn't want to go anywhere else. So had the opportunity to sell it and also kind of knew that, you know, the way I tick really is I almost treated the race series as kind of like

the way I would treat things as a professional athlete. I felt like year in, year out, we were kind of doing the same thing with JDF Road after six, seven, eight years. And when I had the chance to sell it, I was like, okay, I think I've done everything I can do with this series. It was still, honestly, the year I sold it, it was still doing the best that it had ever done. It was that year, I think we averaged 660 riders, individual riders per event.

Speaker 2 (08:40)
How long ago was that?

Speaker 1 (08:42)
That was 2021, 2022.

Speaker 2 (08:46)
So sometime between 22 and 24 present day, you conjured up this idea to start a race series in New England?

Speaker 1 (08:55)
Yeah, and that's exactly how it segues. Those last few years putting on dirt bike events, I'm also at this time an elite mountain biker. And on my off weekends, I'm going to all these other mountain bike events. And I'm looking around at all these tracks and all these events. And I'm saying, OK, here I am last weekend putting on an event with 4,000 people.

and I'm building a three mile course for dirt bikes here in the woods. On the off weekends, I'm a pro mountain bike racer and we're racing, you know, three, four mile courses. And I started thinking to myself, okay, like, it's like the universe is begging me to go on and put on a mountain bike event. And I had too much going on. was already putting on,

Sometimes some years we'd put on 25 dirt bike events. I think was the max we put on one year. And, you know, we had too much going on. then once the series. Was for sale and sold, my gears really started turning and saying, OK, that idea about putting on mountain bike events here in New England, this might actually be a reality. And. Obviously, COVID happened the last series that did exist, just didn't come back.

And again, I kept saying to myself, my wife and I, had spent, you know, 10, she was with me before I ever started any events. We had essentially been a traveling circus for 12 years and we didn't have any kids at the time. Yeah, those events. We would set up a track for two weeks, build a course, host an event. It would take us probably about a week to clean things up and dirt bikes are a lot rougher on the on the terrain. So there's lots of.

Speaker 2 (10:31)
Living out of the back of your car.

Speaker 1 (10:48)
putting dirt back in place and grooming and whatnot. So roughly three weeks, two weeks, three weeks per event. And at that point, we were a full on traveling circus. had four truckloads per every single event to get to the next one. And by the time you get there, you're setting up that course and putting on another event. once it was sold,

I tossed around the idea about, all right, let's go start a mountain bike series. we had also, we wanted to start a family too. And we were kind of like, okay, let's hold that before we go start.

Speaker 2 (11:25)
Yeah, let's not go

crazy here, John, OK? Yeah. I mean, just a little history of mountain biking in New England. So and I'm only going back to my history because I don't know when this all started, but I'm just curious if you're familiar with these past events that used to happen. think they're now defunct, but we had the Kenda Cup East. After ran a bunch of series, most recent I can think of is Route 66. Are there any CS series?

Speaker 2 (11:54)
Do any other series still exist in New England that you're aware of?

Speaker 1 (11:58)
There's not and nothing again and that's why I've just been looking at this opportunity and just saying every all the stars are aligning and I don't think there's anyone better qualified to jump in and start a series but there's nothing right now and I can tell you as a mountain bike racer myself I've been for the last four years it it's it's tough to get into the sport as or get that excited about the sport right now because yeah, you don't really have a series to focus in on and sure there's some awesome one off events don't get me wrong but like as a as a purebred racer like myself, I've been looking around the scene saying okay, we need something here in New England.

Speaker 2 (12:44)
Okay, so what's your vision? What's the vision for Race Day XC?

Speaker 1 (12:49)
Yeah, I mean my vision, I could probably talk for another 24 hours.

Is yes, no right now for race day XC for 2025 we have nine different venues that are part of this XC racing championship and we're starting up in in April and we have roughly one to two events Every month all the way until the end of October. We have one at least one in every state here in New England

Speaker 2 (13:21)
I was pleasantly surprised to see that. This being the New England Endurance Podcast, you covered five of the six states. I don't think I saw Maine in there.

