A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
Tune into Visit Bentonville’s podcast series for a weekly update on all things Bentonville, Arkansas. Hosted by Beth Bobbitt, you’ll hear captivating stories and updates from our city—connecting you with the locals that make this town worth visiting.
A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
Champions Ride in Bentonville: USA Cycling brings Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships
Discover how Bentonville turned an unexpected opportunity into a major milestone for its cycling community! After a hurricane forced the cancellation of the 2024 Mountain Bike Collegiate National Championship in North Carolina, quick thinking and teamwork brought this prestigious event to our town. We chat with Kalene Griffith from Visit Bentonville and Eric Bennett from USA Cycling about the behind-the-scenes efforts that not only secured this event but also promised an unforgettable experience for athletes and spectators alike.
This championship isn't just about thrilling races; it's a boon for local businesses and a boost for the town’s cycling culture, drawing visitors from all over the country. Don't miss this chance to learn how Bentonville is pedaling its way to national prominence!
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Welcome to the bike edition of A New American Town presented by Visit Bentonville and recorded here in downtown Bentonville at Haxton Road Studios, just off the square. I'm your host, nat Ross. We've got some special guests here today. We have Kayleen Griffith with Visit Bentonville and Eric Bennett with USA Cycling. Some big stuff is going down in Bentonville this week and I think, kayleen, we need to hear the backstory to how all of this big event is coming to Bentonville and how it transpired, and then we can fact check with Eric Bennett, who's sitting at the USA Cycling desk as well.
Kalene Griffith:Yeah, he can tell me what happened when I sent the email. You know it was really exciting. You know, anytime that there's a cycling opportunity, we're always looking at what's happening around the world. And when the hurricane hit and I heard about the 2024 Mountain Bike Collegiate National Championship getting canceled, you know it's always sad. Our heart goes out to North Carolina, for sure. But we're always looking at like, oh, those let's, it's about the athletes, not about the, it's about the experience and the athletes. And how can we elevate that experience and athletes?
Kalene Griffith:So it just so happened that I got a DM in my Facebook from one of the parents that said, hey, they canceled this. And I said I know it's unfortunate, I'm sorry she goes, can't Bentonville do something? And you know this was, I want to say, a Thursday or Friday. And you know I said I can ask, I don't have anything to lose. So I was thinking about it. Can we do this, could it happen? So on Saturday morning I think it's Saturday, it was over the weekend I think, eric, that I sent an email to USA Cycling and said I don't even know if this is an option, but would this be something that USA Cycling would be interested in? Could we host this? I think we could put this together, but I'd love to hear what your thoughts are. I don't think I heard from them on Monday till later and said can we meet? And I think we connected on Tuesday, if I remember correctly. Eric, you can correct me if I'm wrong.
Eric Bennett:You are correct. Story checks out.
Kalene Griffith:And so I was one of those that you know. I thought, oh, they'll call me on Monday and tell me no way. They called me on Monday and said can you meet Tuesday? Of course I probably started having a little anxiety that evening, going, okay, what are we going to do, how's this going to work? And I think Kyle and their team, just kind of, you know, reached out and said, hey, caitlin, I think this could work. And I said I'm in. And then they started giving me dates and looking at the dates and us looking at what are what's happening in our community. And November is a great time to add a cycling event, cause we don't have a lot of cycling events that in the month of November. So I thought, oh, this is open, so let's see what we can do. And so from there it was just uh, I guess the ball went rolling.
Eric Bennett:It went rolling downhill quick.
Kalene Griffith:That is correct, exactly.
Nat Ross:Well, eric's the director of membership at USA Cycling and we're going to make sure that a bunch of members are happy when they're in Bentonville. So the lodging has been taken care of for a lot of folks. They've been booking throughout local hotels and local accommodations, yes, and then even the dining experiences that they're here to have are going to help participation over the week in this event. Actually, the Mountain Bike National Championships for Collegiate starts with a dual slalom. Eric, and I think lately you've been riding some gravity and a lot of folks at USA Cycling have been teasing themselves with some gravity, been teasing themselves with some gravity. And what are your thoughts on the venue, thunderdome, and the collegiate athletes being able to race for their dual slalom in, basically downtown Bentonville?
