A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
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A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
Home of Pro USA Mountain Bikers: Bentonville, Arkansas
Team USA Cycling announced its 2025 Worlds Mountain Bike team today, and we are bringing you a behind-the-scenes conversation on this partnership, riders to watch, and why Bentonville remains the MTB Capital.
Hear from Team USA on why our trails, community, and fan base are what make Bentonville the perfect home base.
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Welcome to A New American Town. I'm your host, nat Ross. Today we're joined by Alec Pasqualina, from USA Cycling, a key voice behind the momentum building around the US mountain bike team, and more so. Bentonville is the home base for elite training and high stakes competition. We're talking about what it means for riders, fans and visitors, from Olympic athletes to nationals and worlds. We'll cover what's up with USA Cycling and the world of mountain biking. So, alec, welcome to the podcast New American Town. Thanks, nat, thanks for having me. Well, I know you're well integrated into Bentonville and, speaking of USA Cycling, since you've been part of the USA Cycling performance staff, especially coaching the mountain biking. Being over in Europe, coming back to Bentonville, going back over for every campaign, you've been a big part of the mountain bike program for the past couple of years. What's that feel like?
Speaker 2:It's really, really exciting. Honestly, I joke all the time that I inherited the most perfect scenario. I got the job right before the Paris Olympics and then, all of a sudden, the athletes performed at some of the best levels that we've ever had, and so I've really just inherited a beautiful situation and I'm really excited to be a part of it.
Speaker 1:Well, it helps coming from the athletic background yourself, and then it helps having training grounds like Bentonville.
Speaker 2:So we're going to dive into that. Why Bentonville? What made Bentonville the right choice for the Team USA mountain bike and why is it home? This is a really good question actually. I think what initially attracted? I see this question kind of in two parts what initially attracted USA Cycling's mountain bike national team to Bentonville has slightly evolved. A lot of the same themes that initially attracted us here have become even bigger for us now that we've been based here for a few years. So really what we initially noticed is that Bentonville was leading the charge in investment in mountain bike trails and infrastructure. Like that was the immediate draw for us, like oh, wow, a place and a town can invest in infrastructure like this in the US. We need to go check that out, we need to see what that's all about, and so that was kind of initially what drew us in. And ultimately, when we visited and saw what was happening here, it was kind of a no brainer for the program to decide to call this place home and this happened, I think, in late 2022. So it's been almost three full years now evolved.
Speaker 2:The three things that I really tell people why Bentonville is so important for the success of USA Cycling's mountain bike national team is is first of all, the trails. But the trails have an evolved understanding for us. So we knew that when we we knew that when we moved the team here, that the trails were going to be a big asset for us. But what we didn't know was how the trails would continue to evolve and how the trails were going to be maintained. Right last year we had a tornado in may and and that tornado took out, took down trees, took out a lot of houses, but but you know, in a way closed down many of the trails here in bentonville. What was amazing to see was the response from that and that just reaffirmed, uh, for us this like investment in bentonville as our home, like why it all was important because all those trails were back up and running by a combination of volunteers, professional trail staff and and and everyone to just bring them back in a couple short months. So that was really exciting.
Speaker 2:The other part of the trails for me, of kind of our more evolved understanding of the area, was the investment hasn't stopped, like right now we're we're very patiently awaiting this new bike park in Bella Vista, and to me that this is like how the evolution of trail and trail access just continues to get better and better. If you visited Bentonville last year, your understanding and and your your fun on the trails is going to continue to be blown out of the water every single time you come back. And for us, as a program, we can have a camp here in 2025. And then in 2026, that camp might get better and our access to terrain and trails might get even better because of just the continual investment in the area. So, first and foremost, that's why it's so meaningful to have a home here.
Speaker 2:The second piece that we've really noticed, as we've been here for three years, is is the community. The community mobilizes to support cycling in kind of the coolest ways, and I have two examples of that. Uh, the first was last year collegiate mountain bike nationals, umals. So after the hurricane, obviously we had to for those who don't know, we had to cancel Collegiate Mountain Bike Nationals in the fall of last year.
Speaker 1:So there was a different venue, different state, everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everything was ready to go in a completely different place. And in less than 30 days, bentonville raised their hand to say hey, we think we could pull off a collegiate national so that these graduating seniors could have something to race. And not only that what a lot of people don't realize is to pull that event off in 30 days from zero readiness.
Speaker 1:The disciplines, the disciplines alone. Like what disciplines were they racing?
Speaker 2:Totally. It's not like you're just holding one bike race. You're holding a short track, you're holding a cross country event, you're holding a team relay, you're holding a downhill event, you're holding a dual slalom. Am I missing anything that?