Speaker 1 (13:30)
I was going to say the bad news, yeah, Maine, I'm going to change that for 2026, but yes, we have every state covered except for Maine this year.

Speaker 2 (13:40)
That's still pretty impressive. Okay, so back to your vision. So you're covering all sorts of territory. What does race day look like in terms of not just the name of the company, but just the actual event, the day?

Speaker 1 (13:54)
Sure, so race day, I want race day to be a world class XC racing series right here in New England. I really want to change the idea that mountain bike racing here in New England can be, and it's nothing against the grassroots events. I love them, I'm gonna continue racing them, and they're still gonna exist on other weekends, but I really want to introduce this idea of professional built events. Someone on the other side as an event director, event promoter, who is building purpose-built tracks for XC racing,

Speaker 2 (14:40)
Also, you're not actually going to use the local trails in that area?

Speaker 1 (14:45)
So all nine grounds are actually at private venues. And that's for an important reason is, again, with my background in putting on dirt bike events, we would build two, three mile tracks and spend weeks and weeks building these tracks. Then eventually, once they're established, it's probably a one to two week prep period.

year after year after year. But for the mountain bike world, you know, I go to a World Cup, say I went to the Lake Placid World Cup and I look at that UCI XCO racing World Cup track and that is XC Olympic. And that is just the more defined discipline. when people think of XC racing, XC

Speaker 2 (15:30)
What does XCO stand for?

Speaker 1 (15:43)
means many things. Sometimes it could be an hour race, sometimes it could mean a three hour race, but when you add that that it refers to the Olympic distance, which is which is what you see when it comes to Olympic racing, which is, yeah, your pros are shooting for about an hour and a half. And you're maybe your amateurs and your novices more around an hour and ex yo somewhat

I think also brushes on the fact that instead of say an hour and a half race where you start somewhere and then an hour and a half, come back to the starting area. The idea with XCO racing is more of a compact race course where you're doing multiple laps within that hour and a half so that you can have good spectating. You can have a better race experience. You can bring your friends and family and they're not going to just see you at the start and finish. Yes. So.

Speaker 2 (16:35)
Well, I enjoyed watching this on, I think Red Bull had these mountain bike race series. Maybe they still have it where you can see them coming around for several laps. know, Matthew Vanderpool. What type of event is that called?

Speaker 1 (16:48)
describing that is exactly the World Cup XCO series. Okay. And that is the highest level racing for XC mountain biking. And that's, again, obviously, I can I can say all day until I'm blue in the face, I can build those kind of tracks, I can organize those style events. But until you get the people there, it's it's not going to actually be what you're seeing on TV. Yeah, on the World Cup level. But again, I've

Understanding after doing it for 11 years on the dirt bike side of things and understanding that we can go to these private facilities ski resorts private land Motorsport parks and we can build these cool unique tracks And we can also build them with the mindset that hey, let's make this more of a spectator experience so that when you bring your friends and you bring your your neighbor who has never been to a bicycle race and he goes there or she goes there and she's spectating and they see their neighbor several times every lap as opposed to, and again, yeah, it's just a lot more fun. And I found that in the dirt bike world, that makes it much easier to transform this into simply an event where you drive there a half hour before your race, sign up, go race, head home.

Speaker 2 (17:55)
Yeah, that's a lot more fun.