Eric Bennett:Yeah, you're correct, nat, I think. First it started off with the team USA being in town a couple of weeks ago and the race down the Thunderdome with the team USA athletes.
Eric Bennett:I feel like it was such an opportunity for the general public and those visiting Bentonville or local to Bentonville to race those athletes and really showcase what a platform Bentonville is but not only that, the Thunderdome course being such a high caliber to where we can have Olympic athletes testing themselves going full speed, so what a great testament for these collegiate students to be racing each other as well on a controlled environment that is very spectator friendly and ultimately challenges everyone. So, I think, very accessible and visibility is going to be immense for everyone, whether they're racing or spectating.
Nat Ross:Well, it's pretty exciting. So some of the teams are starting to show up and they have bikes full of like. Their trailer is full of all bikes of disciplines and the action's already started. So, Kayleen, can you tell us a little bit about Kohler Mountain Bike Preserve and what that venue is going to provide?
Kalene Griffith:it has a lot of space, but very condensed space, and I think the trail experience throughout that whole park is unique because it's not like any other park in our area but we create experiences within that. But you also have, right in the middle of that park that is, you know, one of the only facilities that you have to bike or ride to to get coffee at the airship, and so you have that, and I think that's the middle of the activities that you can go to the water tower area for the start and finish, and then you can go to the Thunderdome for the downhill, but you could, it's all walkable. So you can either ride your bike to the park or you can parking at Walmart headquarters. So you have that option where we'll shuttle you in, but it's very accessible for everybody. And Kohler is a mountain bike preserve and Peel Compton does such a great job of maintaining that and even jumping back after getting hit with our tornado in June. They have really stepped up with this event and it has been a joy to work with them and I know, nat, you've had to work with them to help us out in some of our trail stuff.
Kalene Griffith:But I think that that is what I have loved about this whole initiative, not just with Kohler, but with our police, our fire, our city and our local businesses. Everybody has been stepping up and getting involved and I think somebody from Tobin, from the medalist, said he goes. Every single person that I met with has a can do attitude and I think that is more important to me. When we're working with an event organizer, it is the can do attitude. We want to make sure that we're here to support them. We're an extension of their team. They're an extension of our team. For us, it's about creating the experience from the very beginning, which is three and a half weeks before the event, which is normally a 52-week planning period. So I think we really wanted to show that we could execute something like this in a quick manner with a very, very can-do attitude.
Nat Ross:Sure, and then if folks want to come watch, what would that look like? So you did mention they could park and then get shuttled in. But if they want to ride in or if they want to walk in, if they're off for the weekend and they want to watch some racing, some collegiate athletes of all caliber, how would they do that?
Kalene Griffith:Well, I think just like that. But first I'm going to correct you. Don't wait for the weekend. You got Thursday. Skip your day at work and come on out and watch.
Nat Ross:You got Thursday and Friday.
Kalene Griffith:You can go to Walmart headquarters behind the fire station there right off of 8th and A Street, and you can park right there. They will shuttle you. I think it's every 20 minutes. We have a shuttle that you can come in and you know, get on the shuttle, get back and forth very easily. It's a little loop that they do, but you can ride in. We have bike valet that is going to be set up, so ride your bike in, walk around, very accessible. Of course. You can walk to it if you want to, because even from 8th Street if you parked there, it's a little over two miles to walk. We have major sidewalks that are wide that you can ride on or walk on to get there, and I think that's the thing that the accessibility to it is going to be wonderful for our locals but also for our folks moving in, and we'll have signage. If they did want to get to Kohler, we'll have signage to get them there, which is important to us.
Nat Ross:That's going to be exciting. Eric, can you speak to some of the disciplines that these student athletes participate in and what the locals and spectators get to look forward to?
Eric Bennett:Absolutely yes.