Speaker 1:No, those are the disciplines. That's a lot.
Speaker 2:And that's a lot of different trails. And so seeing what Visit Bentonville and the entire Bentonville community did to build trails, put pieces together, make sure athlete safety was at the forefront and just honestly give give this race a fair shot, give these graduating college seniors an event, um like, just watching the way that Bentonville community supported cycling in that way was unbelievable from an event that was canceled. The other cool thing that I've gotten to be a part of and the team has gotten to be a part of here is like a local town series Seeing the way that the community can engage in local bike racing and really come out and support each other and support the growth of the sport in an area Everyone has their own version of like Wednesday Night Worlds where they're from. But to see the way that can be professionalized here and and still have that fun local atmosphere but also be a platform where riders can earn USA cycling points for better start position at nationals. Just the way that the community fully embraces the sport and the support of the athletes trying to grow and progress. The sport has been really cool and you know not to be too long-winded. But the third piece of what really makes Bentonville the right choice for Team USA mountain bike is the fandom and interest.
Speaker 2:Like, let's be honest, in the US mountain biking is kind of a niche sport. Right, when we go to Europe in years past, we're going to represent more or less our own athletes and ourselves. Right, it's an individual sport where, yes, we might come from different hometowns but we're kind of competing in this less known, less popular sport. What Bentonville has really given us that we were beyond surprised about is they've given us like a collective group to represent and as athletes performing on the highest stage. You know, watching some of our athletes compete, knowing what's at home, cheering for them, can be incredibly motivating and inspiring. Right, it's kind of a two-way street. Our biggest hero athletes inspire us at home, but actually our biggest hero athletes are inspired by everyone at home cheering for them. And so to create a home where we know that we have a community of people that, like, has a genuine interest in how well they're doing and and you know, is really inspired by what they're doing, gives us even more motivation to compete at the highest level.
Speaker 1:And it came full circle with the parade, the welcome parade. That happened downtown, where the athletes were kind of blown away with all the reception when they came back to Bentonville after a successful campaign.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was inspiring for us all to see how invested the community was in the success that we had at the Olympics and World Championships last year. It was the most inspiring thing for us.
Speaker 1:I love it. Well, just to circle back to the kind of campground, the trails, why the mountain bike team is set up here. What are some of the features that this terrain offers? Or the Ozarks, or Northwest Arkansas, bentonville, riding up into Bella Vista, what? How do the athletes benefit from the terrain here? Or the trails? What's like a really good takeaway that someone else listening to this podcast could come here and get value out of as well, just the same way the athletes do.
Speaker 2:Totally.
Speaker 2:I think about this question often, actually, and for me you know every area of the country, kind of every place that we visit to go race, you know every area of the country, kind of every place that we visit to go race you know, not just in the country but around the world to me has like a defining feature, right.
Speaker 2:The thing I really like about hosting camps in Bentonville and just like encouraging people to visit, is there really is something for everyone here. We have like amazing wet weather riding here and that's like sometimes often missed, and when I'm trying to host camps in January and February, I can't be worried about programming if it's going to rain or dry and having multiple different schedules. You know, just having a place where we know, okay, we have our wet weather route and that's ready to go and we know we can do skills here, we have the jumps that we need to practice that, we have the technical trails, you know we have the right, the right features for training that we need. To me it's just kind of an all rounded package, right, and so it's a place that we've come to be able to depend on, and that's that's what I always come back to when people ask that question of like what is it about the train? Here we kind of have everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean you're nailing the foundation for what the athletes need, and then also just the general public when you come to ride a mountain bike trail. This has got a little bit of everything.
Speaker 1:So, I think, um, let's talk about the Olympics, the Olympic momentum and kind of what the season looks like. So typically, a lot of folks do understand that the Olympics are the end all be all and some athletes that's what they train for. But you've got a lot of athletes that build campaigns around other than the Olympics, different goals and objectives. You got back from Europe. You had several campaigns of World Cup races already, but what does a race season look like for these athletes? What time of year does it start? When do they get a break if they get a break at all and when can we expect to host you guys again in Bentonville?
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally. We have a really, really exciting sport in the fact that we do have an Olympic race, in the fact that we do have an Olympic race. And so you know, most of our athletes have dreams of and ambitions to make the Olympic team and to do well at the Olympics. But to put it in perspective, the maximum riders a country can qualify for the Olympics is two per gender and we have one Olympic race every four years, right Like that. That's a lofty bar and not everyone will ever get to that level. So so kind of the way that that's broken down is every year we have a world championship event in which we can qualify up to seven riders per category, so that basically that's the highest level of our sport. Most years that aren't Olympic years. And then the way that trickles down is we have 10 World Cups underneath that.
