Today we’d like to introduce you to Downhill Mike.
Hi Downhill Mike, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My name is Downhill Mike and I am fully obsessed with mountain biking and turning others onto the sport and/or places to ride. Back in 2002 while living in Lake Placid, NY, the site of Whiteface Mountain, and the 1932 and the 1980 Winter Olympics, I started my transition from a snowboarder into a mountain biker. Whiteface is a state-owned mountain and they offered DH MTB.
Around 2004 NY State decided to close the MTB operation. Since the gondola still spins for tourists, I thought this made no sense and basically asked the state if the MTB program could continue if I and a friend ran it as a private business. It was not easy to have a state change its decision, but they never saw the persistence of an obsessed DH mountain biker with business experience. That awesomeness lasted until 2019. That left winters open so we began to travel out west in our “off-season”.
Flash forward to the present and the 1 event, the Mob n Mojave at Bootleg Canyon that the local bike shop ran was handed over to us, All Mountain Cyclery is a super busy bike shop and guide service already. Over the years the 1 race at Bootleg turned into a series with the help of DVO Suspension, Super D changed to Enduro and even Dual Slalom was added. for a full-blown winter gravity series. With no more travels back east in the summers, more events have been added including E-Bikes and XC races.
Events now happen at Bootleg Canyon and at the Red Rocks National Conservation Area.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Whiteface Mountain Bike Park was the biggest struggle. This is a place that had zero local interest in gravity. Our race, the 5K DH offered a whopping $5,000 pro cash purse and a natural racecourse 5KM long. You’d think that would be an easy sell, but for this area, uphill races with no cash purse were much more popular. Yep, crazy!
Once out west we were immediately surrounded by more people/mountain bikers that thought like us. I am not knocking the east coast, just where I decided to create and try to build an MTB park is an endurance town. Now, with no biking allowed at Whiteface nearly 3,000 miles from Bootleg Canyon, we have much more time to create events and trails for mountain bikers.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Creating and hosting MTB events is a full-time job. I have way too many responsibilities to list them all here. I am most proud of being able to get like-minded people together for events, trail work, or just a general gathering. What may set me apart from others is my persistence.
If I feel there is a travesty, I will not let it go and figure out a way to make it happen if at all possible. We are also the shuttle operators for Bootleg Canyon. Yep, there is a shuttle service and we run it.
So maybe we end by discussing what matters most to you and why?
Keeping mountains and trails open and treating all bikes equally.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bootlegcanyonracing.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/downhill_mikescheur/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/downhill.mike.9
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Bootleg_Gravity
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySo1tSwUjYE
