A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
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A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
Experience Slaughter Pen Trails like a Pro
Join Bike Bentonville as we share expert local insights on how to make the most of your time mountain biking in Bentonville, Arkansas! Whether you're a first-time visitor or a frequent traveler to the MTB Capital of the World, this episode is packed with insider tips with pro rider and coach, Anneke Beerten, on the Slaughter Pen trails, outdoor adventures, and must-visit spots around town.
From biking downtown and exploring world-class trails to discovering hidden gems and indulging in unforgettable dining experiences, we’ll help you plan an itinerary that showcases the very best of Bentonville. Get ready to experience the town like a local and uncover what makes it a top destination for outdoor enthusiasts, art lovers, and foodies alike!
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Welcome to A New American Town. I'm your host, nat Ross. Today we're joined by Annika Beerton, a very special guest here, world champion, retired professional racer and now a full-time coach living in Bentonville, arkansas, who loves life on two wheels. We're going to talk about the Slaughterpin Trail System and how you can experience these trails on your visit to Bentonville. So, without further ado, annika, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you for having me, nat, excited to be here today.
Speaker 1:Well, I think a lot of people are excited that you're in town. There's a lot of special things about Bentonville. Let's get a little bit of your history, because there's a lot of things that you add value to this culture here in Bentonville, arkansas, but not only that, just in America. So something special about mountain biking is it has talent from all over the world and you've got your experience and your roots from other places. So where did you start? And then how did you end up in North America and then how did you end up in Bentonville?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I was born and raised in the Netherlands. That's where I grew up, and I grew up riding BMX as a little kid just doing laps around the house. Then I fell in love with mountain biking when I was about 16, 17 years old. I got hooked on downhill racing, enduro, four cross all kinds of different disciplines. I moved to the US in 2013 to live the dream of becoming a professional athlete. I raced all around the world and I was living in California at the time and then I moved to Bentonville three years ago, fell in love with Bentonville when I visited in 2018 for the women's shred clinic that I was coaching at. And here we are yeah, so super stoked to be here.
Speaker 1:Wow, I love it. So for a little bit of the background, the culture is new for mountain biking under 50 years, basically for the sport, but where Annika has come from, bmx and that type of discipline with skills and technique and rehearsal and drills. It's a lot different than the American culture. So I'm sure when you moved to California and you started seeing the big stage here you got to experience a lot of things in California. But you're putting that to play in Bentonville and you've been a coach. What is that like? Coaching kids, coaching women, coaching anybody that wants to become a better cyclist?
Speaker 2:Oh, I absolutely love it. It's so cool that I get to pass on the knowledge that I collected over all these years of riding myself and getting coached as an athlete and also race in between the tape right and then having riders here that are either kids, professional racers, beginners, it doesn't matter. It's really awesome that I get to help them out and help them improve their skills right and, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter if it's a professional athlete that is going out to races or somebody that is getting their wheels off the ground or doing a drop for the first time. It's just really fulfilling to see the stoke level from people, that they are building their confidence and accomplishing something new and that they're never too old to learn new things right. So, yeah, I love doing it.
Speaker 1:It's great that you know I can share this passion that I have for bikes and skills and riding with everybody. Well, let's talk about your playground here. So it's basically your office and it's the students' playground Leaving from Bentonville, from downtown, from the square on, let's say, a clinic that someone takes with you or a lesson. One of the best spots that and maybe not best spots, but a spot that I see you at a lot and spots that people tend to get a lot of progression and great success is in Slaughterpin. So describe what Slaughterpin is to those folks listening in on us who haven't been to Bentonville and what they can find in Slaughterpin with an instructor like yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So there's a lot of variety in Slaughterpin and the trails that we have here. So I like to hang out at a place called the Skills Park. That's where we have multiple drops, starting from your curbside height to a couple of feet high, so you can really progress. The same with jumps we go from beginner jumps to more advanced jumps and then, when it comes to trails, there's a little bit of everything. If you go up to the castle, you can get your you know your downhill, downhill rush on, and then you can also just find amazing cross country trails and get your climbing in. So I love it that there's so much out here. And also it's very nice when you're new to mountain biking. You can start on a trail called American Hero that starts from town. It's really beginner friendly. There's nothing crazy on it, but you can, you know, still get out on the trails and kind of get familiar with riding mountain bikes here.
Speaker 1:Well, let's talk about that entrance for the person that is newer to mountain biking or that maybe hasn't ridden a bike on the dirt or wants to get into it and it's been a long time since they've done something like that. So for you to take them from the greenway in town, which is the paved version of basically a bike path, is that something that you do quite often? When people come into town and they contact you because they want to just have a good experience on the mountain bike, but they're green riders, they basically want to get into cycling, but they just haven't ridden in a while Is that something that is very easy for folks to gain success at and get some confidence and then start off in that avenue?