Speaker 1 (18:14)
With our dirt bike series, the J-Days, we were so heavily in tune with how to make a race course that was engaging to the fans or friends and family that we would have thousands of people showing up. They weren't even racers. They were, oh yeah, this is the local J-Day for us. and it's 45 minutes down the street. We're going to camp out the night before. We're going to watch the racing all day and head on home. And obviously this is something that happens years down the road. I'm not expecting in two months there to be thousands of fans that are there just to spectate. But the point is you have to build it with this vision and build consistently top notch events. And then over the years,

If you do build it and you stay consistent and you can gather a following, then I look at XC racing here in New England. And obviously there's not a series that exists. So that's the low hanging fruit. But I look at it and say, Hey, after three or four years, if we're doing a great job and we have a really excellent series here in New England, there's nothing here in the United States that exists right now that is even, you know,

Worth mentioning it if you're growing up and you want to be a world-class mountain bike racer There is no series here in New England right now or sorry here in the United States right now where you're saying Okay, when I grew up, I'm gonna go race that series. It doesn't exist It's something that I've been scratching my head on for you know, seven years now saying okay Why isn't there a? League a championship these riders are going Hey, if I want to race mountain bikes, I got to go to Europe. I hope

I hope one day that maybe we can change that.

Speaker 2 (20:00)
In case you're not in front of your computer, but you know, I pulled up the race schedule here and we've got places like Pat's Peak. We've got Kingdom XC up in Lindenville, Vermont. We've got Big Pine cross country, West Grinch, Rhode Island.

So these are, so let's take Pat's Peak, because I was just uphill skiing there last week. So you basically reached out to Pat's Peak and said, hey, I want to build this three to five mile course. I've checked out the terrain, and this is sort of the general course we want to do. And we're going to take over and build this thing. Is that the way it's going to work at each venue, pretty much?

Speaker 1 (20:39)
Sure, and it's a little bit of everything to be honest. Like Pat's Peak, for example, they have had great XC races in the past. Yes. So a lot of that we're going to use, whether it's OK, we're going to use some of the old trails, but we're going to add features or we're going to add passing opportunities or different sections so that it fits kind of our vision. But then there's tracks like, Crow Hill coming up, which is a motorsports venue, and they have a few hundred acres.

And yeah, we're, we're, basically building an XCO racetrack from scratch. And a lot of the. The venues will, we'll, we'll be like that where we're building from scratch, but it's a little bit of everything. And then say, for example, thunder mountain, some people know it as, as, the, the ski resort, Berkshire Berkshire East. That it, for example, they already have tons of world-class trails.

Speaker 2 (21:29)
Yeah, I've heard of that. Berkshire, yeah.

they have amazing trails out there.

Speaker 1 (21:39)
So we'll be touching on using a little bit, a section here. Maybe we'll use a section backwards. don't want to say that we're going to be building this year nine brand new three mile tracks. It'll be a bit of everything. And then honestly, we have a track like the, bell town classic, which has been an existing XC race for years. And that one, we actually don't want to change much. We like, they already have a really good XC track there. They already have a really good flow to it. If anything, same thing.

Look at that venue and I say okay, how can we add some more passing? How can we add some more spectator sections and a couple different things just to kind of fit our vision but What exists there is already a real base?

Speaker 2 (22:22)
So what kind of license do I need to register for your event?

Speaker 1 (22:27)
You need a USA Cycling license and you can get a year membership or you could do the one day pass.

Speaker 2 (22:34)
And do you envision folks doing this thing as a point? Is this like a point series? Do you envision folks doing everything or just might show up for one or two or what's your hopes and dreams there?

Speaker 1 (22:46)
It is a point series and I don't think most people will do all the rounds and probably for many years, but.

What it is is in the past, even with our motocross series, JDF Road, maybe you'll have 30 % of the people that will do the diehards that will do all nine rounds. you'll also have a majority of people will be, okay, hey, I'm from Massachusetts and I'm gonna do the three Massachusetts rounds. And that'll be it. So you can do one, you can do several, you can do all of them.

It's up to you and I think as the series grows and what tends to happen is people go to a couple of their local ones and say, wow, I had a blast. I'm gonna go to a couple more next year. And then years down the road, maybe you have 60 % of people doing all the rounds.

Speaker 2 (23:47)
So what type of categories are we talking about here? Are we going to be able to invite the youth, the high school league in both Connecticut and Massachusetts and New Hampshire, masters like walk me through who can sign up for your races.