Speaker 1:And the.
Speaker 2:World Cups start in April and end in October, so it's a long, long season and there's a lot of travel. It's not like we're going to Utah and we're going to another place for World Cup, it's we're transferring from Brazil to the Czech Republic and then back to Lake Placid, new York, across a whole season. So it's a long season and, quite honestly, it's impossible to be good for 10 World Cups. So then you build kind of a season with other smaller events of okay, how do you do well at the World Cups, how do you qualify for world championships, and you pick and choose kind of from there. So yeah, that's a bit of how our sport's set up. It really gives us a cool pie in the Um, but then the primary viewership and the primary sport is is really hosted by those 10 world cups per year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I feel like in Bentonville we can feed the grassroots element with the town series, like you were mentioning, the short track races all the way to the national championships which are in um the middle of the summer for a lot of the athletes. Some will come home um of the of your athletes on the national team and race to try and win that USA jersey to wear in the entire year in the World Cup campaign. But others, depending on their age category, can race to the national championships and some of them are locals and even in the marathon discipline we've got local from Bentonville male, female juniors that are now the national champions training on these trails that will someday aspire to be in your program.
Speaker 2:Totally, totally yeah, and I actually saw a couple Oz riders won the marathon category just the other day. I mean, we've been waiting for this to happen right, we've been waiting for, okay, we're bringing the most elite athletes to this area because of all the resources and benefits here. It's obviously going to take some time for the young talent to really grow up with it and use it to their advantage. I think that's already starting to happen in just a couple, three short years.
Speaker 1:So you're feeling it with USA Cycling. You can already see the benefits.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely, and I don't necessarily want to call names out because they're young junior riders, but we do have a lot of juniors on our radar that are based here in Bentonville that we as a national program are beyond excited about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, the trails here are top notch, they're world class, top caliber, and I think this just bodes to the effect that if you train and ride on these trails, you're naturally and you put in the effort, you're naturally going to rise to the top, absolutely. Yeah, great. Well, I think we have to talk about Christopher Blevins here real quick, because I think we have a rising American star. That it was Haley Batten in the Olympics for the females last year, but this year, out of the gun, christopher Blevins came out swinging. So fill us in on what that is like for USA Cycling that much momentum leading the World Cups.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, for some of us it was hard. It was hard to be a part of Christopher's year last year because he had a number of setbacks that we it was hard to see him underperform to his potential last year.
Speaker 2:It was such a big and important year. So to see him come out at the beginning of this year completely turning it around and winning five short track World Cups and also a number of cross-country World Cups, I mean it is beyond exciting to watch and he's giving us, for the first time in a long time, an American male like literally on the top step of the podium at World Cups consistently. I cannot wait to see what he does the next three years and how he might bring that to the LA games.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's not just all about Christopher Blevins, but literally to have that much success this year and just be that far ahead of the elite world field, it's pretty special. Yeah, it's certainly our biggest story this year and just be that far ahead of the elite world field, it's pretty special.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's certainly our biggest story this year and kudos to Christopher Love it.
Speaker 1:Well, we're looking forward to seeing you guys in the fall. This is Team USA Cycling that you'll bring in the national team to do some training here. So what trails may we see you on? When can we expect to like see all the national team athletes bouncing around Bentonville and riding the trails?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're so excited. Every year we've kind of started this new tradition of celebrating our season here in the fall. So unfortunately, mont St Anne, our final World Cup, is on the same weekend as Little Sugar. But as soon as that's over, on that Monday, we plan to fly back to Bentonville and spend the Monday through Monday that encompasses the Big Sugar weekend to be here to engage with the community, to ride with the fans, tbd on exactly what's on our calendar, but we will for sure have some sort of community race. We'd love to get out there and see how fast the youngsters are. We'll also probably have a sit down of some sort, a way that the community can come ask questions For us. We really feel Bentonville's support. So it's important in October to come back when our season is done and to give back in every way that we can.
Speaker 1:Well, this is huge. We're honored that USA Cycling has an office in the ledger, that you yourself live in Bentonville and coach the national team with the high caliber athletes having this much success. It's very special. All right, alec and I are going to go hit the trails here because they're primo right now, but if you want to learn more about USA Cycling or any of the trails, go to visitbintonvillecom or follow us on social at BikeBintonville to stay in the know. Alec and I are on the trails. We'll see you next time.