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally. I think it is really helpful for when they're a beginner and they're, you know, they know how to ride a bike, but they don't really know how to handle the controls or the skill sides of things. Right, and I always say, like, just like driving a car, somebody teaches you how to do it. It makes everything so much easier. And it's the same for mountain biking. Just like starting off with a couple of basics, even if it's in the grass or riding, you know, around some cones and me explaining that you need to do certain things, like standing up and your dropper seat post down, you know, and where do my pedals need to be? My feet on the pedals. So all these little things.
Speaker 2:It's just a great way to build confidence and also to kind of give you, you know, some tips on how to do it. First, it's like just going out on the trail and blindly going into something and not knowing that you should not pull your first your front brake to stop right. We are still often see that grab a handful of front brake normally doesn't end well. So just like knowing how to execute things is going to make riding a lot more fun and a lot more relaxed as well, first it's also just like following a friend that knows how to mountain bike and they're just like you're good, you're good, but then you don't know how to right. So it's always nice to get a lesson and like learn it in a safe way.
Speaker 1:That sounds great. And then sometimes a lot of folks. If you go to a bike park or you go to a place that has instruction, you can get it in over your head. So it seems like you found a really good spot with Slaughterpin and some successful venue type areas for if it's a drop, if it's a berm, if they're working better cyclist during the clinic, when they're biting off more and how exciting is that when they've had some success out there with you and you still have time left in the clinic and lesson.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's amazing, you know, it's very fulfilling to see that in a rider, you know, and often they progress fairly fast. I see that happening all the time, where it's just about like understanding how to do it, then building that confidence, and then we make really, we make really progressive steps. And also when I see that I like to make the lessons very personable, because everybody has a different skills level, different habits, and once we really pick up, I also know the trails that are, you know, a little more technical. So Slotapin has so much to offer and we can also kind of go off of the trails that are very known to a lot of people and find some trails that are a little bit more technical to up that level.
Speaker 1:You're not kidding there. So describe what these jumps would be like for a lot of folks, because you've been all over the world, you've competed all over the world, but you've also taught and done clinics. This area has berms and jumps and a progression that's a little bit different and it's a lot better for folks to experience than some venues that may be at a ski area or just bike parks that pop up in the summer, and there's something special about this one. So what would that be from a beginner's perspective, to be able to look at some of these jumps and be able to get the confidence Because they're built and you can describe maybe even how they're built, because I know that you go out and maintain the trails. You're a great steward of all of them. So what's special about the trails in Slaughterpin and even the Oz trails in general for progression, like jumps and those type of things?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, like you mentioned, progression right, that's so amazing that we have here going from like the beginner's area we have in the skill spark, where we start from rollers, to little tabletops, to tabletops that are a little bigger but they're all on the flat, so it's super flat. You have to like kind of like create your speed. Then you can move over to a couple of other trails with jumps, where the jumps are slightly bigger but the trail is actually giving you the speed you don't really need to pedal into it. So that's where you kind of progress to when, once you get that down, you go up to the castle and you have the bigger jumps with more speed.
Speaker 2:Um, and I think that is amazing to have here, because if you go to some bike parks and I was actually just in tennessee in a bike park and, um, it's immediately steep, right, it's immediately you're on the brakes, the speed is there. Uh, totally kind of like hard to build that confidence from the beginning, because there's nothing to start off on, you immediately like go down a double black diamond trail. So it's nice that here we have some time to really build that confidence and work on the progression and, if you want to as well. You know we there's plenty of bigger jumps that we have in the area, so it's always nice to start slow, build it up and then find those bigger jumps once you're ready.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've got some famous jumps here and some famous features and folks when they come to Bentonville they immediately want you to take them there. What would a progression look like from the jump line in the basically slaughter pin jump zone? So what would those three features look like? Just describe them to someone who's hasn't. Maybe they've seen a picture of it. But what does it feel like? What is the approach? What is it like to do those features in slaughter pin?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the great thing is you can start kind of, like mentioned, in the beginner area. This is a green area where we have beginner drops and beginner jumps. So once you get comfortable with those and you feel like you're jumping them pretty good and you're getting off the drops, you can move over to the intermediate drops that we have there. They're currently building on new jumps as well in that whole area. And then we also have advanced jumps, right, and the skills sorry drops in that skills part. So they're pretty intimidating when you roll up to them.
Speaker 2:And but the great thing is again, you can start slowly and build your way up all in one area, you know, and if you're coming to visit and you're going to be here for a couple of days, you can give yourself the time to work yourself up to the bigger drops. And the same kind of for the jumps. The jumps are really nice and greatly built, the way they're kind of shaped in that area, and then, like mentioned earlier, you can go over to, let's say, all-american Hero Jumps. This is a jump line that I love taking people out on, because there's multiple tabletops in a row and then we have, like we call it, the bridge. It's like a wood feature that you can still jump, and after that, if you got that down, it normally take you up to the castle. And then we have catapult, we have medieval and that's where we have some bigger jumps and quite a bit more speed on that.