Speaker 1 (24:01)
Yeah, so the short answer is everyone. So we're going to have everything from the toddlers on push bikes all the way up until our highest classes, 70 plus. So we have a class for everyone. It is USA Cycling rules. So for mountain biking, pros, cat one, cat two, cat three, and

Speaker 2 (24:20)
What does that mean for mountain biking?

Speaker 1 (24:29)
We have your specific youth classes as well. our terminology is a little bit differently.

Speaker 2 (24:35)
men's and women's

50 plus let's say. Asking for a friend.

Speaker 1 (24:38)
Yes, I I know what you Yes, exactly

and and yeah, we have those classes expert level

Speaker 2 (24:48)
Like are you gonna break out the ages by a 10? I'm just curious, is that 30 plus 40 plus 50 plus? Like are you gonna have that many folks register for each category? Like what's the sweet spot there?

Speaker 1 (24:58)
Yeah, so we don't start age category until 40 plus. So let's just use a sport for example. You'll have a sport class which anyone and everyone can can register for. But then we'll have a sport 40 plus sport 50 plus. And once we get to 60 and 70, those are just open classes. And obviously, if it grows down the road, and we need to have 6070

Experts for novice we will but for now I'd rather have a class with with ten entries as opposed to three classes with three entries, so

Speaker 2 (25:37)
Yeah, that makes sense.

are you engaging with other or with any cycling clubs or organizations? You know, there's a bunch of cycling clubs in the Boston area. I think I counted something like 36 or 37 just within 495. Yes, that's part one of my question. Part two. Are you partnering with any organizations like NEMBA or EFTA or AMC or anybody like that?

Speaker 1 (26:05)
Yeah, so the short answer is Nothing official. know, lots of respect to all the work all the cycling clubs are doing, all those organizations are doing, but you know, we're our own event company. yeah, I'm trying to

with as many as I possibly can to try to spread the word.

Speaker 2 (26:24)
I

think that's a good start. I don't hear enough people talking about this yet. But if you can get on somebody else's calendar, if you know what I mean. You know, that would be helpful just to get your name out there. do you envision any special features at the events?

whether it's music or a food truck or any post-ride activities, just what's gonna help your stand out

Speaker 1 (26:48)
So again, I could probably go on all day with with special features, but list wise. Since you mentioned features, Cannondale, they're sponsoring the Cannondale corridor this year. So the idea is all nine rounds. One section along the track that is like a technical spectator friendly section and

you know, that will be sometimes it'll be a natural section, maybe a natural. Yeah. And other times it'll be a manmade rock garden or some sort of spectacular feature. Possibly. Yeah, yeah. I think, yeah, crashing tends to happen a little bit more at that section. So, yeah, that that's one of the features that will be all nine rounds. And

Speaker 2 (27:20)
The cheering section basically.

Were the crash factors high?

Food, music,

Speaker 1 (27:47)
while we're on

that topic. So Dirt Church Brewing, they'll be the official beer of Race to XC

Speaker 2 (27:53)
Dirt Church, who are the owners of that establishment now?

Speaker 1 (27:58)
I know Anna and her partner. I'm not sure. I haven't met her partner yet, have a spot right up at Kingdom Trails. they also have a spot right across from Berkshire East as well.

Speaker 2 (28:02)
They're up in Kingdom Trails, right?

Great shout out to Dirt Church. I love that brew.

Speaker 1 (28:13)
Yeah,

it's so fitting with with just kind of the the two brands and there we're also going one one step further too and we're to be building a cool jump at every at every track too and they're going to be sponsoring. It's going to be the Dirk Church launch. So just another cool brand that we can kind of collaborate. So.

Speaker 2 (28:34)
Awesome.