Eric Bennett:So as we hit on the dual slalom, so this is a head-to-head format where two riders are racing against each other, so one versus the other, they have two sides. First, one to the bottom wins. Then we have a discipline of cross-country racing, as we see on the Olympics, where it's a longer course, they're going to do multiple laps with different elevation gains, different types of terrain, or uphill, downhill, rocky, smooth. Then you're going to have a team relay, which is going to be done on a smaller course, but it's ultimately a kind of like a tag, where one rider goes off from a school at a time. They tag the next person. So they'll have four riders in total and the fastest team overall is going to be the winner.
Eric Bennett:Then we we have a short track discipline which is very much like NASCAR. It's a short course, very high speeds. The riders are going to be really going as hard as they can for the full duration Usually it's around 20 minutes or so, and that is very much. The winner over the line at the last lap is the winner of the race. And then we have our gravity-oriented events, which is downhill, and this is truly what it is going downhill as fast as possible. They're not worried about going uphill at all. They might be walking, they might be riding very slowly, but ultimately their goal is to get down to the bottom as fast as possible, and this is typically on the most treacherous terrain that Bentonville will be able to offer. So it's going to be exciting, no matter what you're into as far as seeing the riders go fast in a field or go fast down a hill. It really is something for everyone to spectate with.
Nat Ross:Yeah, we can't wait, Kayleen. The community has really pitched in here to make this happen. So you put the call out and you said, hey, this is a call to action and this has happened so quickly. Like what? All pieces are you ecstatic about that have come together this quickly, Because you've really rallied the troops on this one.
Kalene Griffith:I think what I'm. You know. We call ourselves the mountain bike capital of the world and I think people have bought into that. Our cycling culture, our community. They see that value. So when something like this has an opportunity to bring people from all over the world or all over the United States, I think that is where people see that value. It's going to be introducing people that have never been here to our trails and then it's probably going to bring some people back to experience that. But I also think what it's going to end up doing is that we are a premier cycling destination. We're a premier mountain bike cycling destination, but our community has bought into it, and so when you bring an event like this to the community, they see the value in it, they see the economic impact in it. The hotels, the restaurants, the retail, they want to see these type of events happening on a regular basis. So I think there's a huge value on this.
Kalene Griffith:I also love that when we talk about that cycling culture in our community, that's probably one of the things I'm most proud of is that when somebody comes here on a bike, they talk about how friendly everyone is to them, the experience that they're getting when they come here because they want to go visit other cities, but we're seeing people come back year after year or every other year because of the experience they have. Also, the trails that we have. They're accessible, they're what we're experiencing. These guys are going to race some of our trails that are just amazing. I think they're in premium condition at this point because they've worked hard for them after the tornado, before we even knew we had this event, and I've heard a lot of cyclists saying what condition they're in, that they're in the best at the best at this time. So you're going to know more about that than I am, but I'm also.
Kalene Griffith:I get excited about anything that we can do as a community the opportunity to collaborate, not just with USA, cycling, with medalists, with our locals, police fire and having those conversations and you see the joy and the excitement from everybody about hosting this event. We've had a few challenges of how are we going to get it done in three and a half weeks. We've had a few challenges of how are we going to get it done in three and a half weeks, but everyone has kind of jumped through the hoops to make it happen, from getting calls today of saying I can't find valet and getting a phone call today because of you, nat, and introducing us or saying something to somebody not introducing us, but saying something to somebody about it and saying, hey, kayleen, we'll do that, and so it's that kind of conversation that's going on, and, of course, we're always needing volunteers for these type of events. So anytime we can get the community involved, I think it's a huge benefit for us.
Nat Ross:Yeah, I think everybody benefits. We're very lucky to have a partner like USA Cycling. So from USA Cycling's side, what is it like to be partnered up with, visit Bentonville and to have us as kind of a training ground? Yet a partner and perhaps more.
Eric Bennett:Absolutely. Now you're on a net First and foremost as a training ground. Team USA Mountain Bike has made their home in Bentonville, so all these medals are won based on the trails that these collegiate students are going to be riding. And these collegiate students are the next Olympians, right, quite frankly, four years from now, they're going to be the ones up to be racing in Los Angeles against the world. So for them to have premier training grounds or racing grounds and free public access to all these trails is pretty remarkable.