Speaker 1:So for the castle, a lot of folks that would kind of be the graduation when they get a ride with you, like you work them up towards that step where they get to get to um, those are pretty much blue to black trails. Only, even though um would would you say that some of those trails could be done by a beginner.
Speaker 2:Um, yes, definitely. Um, the nice thing with the castle as well there's progression, um, so you can start on like, let's sayfire, we have up there medieval, and then work your way up on catapult sorry, in the medieval and we have the dragon scales like more of a rock trail. So again, the progression is always there and that's the nice thing about Bentonville there's a ton of opportunities to really progress in this area and not immediately get thrown into the most like technical trails out there.
Speaker 1:Great and then I think let's just describe some settings that you might do for instruction from family setting, where you have like a family going along, or perhaps like a mother and her daughter riding together, or maybe like an e-bike and one of the parents on an e-bike and then one of their offspring on a standard bike. So describe kind of some of what that would look like when people come to Slaughterpin and how you can be riding with your family or different ability groups, but in kind of a separate on a different bike and discipline.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we see all kinds of bikes here in Bentonville, you know. I think that's really cool. Cool too, and especially e-bikes. We love e-bikes and a lot of people ride them, but I think the cool thing is that everything is so compact, close together as well. So if you're either on an e-bike or you have kids with you, you know you can hang out in the Skills Park, you can oversee what they're riding, but also you can, you know, head out together and ride the trails either on an analog bike or an e-bike. And it's so family friendly here, and we see more and more people coming to hang out at a skills park too. People bring their lawn chairs, they're sitting out and the kids are riding. So it's just great that you can take everybody out here. And also, if there's like a skills level, there's plenty of options to different trails that are still really close to each other Excellent.
Speaker 1:And then what I noticed is coming into the podcast today you have your helmet, you rode in on your bike and it's natural, it's like what you do and it's how you get around town. So do you think that Bentonville has something kind of special in those terms versus other communities where you have to tailgate or load your vehicle to go to the trailhead, load your bike onto your vehicle? Is this just a little bit easier or what?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:This is way easier, you know, like if you're kind of staying in town or even close to town, you can ride everywhere on your bike, especially to the trails.
Speaker 2:And I love doing that because you know, I come from a culture, from the Netherlands, where we ride our bikes a lot if it's to school or to the grocery store. So you know, one of the reasons moving here was also that reason, because in California I had to drive everywhere and I was like I was really missing that part of me just hopping on a bike and like today coming here, and then I never dreamed that my route to downtown is actually mostly on the most fun trails that we have here. So you know, I feel like a little kid going out and riding to town, and then on the way home I like to go through Crystal Bridges, which is beautiful, you know. That's the museum we have here and it's just a gorgeous ride going through there and making my way back home. And I think that's so nice with the community. Here too, everybody is so bikers friendly, right, everybody rides their bike if it's on the trail or just going to town and it's just a vibe and it's great, that is so special.
Speaker 1:And then, while we send everybody to Slaughterpin, what's one thing that they could do when they're in town, that you would do after a successful ride with someone who got to, uh, spend the day with you or took a lesson or a clinic? Where would you take them? What would you do?
Speaker 2:oh my god, that would be a long list that's true, I just had. I just had friends in town and, uh, a couple of things that are always on the top of my list are airship coffee, um, and then crystal bridges, yes, and go to the hub to hang out and go eat pancakes at crepes paulette, I can't miss out on that when you come here.
Speaker 1:What an experience. Yes, Annika, so thrilled to have you in town contributing to the community here. Bentonville is very lucky to have you and, I think for the future, where are they going to find out more information on how to sign up to take a clinic, a class, a lesson or ride with you?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, anytime anybody wants to link up with me, please visit crankitupmtbcom. You can send me a message or see my schedule online, and I have multiple clinics group clinics as well throughout the year. So, yeah, feel free to hit me up or send me a message on Instagram.
Speaker 1:So that is great. So Annika is one of the pillars of the mountain biking community here, has moved here from California via overseas and really contributing to the economy and everything that we have here. If you want more information, please visit, visit Bittenvillecom and, as Anika said, you can hit her up on her channels as well. So can't wait to see you riding in Slaughterpin next and come visit Bentonville.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you. Come and give me a high five if you see me out on the trails.
Speaker 1:You'll see her on the trail. She's out there riding. She's got one of the best jobs in the world still, so we look forward to having you again on another podcast in the future and visit Bentonville. We are signing out for the day.