Speaker 1 (28:35)
Yeah,

they're also going to be setting up beer gardens at all the rounds. I think there's probably one or two rounds that that won't happen. Like our second round is a is that a YMCA. So obviously alcohol is not going to be going there. yeah, they're they're they're all in for for next year and

Speaker 2 (28:48)
That's a no-no there.

I mean, I'm just curious, like with the off-road event that you ran for so many years, there must have been something about those events that you want to bring to mountain biking that was unique. Is there something?

Speaker 1 (29:08)
Yes, it it's it's a long list in

it's so tough to just say XYZ is what makes it a grassroots event versus what a race to XC event is, you know, but truly what changes it is doing lots of things consistently at all the events, you know, so whether it's the Cannondale corridor, whether it's the dirt church launch,

Speaker 2 (29:20)
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:42)
Whether it is the fact that we're building racetracks

A lot of the venues right now, you know, we're going to their state parks, their state forests or town parks and your hands are tied. You can't touch those trails, you can't add. Right, and something as simple as, I can think of a few of them that I still love to race, but you put 300 people there and.

Speaker 2 (29:59)
Yeah, you can't touch those trails. Yeah, you can't make new trails either.

Speaker 1 (30:14)
It's a race to get to the trail because you know, once you get in there, it's single track and for an hour and a half, if you want to pass someone, you either have to ask and maybe they're nice and they let you go by or if not, you have to, you know, get pretty hairy to pass people and

Speaker 2 (30:34)
So there must

be a pretty significant capital investment. Are you talking about bringing in like mini bulldozers to make these this first year?

Speaker 1 (30:42)
Yes, so we have a few pieces of equipment already and there'll be some sections that are made by machines and there'll be other sections that are more old school, all natural, single track kind of trails, but the purpose is building these tracks with racing in mind.

State parks that you go to no one's envisioning racing when they have those trails often It's honestly just hiking trails that we race on, know, so we want to be able to offer a race experience where If you do have a big class You have passing opportunities You have sections that are built to be raced sections that are built to engage with spectators and fans and Yeah

It's a long list of things as far as the tracks go, but we really think that a lot of these local events, the grassroots ones, we can go a couple steps further than those. And again, I don't want to put any shade on any of those grass roots events. They're all awesome events. I just think that we have a really good opportunity to make some top notch race.

Speaker 2 (31:56)
So when I mentioned, you know, just cycling clubs and organizations, if you're partnering or collaborating, because when you show up to an event like these grassroots events, volunteers are, you know, giving you your number registering you lining you up like, are you going to employ these people? Are you also looking for volunteers?

Speaker 1 (32:16)
gonna employ everyone and and that's a big that is one hurdle I'd say we've had so far is I Don't think there are too many for-profit Race events here in New England or yeah, obviously that we know there's not a series, know, but

When you start talking about employing 20 to 50 people, depending on how big these events are, it's a real business model and it's a real investment to try to stay afloat. And that is probably one of the biggest things that I know for sure after people go to the events, they'll be able to say, okay, wow, I get it now. This is a production. This is not.

people showing up on Thursday, stapling some arrows on the local trails.

Getting volunteers to run scoring, getting volunteers to run this and that, they'll see the difference, but getting them there to understand that is definitely the challenge that I'm up against right now because in the dirt bike world, that was a challenge that was huge for me. When I started JDF Road, was one series in town and they're a nonprofit, wonderful series, but all people volunteer work, doing whatever you can to get your event off.

around and said, OK, I'm going to put on these events and we're going to pay staff. We're going to pay our videographers. We're going to buy machinery. We're going to truck from event to event, all these different things. That wasn't really a concept.

Speaker 2 (33:49)
But you solved for that. Did you solve for that by just charging people a lot of money? Like how much does one of these races cost? I didn't even look that up yet. Sure. What's the entry fee here?

Speaker 1 (33:51)
Exactly

Yeah, it is it's $80 for an adult to race and $20 for parking so. 100 bucks for the day and.

Speaker 2 (34:08)
So a hundred bucks for the day.