Eric Bennett:But then not only that, but Benville as a partner, just as Kayleen just pointed out, everyone is behind this. They want it to be successful, successful, but ultimately everyone cares so much that these riders have the best experience possible. And I can, I've spoken to several clubs and several riders themselves and they're already planning on going back and they haven't even been there yet. So it's just like it is a testament to what the community is doing, what Visit Bentonville is doing and ultimately giving these athletes just the best possible racing conditions and thriving to come back as racers in the future. So, yeah, it's pretty remarkable.
Nat Ross:Yeah, eric, I can tell you that the ledger office, with the USA Cycling offices inside of the ledger downtown is really elevated, that cycling cultural piece, so the community in general gets to um, really put a hands-on touch. So I hope that there are cowbells, a lot of spectators, even some heckling. We've got a hot seat at the bottom of the downhill. Can you explain what a hot seat is for those folks? Yeah, love it oh so cool.
Eric Bennett:I mean I I just know that these riders are going to have the best time of their life. I mean with what Bentonville has done with packet pickup and just things that other races maybe don't consider as thoroughly as this Bentonville has, as far as the overall experience not just racing but ultimately off the bike as well, and the camaraderie amongst teams but also with the local community and the sponsors that are all on site. So complete collaborative effort on all fronts here.
Nat Ross:That is true, Kayleen. Where would you send folks for information regarding the Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships? If there were one website, where would they go? And then we'll follow up and we're going to make sure that there's a lot of spectators from Bentonville and Northwest Arkansas cheering on the collegiate athletes.
Kalene Griffith:You bet I would go to visitbentonvillecom. You can get there and I think we have connections on the USA Cycling information. All of the schedules, where to park, where to stay, all of those things are included on that Visit Bentonville page, so you can stop in there and get what you need and we are connected to the USA Cycling information if you need more information on that. A couple things, though, that I wanted to say before. I know that you're wrapping up real quick, but real quick. I want to thank Deanna. She is the mother that sent me a note and I know that we couldn't have done this and I think she kind of triggered us to do that. I mean, I'm always looking for opportunities, but you know, sometimes it's that spawn that you think, oh yeah, I can do that. But when somebody asks, you're more likely to take that initiative. So I think you can't pass up those kind of thank yous.
Kalene Griffith:And then some of the people that have partnered with us. I think you know we needed gravel, and Crossland stepped up and helped us with that. We needed some of the things that you're doing. That has been huge. Progressive Trail Builders has stepped up, johnny has stepped up.
Kalene Griffith:There are people that have behind the scenes that not everybody gets to see have been a huge impact on us.
Kalene Griffith:Matt at Peel Compton, you know I told his boss he's the yes guy man. He has been all over it in supporting our initiatives and kind of throwing some you know different things at them that they've never had thrown at them and it's been really exciting about that. And then of course, we're working with Amazium to kick the event off and doing a fun kind of opening night with Hershey's and Hershey Club and then also a Tinker Fest so that they're going to get to experience what we get to experience every day, nat. And then I think we're wrapping up with a brother's barbecue for the athletes and the volunteer or for the athletes, volunteers and coaches. And those are the kind of things that I think we talk about unreasonable hospitality. It's like going that extra mile to support them. And you know these are things that my team thinks about on a regular basis of how do we create the experience that USA Cycling is going to compare to other cities and how do we elevate that experience on a regular basis.
Nat Ross:Wow, the bar has been raised. Yes, well, eric, I know that USA Cycling is a great partner for us. We want to. Kayleen and I personally thank you for joining us on the podcast today. Very neat to have you guys as a partner and visit Bentonville. The entire team, your team, hats off to your team, kayleen. They are going nonstop to put this on and we're very excited. So I'd like to thank you two for joining us on the podcast today. Don't forget to visit Bentonville's website so you can navigate, for things to do, where to eat, where to stay, what's going on in addition to the collegiate national championships. So, thanks for listening. Please visit, visit Bentonvillecom and we'll see you at the races.