Category: Racing

Bikepacking Features, Racing

Bridging Identities During the Silk Road Mountain Race

Words and images by Stephen Shelesky Equal parts joy, escapism, and self-therapy, I’ve found a lot of reasons to gravitate towards ultra-cycling. Since entering the sport less than two years ago, riding ultra has led me through one of my largest life transitions to date and increased my self confidence tenfold. Ultra takes many forms, bikepacking races being one of them. One of the pinnacle … Continue reading Bridging Identities During the Silk Road Mountain Race

Otso Cycles
Amanda Harvey takes a selfie in the Tuscobia trail. Her eyelashes and hair are frozen.
Bikepacking Features, Racing

Tuscobia Winter Ultra Race Report

The Tuscobia Winter Ultra is a 160 or 80 mile race along the Tuscobia and Wild River Trails that takes place in December or January. The 80 mile course is one way, this year from Northern Pines Resort on Butternut Lake to Rice Lake, Wisconsin. The 160 mile course starts in Rice Lake; at Butternut Lake racers turn around and go back the way they came. In 2019 I completed the 80 mile race on bike, it was warm (for winter), rainy and icy. This year I was wishing for cold and my wish was granted, and then some. Continue reading Tuscobia Winter Ultra Race Report

Otso Cycles
A cyclist rides her Waheela C gravel bike.
Bikepacking Features, Racing

Etter Olson 2020 Look Back

Perhaps like everyone, we had PLANS for 2020: international research (a collaboration with a Palestinian cycling club), bike tours, laid back bikepacking trips and more intense races. We planned to ride around things (Great Salt Lake, the Cedar Mountains, and Minnesota), through things (really big trees in Big Sur and the arches around Moab), across things (the Flint Hills of Kansas and the state of Utah) and over things (clear sandstone in Capitol Reef and endless gravel roads of the West Desert). In short, we hoped to ride the Waheela Cs through as many adventures as we could. Continue reading Etter Olson 2020 Look Back

Otso Cycles
A cyclist rides their Otso Cycles Voytek fat bike across hard-packed Alaskan snow.
Racing

My First Ultramarathon: Highlights From the Iditasport 2020

I’m standing at my desk scrolling through a social media platform, mind dulled with boredom as the mundanity of routine life seeps into my cells. I see a drone image of a group of cyclists riding across a snow-covered trail. “A group ride!” I think to myself. I’ve been spending a lot of solo time on the bike these days, failing to convince my friends and acquaintances that a subzero bike ride is a good time. Continue reading My First Ultramarathon: Highlights From the Iditasport 2020

Otso Cycles