Why do you separate that out? Why not just charge 100? Do you think some folks are going to show up? Not by car?

Speaker 1 (34:20)
Yeah, no, to be honest, it's it's. Most people don't realize that that fee is is built into most people's entry fee. That twenty dollars is going to go right to the facility that we're renting or the ski resort and.

Speaker 2 (34:36)
Okay. So when you go on bike

rage, like is that clear to folks? I have not gone on a bike rage yet. But if you click on 50 plus masters, if that's there, and it's 80 bucks, can you also pay the 20 for the parking at that point? I don't want to be a surprise. Yes.

Speaker 1 (34:52)
So you you you can't on bike Ridge, but it is clear that you're gonna have to pay a parking fee at these events and Yeah, it's It is and there's no I would say if there's if there's anything

Speaker 2 (34:56)
There it is.

That's going to be a tough pill to At least in the beginning.

Speaker 1 (35:08)
I've been across the board, lots of positive feedback, but the price thing is definitely going to be a tough pill to swallow for sure. And, honestly, I would have to agree to, know, I think, when I, I initially decided to do this series over the summer and I was starting to look at, okay, what is, what's the math on this? And I started to look, okay.

Speaker 2 (35:31)
What's a math?

Speaker 1 (35:35)
You know, four years ago when I was doing this for the dirt bike races, an ambulance was this much, now it's this much. Okay, renting out a facility a couple years ago was this. Now everything across the board has just gone up so much that I looked at the price and said, okay, wow, this is, this is expensive, you know, but, I don't, and I still don't think I've, I've quite.

Speaker 2 (35:45)
all the choss have gone up.

So when you register for your pro events, how much are those? Just curious.

Speaker 1 (36:02)
it like me as a racer? Yeah. Well, I will say a lot of me as much as I'm still like, wow, this is an expensive price. I will still say that as a racer myself.

I also get the other side of it. I think about the last 10 events that I've done personally. Vermont 50, 175, or 150, want to say. Whiteface, 140. Landmine, I think, was 75. 175. Overland was almost. And so I.

Speaker 2 (36:38)
Okay, so they're. Yeah, yeah. And triathlons are expensive too.

Speaker 1 (36:46)
I know that we're not like the most expensive in town, but I'm able to look at it and say, okay, think, and mind you, all those races are the big ones here in New England that sell out.

Speaker 2 (36:56)
Yes, they sell out immediately. Yeah, but with VT50 for example, you get some food. Sure. Right. I think you get a t shirt like right, you know, you get some extra stuff there.

Speaker 1 (37:07)
No, and you're absolutely right. And I think, again, going back to that, we've never done an event. So it's really difficult for people to look at and say, what are we getting extra that is worth $80? But I'm willing to bet that if people go to the event, they're going to change their tune pretty quick.

Speaker 2 (37:31)
Maybe you

should live stream the first couple.

Speaker 1 (37:34)
That would be awesome for sure and I'm not gonna lie that I haven't looked into it, but for sure

Speaker 2 (37:41)
What if you just held up your phone and did like one of those live Instagram feeds?

Speaker 1 (37:45)
Well, that's

why we have, you know, guys like Tyler here and, you know, we'll have plenty of professional videographers there and...

Speaker 2 (37:52)
Yes, for those listening, we have a gentleman named Tyler in the room with us. He is videoing this today. Shout out to Tyler there. Okay, so I want to ask a few more questions here before we wrap up. So how has the response been from the New England endurance community with this? Have you received any feedback in terms of, we're excited or what are you doing here? Like, what's the response?

Speaker 1 (37:59)
Thank you Tyler.

Yeah, I have to be honest, like I, when I got into it, I said, okay, we have an opportunity here. There's no mountain bike series. And if we do it the right way, I know we can, we can grow. And I chatted with my wife and a couple other people about this series and okay, maybe it's going to take a year or two or three to kind of get the ball rolling. But once I announced it, it was immediately like people DMing me

Just thousands and thousands. I'm not even exaggerating. you look at my Instagram too, you'll see it's engaging with 15,000 accounts, 100 plus thousand views per month. some of it are people, maybe they're out in Florida, they're never gonna come race it. I'm not saying all those people are gonna be coming to these events, but the overwhelming response are people saying, I'm a mountain biker.

Speaker 2 (39:19)
Amen.

Speaker 1 (39:20)
I

mean, exactly. I mean, they like gravel, they like road or all the disciplines, but what's true to them is riding their bicycles in the trails. And now the opportunity that we might have a series coming this way. are the kind of.

Speaker 2 (39:35)
I'm getting excited just talking to you about it. And I haven't picked up, you know, I haven't raced a mountain bike since 1999. So you mentioned like two or three years from now, like, what do you expect for turnout when this is, let's say three years from now, like terms of sheer number of riders at your event? Sure. So you want to throw out a number? Yeah, a goal?

Speaker 1 (39:56)
My goal all along here, I've said, even this year, people have been asking me, what do you think would be a great goal for the first year? And I said, yeah, if I could get 250 people at these events this first year, I think that'd be a great place to start. And again, this is me just.

Speaker 2 (40:11)
I think you would.

Speaker 1 (40:16)
I've been racing mountain bikes for the last six, seven years, week in and week out, and I go to these events and a lot of really good events have a hundred guys show up, you know, so I don't want to pretend.

Speaker 2 (40:27)
Total? Not

just for the pro.

Speaker 1 (40:30)
just for the pro. No, no, mean,

you go to a, I mean, and don't get me wrong, there's a few that, you your landmines, they're, they're selling out at 800 riders, I want to say the VT 50,000 riders, but there's probably four or five on the calendar that are that big. And then the rest of them, 100 riders, you know, so in, and I will say most of them too, are the smaller ones are more the XCO style format. A lot of those ones that are selling out are more of a marathon or

Speaker 2 (40:47)
They're pretty small.

So

I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it sounds like you'd like to get to that 800 to a thousand number

Speaker 1 (41:05)
Yeah, obviously I want to shoot for the stars. I also don't want people to get the wrong impression. With JD Off Road, our first event, had 147 people. Our second event, had 75 people.

I'm an entrepreneur, but I'm also an endurance athlete. And I understand that you have to take a step back and you really have to have patience and understand it. It's just like, if you're going to start running, you're not going to have your PR time in the first year. It takes time.

Speaker 2 (41:40)
It takes time to grow. Not

everything's a hockey stick in terms of, you know, the shoot-up and growth.

Speaker 1 (41:46)
Yeah. So I really want to let everyone know like, yeah, this first year. Okay. We had a hundred people sign up, I think in the first, uh, first three days with when I opened registration for this first event, um, last month or a couple of weeks ago. And that to me was like, okay, wow.

Speaker 2 (42:01)
Congrats. Thank you.

So what advice would you give somebody who's sort of on the fence about this, about signing up for one of their first race day XC, what would you say to them if you're sitting across the table from them to encourage them to show up?

Speaker 1 (42:19)
I would say come be a part of something that's going to change the sport here in New England.

give us a shot. think, again, this event, we've never done one before. So I'm more of the guy who's going to say, I don't want to stand on my head to

try to tell people, this is how great it's gonna be. I'd rather just go at Crow Hill, which is our first round in a month and half and put on an incredible event. And the people that show up are gonna say, wow, this is, you know, one of the finest mountain bike races I've ever been to and let that speak for itself. And that's, guess, more of my style. And

Speaker 2 (43:13)
And then I'd say, right, that sounds cool. Should I bring a hard tail or a full suspension?

Speaker 1 (43:17)
full suspension for sure. A hard jail will definitely get the job done. You you can walk the whole thing. Sure, but no, you can ride the whole

Speaker 2 (43:21)
have to walk anywhere. Can I ride the whole thing? can.

All right. All right. Checking some boxes in my head.

Speaker 1 (43:32)
And again, we're going to have some pretty cool features and some really cool sections of the track. one of my strengths from putting on events over the years is being able to put on an event that

your novice rider can make it through, but then your pro rider is also challenged enough to where both a novice and a pro leave that day and say, wow, that track was awesome. And it's not perfect.

Speaker 2 (44:03)
Will you have a separate protrack or pro sections? What do call that? The A line?

Speaker 1 (44:09)
Exactly.

there'll probably be plenty of races on the, on the schedule that will just have straight up pro a sections where they're the only ones doing that. Maybe it's a minute section or something. But a lot of those obstacles, like I mentioned, like the Cannondale corridor, those are going to be a line B line. So. Got it. Your first mountain bike race. Don't let that deter you. there's going to be maybe a few seconds. If you go around it longer, a penalty maybe, but

It's not like a make or break type section where you're just, I don't want to get into it because I'm

Speaker 2 (44:44)
So

we like to ask our guests, particularly athletes who come on the show who've got a chance to do their sport all over the world, do you have any hidden gem events in New England you'd like to share or special places you like to ride?

Speaker 1 (45:04)
Yeah, mean, hidden gem wise, I

As an endurance athlete in general, would say, you know, Falmouth Road Race is probably, yeah, the running event.

Speaker 2 (45:17)
The running event.

all right. So we're switching gears here.

Speaker 1 (45:22)
I

know a lot of the listeners are probably not only mountain bikers, so I'll throw that one out. I think it's just so special. On the mountain bike side of things, I don't know if you want to consider Vermont 50 a hidden gem, because it does sell out every time, but I think, yeah, I would consider it.

Speaker 2 (45:28)
Awesome film it, there you go.

I would. It's fantastic.

Speaker 1 (45:44)
a hidden gem because yeah, I know when I got into mountain bike racing, wasn't like they don't have, you know, social media presence or a lot of these mountain bike races, especially some of the ones that sell out, you really have to be in the know. And I remember the first few years being so into the sport and I'd realize, wait, registration.

Speaker 2 (45:53)
Yeah, you gotta be in the know.

Speaker 1 (46:10)
was full three months ago. you have to almost like set that on your calendar a year in advance to sign up for these events. So I would consider it a hidden gem.

Speaker 2 (46:16)
Yep.

Excellent. Anything else you'd to plug for our listeners? Anything you want to mention, final thoughts or comments about Race Day XC? It sounds like an incredible series and can't wait to show up to one of these events.

Speaker 1 (46:31)
Yeah, I guess I just want to say thank you to everyone for all the positive response for the series. seems like people are really coming out of the woodwork and spreading the word in the mountain bike community. a lot of people are giving us a chance. on top of that, a lot of these facilities, they're somewhat

Giving us a chance without you know, i've never put on a mountain bike event in these ski resorts of saying, okay We like your proposal. We like what you're you're doing. We're gonna give you a shot and same with the sponsors, too We're we're close to almost 15 confirmed sponsors and Same same deal. I have a good pass putting on events, but i've never put on a mountain bike race and there's a lot of people who already are are backing us and supporting us and I want to say thanks obviously to them because it's It's yeah a month and a half away

and it seems like everything's is going smoothly and yeah I hope maybe we can look back at this podcast and and it's everything was a home run and

Speaker 2 (47:40)
Yeah, we might have to circle back a year from now to see how year one went. So, John, thank you so much for being on the New England endurance podcast and sharing your story and your vision for cross country racing here in New England. I think I'm buying into a man. I'm feeling the vibe here. I'm loving it. I think you're starting something that could potentially be incredible. And I'm thankful that you could join us today. Yeah, thanks. Yeah. And so you can visit race day XC dot com.

or on Instagram it's at Race Day XC and we will be sure to tag them in our post. So until next time, get out there and enjoy the beautiful terrain of New England and we'll catch you on the next show. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (48:22)
Thanks, Art.